Image source, Getty ImagesThe environment secretary said the UK government is taking urgent action to reduce sewage discharges into rivers and the sea.
George Eustice has a plan to curb pollution from the most damaging storm overflows and 80% of all discharges by the year 2050.
There were 1,000 sewage spills a day in 2021.
They could face legal action for admitting illegal discharges.
More than 2,200 sewage treatment works were investigated by the government after the admission last year.
Mr Eustice admitted that water bills will rise by about 12 a year because of the government's investment in sewage infrastructure.
The Liberal Democrats said the amount of sewage spillages was a national scandal and accused the government ofignoring the country's outrage.
The country faced a dirty water emergency, which it blamed on the Conservative government for allowing water companies to dump raw sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas with impunity.
There were more than 372,000 spill events from storm overflows in the year 2021, according to new data released on Thursday.
The data showed that the spill events lasted more than 2 million hours.
Water companies are allowed to discharge sewage into rivers during heavy rains.
If they fail to meet certain requirements, such as treating enough wastewater before overflows are released into the environment, they can be acting illegally.
The state of our rivers is not in good shape, and we are still seeing too much pollution from a number of sources, according to the Environment Agency.
Tim Farron, rural affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the government needs to get tough on water companies and that they need to pay for cleaning up the rivers.
Alex Sobel said his party had been calling for better monitoring of sewage spills.
He said that the government's U-turn on this issue is long overdue and that they hope to finally see proper action to clean up our water.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe step change in how water companies tackle the number of discharges of sewage was announced by the government on Thursday.
A number of measures will be considered in a consultation open until 12 May.
Mr Eustice said the government was putting in 7 billion dollars of investment until the year 2025.
Mr Eustice said that the investment would be funded by increased charges for customers, which would equate to around 12 per year for the average water bill payers.
He said that it was an additional cost but people wanted to see the water quality improve and it was a cost that wouldn't present itself until after the project was done.
He said to fix the problem entirely, it would require you to rip up the sewer systems in every town and village up and down the country, and to completely rewire it, which could cost as much as $1 billion.
He said the government was doing the right thing by making significant investments in the near term to tackle the most difficult and most polluted storm overflows.
Mr Eustice said that he would swim in England's waters in the summer, perhaps not at this time of year, but definitely in the summer.
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