Scotland’s publicly owned water company has yet to install a single new river sewage monitor more than a year after promising 1,000 would be fitted by the end of 2024.

In December 2021, Scottish Water announced plans to dramatically increase the number of monitors on combined sewer overflows (CSOs) on the national sewage network.

But in response to a Freedom of Information request from i, the company admitted that as of 1 March this year, not a single new device had been installed.

CSOs are designed to drain excess water during periods of heavy rainfall to avoid flooding people’s houses, but often lead to sewage being discharged directly into rivers.

The most recent data shows that between 2017 and 2021, sewage has overflowed directly into Scottish rivers and other water courses 54,289 times – or almost 30 times per day.

Campaigners fear the problem could be much worse due to a lack of monitoring. Of the 3,614 overflows in Scotland’s 31,000-mile sewer network, only 4 per cent (144) are monitored.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters