Renfrewshire Lib Dems reveal new figures that show sewage dumped in Renfrewshire 463 times

New figures show sewage dumped in Renfrewshire 463 times

Grant Toghill, the spokesperson for Renfrewshire Liberal Democrats, has today revealed that sewage was dumped in Renfrewshire 463 times and called for Scotland’s sewage network to be upgraded and for a blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers to be introduced.

Updated figures published on the Scottish Water website on 26th June, showed that there were 463 sewage dumps in Renfrewshire in 2023, the duration of these sewage dumps was 4601 hours.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have launched plans for a Clean Water Act that would see:

• Scotland’s Victorian sewage network updated;
• Every sewage dump monitored and published with binding targets for their reduction;
• A blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers;
• A complete ban on the release of sewage in protected areas such as bathing waters.

Grant Toghill said:

"The scandal of sewage dumping in our rivers, lochs and beaches seems to be ever growing in Renfrewshire.

"Even this figure of 463 sewage dumps is likely to be a huge underestimate, as unlike England where almost every overflow point is monitored, only a small fraction are monitored in Scotland.

"SNP ministers have defended this filthy practice for far too long. People in Renfrewshire want to see action taken on sewage being dumped in our local waterways.

“To turn the tide on this scandal Scottish Liberal Democrats have proposed plans for a Clean Water Act for Scotland to update the sewage network, proper monitoring to find all the dumping and a complete ban on this filthy practice in protected areas such as bathing waters.”