The Clean Up Scotland’s Sewage Coalition said Scottish Water recorded 100,044 sewage discharges from sewer overflows in 2025, lasting a total of 276,759 hours. The figures equate to almost 32 years of discharges over the course of a single year.

The coalition said the data covers around 30 per cent of sewer overflows in Scotland. It compared this with England, where nearly 100 per cent of overflows are monitored, and said each monitored overflow in Scotland recorded an average of 58 more spills.

Sewer overflows are designed to release wastewater when sewers are overwhelmed, including during extreme weather. The coalition argues that they are being used routinely and that existing regulation is failing to prevent unacceptable levels of pollution.

Its analysis found that 4,617 discharges in 2025 occurred near designated bathing waters. In the first six months of 2026, Scottish Water recorded 21,450 discharges, including 1,136 near bathing waters.

Surfers Against Sewage received 30 reports of people becoming ill after exposure to polluted water last year, the coalition said. Most reports concerned bathing waters classified as either Good or Excellent.

The coalition brings together community groups from across Scotland and organisations with expertise in environmental law and freshwater and marine ecosystems. Its members include Buglife, the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, Surfers Against Sewage and the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

With a new Scottish Parliament in place, the coalition is calling for four measures: monitoring all sewer overflows; aligning water quality and wastewater treatment standards with EU requirements; giving regulators the resources to enforce the law; and setting interim targets for 2030 to support investment in blue-green infrastructure.

Shivali Fifield, chief officer at the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, said: “These findings confirm that Scotland’s current monitoring regime and enforcement of environmental regulations are not enough to prevent sewage pollution. In the past couple of years, ERCS’s free Law Service has worked on over 60 cases about water quality and sewage. We’ve seen how exhausting and exasperating it is for communities to try and get unlawful sewage spills taken seriously and addressed. We need new laws that match EU standards for water quality and wastewater treatment to safeguard human and environmental health and our right to safe water.

“We keep hearing from politicians how Scotland’s environment is our most important asset. Launching this Coalition is about listening to communities across Scotland who care deeply about nature and public health, and starting a national conversation about holding polluters to account and investing in our water infrastructure.”