Worcester Sewage Treatment Works, Bromwich Road, has been recorded as discharging sewage into the River Severn since 5.22am on Sunday (January 5), with the latest update at 12.42am on Friday (January 10) showing that the discharge was yet to stop.
Severn Trent has said this is to “act as a relief” when the network could be overwhelmed by floodwaters.
A spokesperson for Severn Trent said: “Worcestershire experienced significant rainfall on Sunday night and into Monday morning which caused substantial surface water flooding in the area.
“The overflow would have operated during this time, in line with our permit, to protect homes and businesses in Worcester from flooding.”
Alex Mace, a Green Party city councillor, believes that more could be done by the water company to stop these flooding events.
He said: “Worcester is on the front line of the effects of climate change, as shown by yet another flood this winter.
“The cost to residents, businesses and the City Council in clean up is made worse by the discharge of sewage by Severn Trent into the River Severn.
“We know that Severn Trent has paid out £11.8 billion in dividends since it was privatised, while taking on £7 billion pounds of debt and raising our bills by 40% in real terms.”
Like much of the UK, sewage from buildings in Worcester is collected with surface water from roads and roofing and when there is excessive water entering the system, such as during flooding or heavy rainfall, this can flood the sewer.
To prevent this, untreated sewage is discharged into waterways from storm overflows or combined sewer overflows.
Mr Mace added: “Rather than dumping raw sewage into the River Severn to ‘protect’ residents and businesses, it is doing it because it has prioritised paying shareholders and bosses rather than investing in infrastructure.”
In response, a spokesperson for Severn Trent Water said: “In the last 30 years we’ve spent £12billion improving our sewage treatment systems alone, and we continue to invest four times more than we pay in dividends.
“While our systems operate as they should, we agree that more can be done to reduce the use of overflows, and their impact.”
Ofwat has recently approved plans from Severn Trent to spend £15 billion over the next five years, £320 million of which will be spent on Worcestershire to “improve service, boost water supplies and improve river health while keeping bills low and affordable.”
The spokesperson added: “We know river health is a priority for our customers, as it is us too, which is why key to these plans is our commitment to continue going further and further to do our bit on river health.
“By 2030 our storm overflow operations won’t contribute to any river in our region not meeting good ecological status.”