George Eustice says water firms must cut sewage releases into rivers and sea

Environment secretary says water companies too reliant on overflows discharging pollution after storms

The environment secretary, George Eustice, has made a commitment to reducing releases of raw sewage by water companies into rivers and coastal waters. Eustice said there was still too much reliance" by water companies on storm overflows to discharge sewage into waterways.

A government taskforce set up following growing pressure over sewage pollution in rivers announced that water companies had agreed to be more transparent about pollution discharges from storm overflows. The taskforce said it had agreed an objective to reduce the harm of sewage releases via storm overflows.