Sewage pollution is a growing problem in the UK. Many water companies are allowed to dump their raw, untreated sewage into Britain’s watercourses. An alarming number of rivers and seas across the UK are now too contaminated to enter. Express.co.uk explores which watercourses should be avoided.

       Despite the Government’s “green” drive ahead of the UN COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow this month, they have failed to take action against polluting water companies.

       Just 22 Conservative MPs rebelled against the Government on October 20, as the party voted against amending a bill to stop water companies dumping their untreated sewage into the UK’s watercourses.

       The amendment would have forced water companies to “take all reasonable steps” to stop using the combined sewer overflows, which often release raw sewage into rivers and seas.

       The Rivers Trust has mapped where untreated sewerage is discharged into rivers in England and Wales.

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       The trust monitors how often sewer storm overflows (also called combined sewer overflows or CSOs) discharge.

       These sewers were only designed to be used to prevent flooding in periods of heavy rain.

       They do this by easing pressure on the sewage network by discharging the excess rainwater mixed with raw sewage straight into rivers or sea to bypass the wastewater treatment process temporarily.

       The Rivers Trust warns: “Avoid entering the water immediately downstream of these discharges and avoid the overflows (brown circles), especially after it has been raining.”

       Thousands of sewer storm overflows are being used regularly across the UK.

       The largest concentration of storm overflows being used regularly in the UK, is in the area slightly to the west of Leeds, according to The River Trust’s latest monitoring.

       Other areas with a high concentration of storm overflows include:

       In the watercourses around these urban centres, storm overflows are in regular use according to monitoring by The River Trust.

       The number of pollutants entering waters in the UK this year has soared by more than 400,000 times compared to last year according to the Mail Online.

       This figure may rise higher still as wastewater plants have been told by the Government they can get rid of their sewage without the need to treat it.

       This is because the lorry driver shortage has caused a shortage of access to chemicals in the UK.

       Campaign groups including Surfers Against Sewage have blasted the Government's inaction on sewage pollution.