There has been a "huge" loss of insects in streams because of sewage discharges, according to a conservation charity. Wildfish surveyed five streams feeding into Windermere in Cumbria and found all saw a loss of wildlife downstream of waste water treatment plants.

Insects and other invertebrates declined by almost two thirds downstream of a sewage treatment works on a key river feeding into Windermere. The fresh evidence of harm to rivers replenishing England’s largest lake comes in the same month a 95-year-old science group resigned from a partnership with the local water company, in protest over the pace at which it is being cleaned up.

The smelly, nasty bacteria that spells bad news for rivers is flourishing in the UK. Here is how to spot it and what it means.

No 10 is accused of 'smoke and mirrors' as it announces it will consult on banning bonuses for polluting water firms' bosses. Save Windermere believes plans from the Government to ban bonuses for the bosses of water firms polluting Britain’s rivers do not go far enough and chief executives should face jail time instead.

An investigation has revealed the location of almost 7,000 'emergency overflows' used by water companies to dump sewage, the majority of which are not being monitored by regulators.

Meal attended by Environment Agency and Ofwat chairs attacked as outrageous example of ‘regulatory capture’. Water company bosses and the chairs of the regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency went for dinner at an exclusive private members’ club to discuss how to quell public anger over bill rises and sewage spills.

Windermere and Bowness Town Council gave their 'unanimous' support for any project or initiative stopping all sewage discharges into England's largest lake.

Eighty-three per cent of English rivers contain evidence of high pollution caused by sewage and agricultural waste, according to the largest citizen science water testing project ever to take place in the UK.

The watchdog tasked with protecting the environment is not doing enough to prevent damage from water company sewage discharges. The Save Windermere group said an Environment Agency (EA) permit for a waste water treatment works near Cunsey Beck in the Lake District had omissions and was not sufficiently stringent.

Sewage tankers have started to descend on one village in the Lake District 'every time it rains'. Trucks full of sewage are blighting some of England’s most beloved national parks as water companies scramble to patch up holes in their infrastructure.

Water bosses have been told by ministers they will no longer “mark their own homework” on whether they are illegally polluting rivers, in a shift in how the sector is regulated.

The number of hours in which sewage was dumped into the River Thames has more than quadrupled in the last year, figures show.

There were 6,590 hours of sewage spills in the last nine months of 2023, according to the data from Thames Water, analysed by London's City Hall. It is up from 1,420 hours for the same period in 2022.