Scottish Water dumps sewage on doorsteps of party leaders for 18,000 hours

[Sewage](https://inews.co.uk/news/sewage-dumped-leader-doorstep-polluting-water-firms-3097725?ico=in-line_link) was discharged for 18,674 hours – or 778 days – on [Scottish political party leaders’ own doorsteps](https://inews.co.uk/news/sewage-dumped-leader-doorstep-polluting-water-firms-3097725?ico=in-line_link), **i** has found.

In total, there were 1,440 spills in rivers, lochs and coasts in the leaders’ constituency areas, according to new analysis of Scottish Water data.

**i** is urging political parties to get behind its [manifesto](https://inews.co.uk/news/is-save-britains-rivers-2024-manifesto-in-full-3093612?ico=in-line_link) to[ Save Britain’s Rivers](https://inews.co.uk/category/news/save-britains-rivers?ico=in-line_link), amid growing public anger over the amount of sewage dumped in the UK’s waterways.

Both the [Liberal Democrats](https://inews.co.uk/news/liberal-democrats-first-party-back-i-election-manifesto-save-britains-rivers-3093884?ico=in-line_link) and [Greens](https://inews.co.uk/news/greens-second-party-back-save-britains-rivers-manifesto-3100437?ico=in-line_link) have backed the campaign, which sets out five key pledges including tougher regulation, cleaner bathing sites and a reduction in sewage spills.

Anti-pollution campaigners across the UK are angry that water companies are allowed to discharge raw sewage via “combined sewer overflows” (CSOs) during periods of heavy rain.

While the overflows are designed to drain excess water to stop flooding inside people’s homes, they often lead to toilet waste being discharged directly into rivers, lochs and coasts.

**i** has previously highlighted the problem of [wet wipes, condoms and other material getting discharged](https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/scotlands-worst-areas-sewage-spill-complaints-revealed-2964275?ico=in-line_link) along with the treated sewage in Scotland.

The analysis shows the extent of the problem on the doorsteps of the party leaders’ pushing for votes on 4 July.

Since environmental issues are largely devolved, the policies in **i**’s manifesto focus primarily on the protection of England’s rivers, because this is the jurisdiction that the UK government has full control over.

However, **i** is challenging political parties in all four nations to sign up to the manifesto ahead of the general election, and for equivalent measures to be introduced by policymakers across the UK.

Sewage was dumped in waterways in Perth and Kinross – the council area covering [SNP leader John Swinney’s](https://inews.co.uk/topic/snp?ico=in-line_link) Holyrood constituency of Perthshire North – 436 times last year.

The Scottish Water spills lasted more than 8,000 hours across his region, which sees the River Ericht run close by his constituency office.

Last year also saw 648 sewage spills in the Glasgow city council area – home to the Holyrood constituencies of both Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Scottish Greens’ co-leader Patrick Harvie. Recorded sewage dumps here lasted more than 3,000 hours.

There were 87 sewage spills in the Moray council area, home to Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross’s previous Westminster constituency of Moray, and the area he is standing in this time, Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.

**i** looked at Scottish Water figures for sewage spills in the local authority areas that correspond most closely with the constituencies of the party leaders.

In most cases this was the constituency they represent at the Scottish Parliament, except in Mr Ross’s case, where we looked at the Westminster seat he is trying to win on 4 July.

>Election 2024
>
>i is urging leaders to back its manifesto to address the river pollution crisis happening in their constituencies

Hey /u/theipaper, do you not understand the difference between a UK and Scottish election?

Scottish Water is a statutory corporation of the Scottish Government, not the UK government.

This has nothing to do with the 2024 election, so you’re either deliberately misleading voters to believe it does, or you don’t understand devolution.

Edit: Downvoting this won’t make this shite excuse for “journalism” good you pathetic hacks.

In reality it’s probably far more. Scottish Water only used to monitor 4% of its overflows and started to install more in 2023 (272 out of 1000 proposed in 2023) so a lot of this data will only be based on 4% or slightly more. The increased monitoring in England and Wales started in 2016 so the vast majority has been done for years now.