Swimmers falling ill after sewage discharged every five minutes in Wales, report warns, as Britain's rivers log three million hours of spills

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026 · last updated 9 October 2026.

Volunteers are falling ill after swimming in Welsh waters rated 'good' or 'excellent' by official standards, as a new report reveals Wales logged over 800,000 hours of sewage discharges last year — one every five minutes. Drawing on data from Welsh water companies, Surfers Against Sewage called the situation a growing public health emergency, citing 992 illness reports since 2019, including 215 in 2025 alone. Across Britain, sewage flowed into rivers for upwards of three million hours last year.

Volunteer Lucy Jones suffered nausea after swimming at a site that had experienced two discharges, despite having checked the charity's app in advance and finding no alerts.

Surfers Against Sewage said 90 designated bathing sites had together accumulated upwards of 4,000 hours of sewage pollution, calling it 'a really terrible picture of continued underinvestment.'