The amount of sewage dumped in South Holland’s waterways decreased significantly last year, but it still amounted to nearly 36 days’ worth being poured in locally.
Anglian Water says it has reduced outflows ‘by more than 80 per cent’ and storm outflows by ‘60 per cent’ in its area.
South Holland’s storm drains saw a combined 35.8 days’ worth of overflow in 2025 amounting to 860 hours of sewage being put into waterways, figures from The Rivers Trust state.
Over half of that, 460 hours, came from the Crowland Treatment Works which emptied 29 times into the Green Bank Drain and South Eau River.
The next highest was from Anglian Water’s Donington site where sewage flowed out for 211.63 hours in the year over 45 occasions.
That’s much improved on the 1,332 hours over 122 such incidents that site recorded in 2023.
Both Sutton Bridge and Holbeach had eight outflows for 12.75 hours and 53.75 hours respectively.
The largest discharge locally into the River Welland was for 66.63 hours over 14 instances at Spalding Water Treatment Works.
There were numerous further sewage discharges further upstream though including at Deeping where it was put into the Welland for 788.50 hours on 53 occasions.
It’s not part of the 2025 figures but one discharge into the River Glen has been ongoing since January 21 this year.
A spokesman for Anglian Water said: “The investment planned for this year is part of a £1bn package being delivered by 2030 to tackle storm overflows and includes installing nature-based solutions, such as wetlands and sustainable drainage, alongside traditional infrastructure, including storage tanks to reduce the pressure on sewers, as well as improved monitoring to predict and prevent spills.
“Storm overflows were originally installed on the sewer network to protect homes and businesses from flooding during heavy rain.
“So whilst dry years like 2025 mean storm overflows are needed less often, performance last year was better than in 2022 when rainfall levels were similar, indicating that the investment delivered so far is already delivering improvements.”
Head of catchment flow compliance for Anglian Water, Lizzie Frost said that the company’s ‘long term goal is to completely stop using storm overflows’ and it’s ‘investing more than ever before to reduce storm overflow discharges’.
