he Environment Agency has released it’s latest figures for sewage discharges in England and Wales. In 2025 over 775,000 hours of continuous sewage spilling took place in Wales’s rivers, coasts and beauty spots.
This is a reduction on the last couple of years. However 2025 was exceptionally dry, with many parts of Wales officially declaring a drought for large parts of the year and the period between February and June being the driest since 1976.
ALDC produces annual campaign resources to help you continue to to campaign on the sewage crisis in your local area. You can find a campaign pack to accompany this council motion here. This includes some Focus drop-in articles and press releases specific to Wales.
The updated Council Motion below uses the most recent sewage dumping figures for your council area (from the Rivers Trust) and calls upon the Government and your local Water Company to take decisive action and make themselves accountable to local residents.
It also references the rise in average water bills across Wales that came into effect in April 2026 (which are above the national average) and data from the Top of the Poops charity that shows Wales has the worst areas in Britain for sewage dumping.
- You can find the 2025 data for your area on the Rivers Trust website here
- The average water bill rise for your region this year can be found here
- You can find the data showing that certain areas of Wales were the worst-affected in the UK last year here
The template Council Motion is below:
Council notes with great concern the figures recently released by the Environment Agency that show there was XXXX hours of sewage discharges in local [Rivers / Waterways / Coastal Areas] in [AREA NAME] last year.
Across Wales, over 775,000 hours of sewage discharging took place into natural areas last year across over 94,000 separate sewage spilling incidents. Research has shown that the four worst affected constituencies in Britain from sewage discharges last year were all in Wales.
This is despite drought being declared in many parts of Wales for much of last year. Untreated sewage discharging is only legal in periods of extreme rainfall in which drain systems are at risk of being overwhelmed.
Council believes the sewage crisis continues to be a national scandal – and it is disgraceful that Wales continues to bare the brunt. During a year of drought, for sewage discharging to continue at such an enormous volume is as unacceptable as ever.
Council further believes that local residents should not bare the cost of water companies upgrading decades worth of crumbling infrastructure, while these companies continue to make profits. However in our Wales average water bills are set to rise by 7% this year (higher than the UK average).
Council notes the introduction of a Clean Water Bill in the Kings Speech to Parliament that promises to create a super-regulator with wider enforcement powers over the economic and environmental performance of water companies. Though this has been welcomed, many campaigners believe it does not go far enough, fast enough.
Council resolves to:
- Instruct the Chief Executive / Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of the State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to make clear the position of this council and to demand that all loopholes allowing water company bosses to continue to take home huge bonuses are removed.
- Invite the Chief Executive of Dwr Cymru / Welsh Water to a special meeting of Full Council to answer questions from councillors and members of the public and to establish urgent commitments and timescales to improve their infrastructure and reduce sewage discharges in [AREA NAME].
- Instruct the Chief Executive / Leader of the Council to write to environmental charities The Rivers Trust and River Action to demonstrate the council’s commitments and support to work with partners to improve water quality in [AREA NAME].