Sewage entered British waters for around 3 million hours in 2020 in over 400,000 pollution incidents. Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage tells Tamasin Ford why this is happening. Public pressure for the government and water companies to do something about this is mounting, particularly since it's become known that privately owned water companies in England paid their shareholders almost $80 billion in dividends over the last 30 years. WaterUK represents all of the water and sewage providers across the UK. We hear from their director of policy, Stuart Colville. Is tougher legislation the answer? Sweden faced similar problems with their sewage system more than fifty years ago. Peter Sörngård, an environmental expert at the Swedish Water and Waste Water Association explains how they dealt with it.

Producer: Benjie Guy

(Picture: a sewage outflow pipe discharges sewage into a river. Credit: BBC.)

sewage spewing into British waters went viral on social media. The country’s Victorian era sewage systems are struggling to cope. We find out what’s being done about it and look to Sweden where they seem to be getting things right.