Exclusive: water firms discharged raw sewage into England's rivers 200,000 times in 2019

Untreated effluent flowed into waterways for more than 1.5m hours, data shows

• England's privatised water firms paid 57bn in dividends since 1991

Water companies in England discharged raw sewage into rivers on more than 200,000 occasions last year, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

The analysis reveals untreated human waste was released into streams and rivers for more than 1.5m hours in 2019.