THE Tory sewage scandal “continues to sully rivers, lakes, seas, and beaches with raw human waste,” Labour warned today as its analysis of official figures reveals waterway dumping is at record highs.

Environment Agency (EA) data shows that in just the last seven years, private utility firms have pumped a staggering 1,276 years’ worth of raw human waste into the country’s waters. 

The total, which Labour slammed as a “damning indictment of 13 years of Tory governments,” suggests untreated sewage is dumped every two-and-a-half minutes — a total of 11,182,276 hours since 2016. 

The full scale of the pollution is likely to be even greater, the party stressed, with official monitoring schemes not covering every sewage overflow.

The warning came as the EA noted that a 19 per cent fall in discharges last year was due to dry weather during the summer’s unprecedented heatwave, rather than any action taken by water companies.

The public body said its figures, which include data from all 10 water and sewerage firms across England, show a total of 301,091 spills in 2022 — an average of 824 a day. This is down from 372,533 in 2021.

Of 13,323 recorded storm overflows, 3 per cent spilled more than 100 times compared with 5 per cent in 2021, while the average number of spills per storm overflow was 23 compared to 29 the previous year.

Water companies are only supposed to discharge sewage from storm overflows during periods of heavy rain and under strictly permitted conditions so that the system is not overwhelmed, backing up into people’s homes.

But campaigners warn they are discharging much more often than they should, including when there has been no rain, and have repeatedly called on bosses to use profits to ramp up investment in infrastructure.

The EA said it “shares the public’s concern over sewage discharges” and urged firms to improve storm overflow maintenance, management and investment.

Labour shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon accused Tory ministers of having “no respect for British communities,” adding: “People should be able to just enjoy where they live, work and holiday without having to worry about the Tory sewage scandal.”

Water minister Rebecca Pow claimed: “The volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is unacceptable and we are taking action to make sure polluters are held to account.”