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The angler and Good Heart singer, 64, said the destructive practice was highly profitable.
He said: “These companies now act with such an apparent impunity that they bring to mind the blazing arrogance of a truculent teenager.”
The Government’s response to the sewage crisis was “lacklustre, chaotic and mismanaged”, he added.
The Daily Express Green Britain Needs You campaign has highlighted the dire state of our waterways.
Sewage was dumped into England’s rivers 372,533 times in 2021, figures showed. And only 14 percent of England’s rivers are of “good” ecological status.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said this week she wants to stop sewage being pumped into waterways “more quickly” than by 2050, the current target.
She said the practice of releasing storm overflows containing wastewater into rivers and seas is “not acceptable” and she would support accelerating progress – so long as it did not have a “massive” impact on household bills.
She said: “It is not good, it is not acceptable. Some companies are a lot better than others.”
Thames Water storm overflows discharged sewage for more than 154 hours this week, the company’s interactive map shows. It said the discharges prevent sewage backing up into homes and businesses when the system exceeds capacity.
But Dr Harvey Wood, director of the Clean Rivers Trust, is demanding a nationwide overhaul of the sewage infrastructure.
He said: “Sewers that are discharging are having to take far more sewage as house building continues and the system can’t cope.
“There’s a huge need in rural and semi-rural areas for an increase in sewer size. The sewer system generally is shot.
“There needs to be a national debate between the Government, the water companies and the other players, from the angler to the idler.
“The person who wants to sit by a river and write poetry has equal rights and everyone has got to be aware it’s a major upheaval this country must undertake.”
Thames Water said it has a £17million upgrade planned to reduce untreated sewage discharges.
It added: “We’ve committed to a 50 percent reduction in the annual duration of spills across London and the Thames Valley by 2030.”
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