Sewage data: Scottish Water failing to give Scots the full picture

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today demanded the Scottish Government get serious about providing transparency on sewage as new annual statistics provided data on fewer overflows than before.

Despite a programme of installing new monitors, with 272 additional monitors installed in time for 2024, Scottish Water provided annual data for fewer overflows last year.

Across this group of overflows, there were 24,398 sewage dumps recorded in 2024, which lasted for a staggering 208,377 hours.

Scottish Water quietly published this data on an obscure corner of their website at 5pm on 31st March without a press release, the very last day to publish this data under the Improving Urban Waters Routemap.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have announced plans for a Clean Water Act which would see:

• Scotland’s Victorian sewage network updated;
• Every sewage dump monitored and published with binding targets for their reduction;  
• A blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers;    
• A complete ban on the release of sewage in protected areas such as bathing waters.  

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"Scottish Water proudly announced it had installed hundreds of new sewage monitors in time for 2024, but in the official statistics it is providing data from fewer overflows than before.

"24,398 sewage dumps is bad enough but as a result of the lack of data it will be an underestimate. In England 100% of sewage overflows are monitored, whereas Scotland is lagging badly behind.

"People can see the impact of sewage dumping on their local beaches and in their local rivers. They deserve to know the full picture about this disgusting practice.

"Scottish Water bosses are getting eye watering bonuses while presiding over outdated sewage standards. The Scottish Government needs to get serious about providing transparency on sewage.

“To turn the tide on this scandal, Scottish Liberal Democrats have published plans for a Clean Water Act that would see a clamp down on discharges and get to the bottom of this disgusting practice."