A Clean Water Act for Scotland
Sewage was dumped into Scotland's waterways 24,398 times last year.
Our plan
We would pass a Clean Water Act to clean up Scotland's waterways which would see:
- Scotland’s Victorian sewage network updated
- Every sewage dump monitored and published with binding targets for their reduction.
- A blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers.
- And a complete ban on the release of sewage in protected areas such as bathing waters.
The scale of sewage dumping in Scotland is absolutely disgusting. Every SNP representative for an area where this is happening should hang their heads in shame.
Alex Cole-Hamilton
In England almost 100% of sewage overflows are being monitored but Scotland is lagging far behind with only a small fraction being monitored.
We only have full annual reporting data for 6.7% of all sewage overflows in Scotland.
That means there is every reason to believe that the current figure of 24,398 is a significant underestimate of the true figure.
Even after the new monitors that Scottish Water have fitted, for which we do not yet have full annual reporting data, only 31% of overflows are covered, a far cry from the state of monitoring in England.
SNP ministers have become little more than spin doctors for the failing, government-owned water company and its outdated standards.
Alex Cole-Hamilton
The problems don't end there as many overflows are managed by PFI companies and their overflow data is not proactively published each year.
This includes the Seafield Wastewater Treatment Works which is the largest in Scotland and serves our nation's capital.
These PFI sewage overflows around Edinburgh recorded 518 spills in 2023, including 165 spills at Seafield.