‘Dirty secret’: insiders say UK water firms knowingly break sewage laws

Exclusive: Whistleblowers point to broader sewage scandal, with wastewater systems manipulated to divert sewage

Whistleblowers say UK water companies are knowingly failing to treat legally required amounts of sewage, and that some treatment works are manipulating wastewater systems to divert raw sewage away from the works and into rivers and seas.

It is well known that water companies are dumping large volumes of raw sewage into rivers and seas from storm overflows but an investigation by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations reveals that the industry’s “dirty secret” is bigger, broader and deeply systemic.