Sewage hits dozens of beaches in England and Wales after heavy rain

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Dozens of beaches in England and Wales have been warned of pollution after sewage was discharged into the sea.

According to official data, there have been a number of discharges since Monday.

A spell of extremely dry weather followed by a period of heavy rain.

Water firms' data is used to make the warnings from the Rivers Service.

Surfers against Sewage runs the service.

Some of the beaches are popular resorts.

• Bognor Regis, West Sussex
• Newquay, Cornwall
• East Looe, Cornwall
• Heacham, Norfolk
• Rest and Sandy Bay (Porthcawl), Bridgend
• Morecambe North, Lancashire
• Cowes, Isle of Wight
• Robin Hoods Bay, North Yorkshire
• Sidmouth Town, Devon
• Shoreham Beach, West Sussex
• Southend-on-Sea, Essex

Most of the people are on the south coast.

Near Bath, there is a popular swimming spot along the river that runs through the land owned by Johnny Palmer.

The sewage has not been treated. Mr Palmer has been working for a long time to get the water clean.

It's a disgrace. There are children in the water. You cannot tell your kids not to drink the water. "You have children drinking sewage, which is the kind of thing you might expect in parts of Africa or India, but, you know, Western Europe."

Our landscape and ecology are dependent on rivers. Everyone can and should use these resources.

One of the water companies responsible for those regions is Southern Water.

Southern Water said there were storms the night before and Tuesday. Houses, schools and businesses were protected from flooding. The release is mostly rain and should not be described as sewage.

Customers don't like that the industry has to rely on thesedischarges to protect them, and we are trying a new approach.

Southern Water was fined a record £90 million for dumping sewage into the sea.

When there is a chance that pipes that carry storm-water, along with sewage, may overflow, these discharges are legal.

In exceptional circumstances, this is supposed to occur. There were almost 400,000 such events in the two years that followed.

The Environment Agency said in a statement that sewage pollution could be harmful to humans and the environment. It wouldn't hesitate to eliminate the harm sewage discharges cause to the environment.

When serious incidents of pollution occur, it wants the top executives of England's water companies to be jailed.

The rivers and beaches are being treated as open sewer. There have been years of under investment.

A plan to reduce storm overflows will be produced by September. This was required by the Environment Act.