Call for action as minister warned over record 100,000 ‘horror’ sewage spills

A Scottish minister has been told she must start taking the sewage “crisis” seriously after a record 100,000 “horror” spills were recorded in a single year.

The Liberal Democrats have written to Climate Action and Rural Affairs Secretary Gillian Martin demanding action to clean up Scotland’s waters.

Figures released by Scottish Water show discharges in 2025 were four times higher than in 2024.

Scottish Water recorded 100,041 overflows last year – up from 24,398 the year prior.

The figure has increased dramatically following the installation of more than 1,000 new sewage overflow monitors.

Annual monitoring data is now available for 30% of all sites, compared to just 6% in previous years.

Scottish Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Sanne Dijkstra-Downie said the figures “are a real horror show”.

In her letter to Ms Martin, she said the Government must “treat this crisis with the seriousness it deserves” and urged her to outline a plan to “bring sewage discharges under control”.

Commenting, she said: “Sewage dumping is four times as high as we thought it was last year.

“This shows the Scottish Liberal Democrats were right to call for expanded monitoring and exposes how naive SNP ministers have been.

“This is the equivalent of 274 dumps taking place every single day.”

Ms Dijkstra-Downie said the number is still likely to be underestimate of “the true scale of the problem” because Scotland does not have 100% of sewage overflows monitored, unlike in England.

“To make matters worse,” she added, “the Government-owned water company is paying out bumper bonuses to its executives while sewage is being dumped into our rivers, lochs and beaches more than 100,000 times in 2025.

“The Scottish Government needs to start listening and taking this crisis seriously.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats have a plan to get to the bottom of this filthy practice.

“That means a Clean Water Act to take the sewage scandal seriously, track down and report every sewage dump, and replace outdated standards with modern enforceable regulation.”

Scottish Water said about 99% of the wastewater discharged from sewer overflows during heavy rain is rainwater and “grey” water from households and appliances and not sewage.

A spokesperson denied Lib Dem claims that waste water was being “dumped” in waters, saying: “Overflows are designed to operate during heavy rainfall or emergency incidents to reduce the risk of flooding to homes and businesses.

“In those conditions, flows are heavily diluted, with most of the discharge made up of rainwater and grey water from properties.

“Because the dataset we have published this week is now much larger, the number of recorded events is higher.

“This should not be interpreted as a like-for-like increase in overflow activity; it primarily reflects the fact that more locations are being monitored and more information is being published.

“The expanded data will help us better understand how the network is operating, identify locations that may need further investigation, and target investment where it can deliver the greatest environmental benefit.

“We know people want more information and we are committed to greater transparency.

“We will continue to expand the data we publish as the monitoring network grows and more annual datasets become available.

“Scotland’s water environment remains in good condition with about two thirds of water bodies classified as good or better and 97% of designated bathing waters meeting the required standard.”

Climate Action and Rural Affairs Secretary Gillian Martin said: “These assertions are incorrect. Scottish Water have published a larger dataset – this means information is being made available from more locations, not that overflows are operating more often.

“Scottish Water currently has over 2,000 overflow monitors in place (50% of overflows). The Scottish Government have consulted on objectives for Scottish Water for the next regulatory period, 2027-33, that would require it to provide public-facing access to data on overflows from all intermittent discharges in its network.”