England’s water companies failed to report more than 50,000 sewage discharges within the legal timeframe in the first half of this year, according to a new analysis.

A report by the campaigning group Surfers Against Sewage claims all nine of England’s water companies failed to meet the legal requirement in the first six months of 2026.

Legislation stipulates water companies in England must report sewage discharges within 60 minutes to ensure the public is informed when sewage is entering the water.

Water companies are only permitted to discharge sewage through storm overflows during heavy rainfall.

However, the report shows there were at least 70,400 hours of sewage was dumped on dry days and 7,450 dry spills in the first six months of the year, following a series of Freedom of Information requests.

Looking back at the full picture of sewage pollution in 2025, the report highlights how sewage alerts were in place at designated UK bathing waters last year for a total of 24,771 days.

And it says water companies in England were responsible for over 1.8 million hours of sewage discharges, an average of 5,100 hours a day last year.

The report also highlights the human impact of poor water quality.

In 2025, 1,568 sickness reports were submitted to SAS through its Safer Seas and Rivers Service app.

Reported illnesses included severe bacterial infections such as E. coli and Campylobacter, gastroenteritis, ENT infections, and in extreme cases, even hospitalisations.

From January to August 2026, 1,687 people have told the charity they got sick after using the water at rivers, lakes and beaches across the U.K.

The data also reveals that during the hottest summer on record for the U.K, 787 people reported getting sick after using the water across the numerous heatwaves between May and August 2026.

The chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, Giles Bristow said the privatisation of water in England has undermined the stability of the current utility system, the environment and public health, in an interview.

Bristow added the last few years have been exceptionally hot and dry in England with drought conditions, and yet the discharges continue.

“Even with no rain, we are getting thousands of discharges and lots of people are getting sick as a result,” he told me.

“There have been over 50,000 instances of sewage dumps this year, which have not been reported and alerted within an hour, and the whole point of those alerts is to keep people safe.

“It’s just more evidence of a really broken water system, which is not delivering for public health or the environment,” added Bristow.

A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the government knows the status quo is not working, and it is “driving forward the biggest overhaul of the water sector in a generation” in a statement.

The spokesperson added water companies must take responsibility for record levels of sewage pollution, and they have a duty to ensure people’s health is protected.

“Our strengthened Water Bill will deliver cleaner waters, stronger accountability and will create a powerful new regulator to hold companies to account,” added the spokesperson.

“Storm overflows should only be used in very specific circumstances, and this government has already taken action against water companies who are failing to perform, making it a criminal offence to cover up illegal sewage spills.”

In response, a spokesperson for the trade body Water UK said the English water industry is the most transparent in the world and it is the only country to make near real time storm overflow data freely available, in a statement.

The spokesperson added some of the monitors are in extremely remote locations and their signals occasionally need additional checks which can introduce short delays.

“No sewage spill is ever acceptable, and we are working to end them as fast as we physically can,” said the spokesperson.

“That’s why we are tripling investment over the next five years to halve spills from storm overflows and upgrade the capacity of 1,700 wastewater treatment works.”