Scotland's sewage crisis 'hugely underestimated' as hidden figures show 3,500 discharges not reported

The party said that there could still be a “huge underestimate” of the scale of the problem as figures had been “snuck out” in the run-up to the general election. According to the party, figures showed that there were 25,109 sewage dumps in Scotland in 2023 – up from the 21,660 that had been reported.

The Lib Dems said that these dumps had lasted for some 242,367 hours – the equivalent of more than 10,000 days. Scottish leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said only a “small fraction” of overflow points are monitored for such incidents meaning the figure could be a lot more.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “The scandal of sewage dumping in our rivers, lochs and beaches seems to be ever growing in Scotland. Just recently we had Portobello beach shut due to fears around E.coli, now Scottish Water tell us there were actually more sewage dumps than previously known about last year.

“Even this new figure of over 25,000 sewage dumps is likely to be a huge underestimate, as unlike England where almost every overflow point is monitored, only a small fraction are monitored in Scotland. SNP ministers have defended this for too long. Millions of litres of sewage are being dumped into our rivers, lochs and beaches.”

He added: “These figures also leave the environmental credentials of the Scottish Greens in tatters as this record-breaking year of sewage in 2023 dumping occurred on their watch as government ministers. To turn the tide on this scandal, Scottish Liberal Democrats have proposed plans for a Clean Water Act for Scotland to update the sewage network, proper monitoring to find all the dumping and a complete ban on this filthy practice in protected areas such as bathing waters.”

A Scottish Water spokesperson said: “We treat 1.07 billion litres of waste water every day and deliver services which meet or exceed our regulatory requirements. Environmental standards are being maintained or enhanced. Overflow points are a fundamental part of the public sewer system and operate, as designed, during heavy rain to prevent properties flooding when sewers reach capacity.

“The vast majority of overflowing water is ‘run-off’ from roads and roofs, and ‘grey’ water from household appliances. Only about one per cent comes from toilets. Scottish Water has invested £2.7 billion in the drainage system over the past decade and is committed to further investment of up to £500 million. As part of this, we are on track to install 1,000 new monitors and other improvements by the end of 2024.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Our waters are monitored by the independent Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). Sepa assesses 87% of waterbodies in Scotland as having ‘high’ or ‘good’ water quality, up from 82% six years ago. However, we are not complacent, seek ongoing improvement and continue to work closely with Sepa and Scottish Water to monitor and improve water quality.

“Overflows from sewers are wastewater which has been highly diluted by rainwater, and which normally consists of less than 1% toilet waste. To suggest otherwise is a misrepresentation.” They added: “We are also determined to limit the amount of rainwater entering sewers to reduce overflows and have recently published an analysis of the responses to our public consultation on water, wastewater and drainage which asked the public for their views on how we achieve this.”