There have been renewed calls to stop water companies from dumping sewage into the sea and rivers in north Norfolk.
It comes as water companies pumped sewage into waterways for a combined 1.75 million hours in the UK last year - an average of 825 times per day - according to the latest figures from the Environment Agency.
The data shows sewage has been dumped every two-and-a-half minutes on average since 2016.
The Liberal Democrats have now slammed the “indefensible” actions of north Norfolk MP Duncan Baker, who voted against a bill proposing new enhanced sanctions on water companies who illegally dump sewage into waterways on April 25.
The Water Quality (Sewage Discharge) Bill would mean automatic fines for water companies and would set new legal requirements to monitor their activity.
It would impose legally binding targets which companies would be required to meet to reduce the number of incidents of contamination each year.
The Lib Dem’s party prospective candidate for North Norfolk, Steffan Aquarone, accused MP Baker of “naked hypocrisy”, and said by voting against the bill he was “putting party politics ahead of what north Norfolk needs”.
However, Mr Baker said the bill was unworkable and unfeasible.
He said combined sewage overflows - which are currently in place as part of the water system - could not be turned off as they needed to be opened to release rainwater and wastewater – including sewage – into waterways in cases of heavy rainfall.
This is to stop sewage overflowing and flooding homes.
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Mr Aquarone said: “This is an example of naked hypocrisy by the MP Duncan Baker.
“He has voted against measures which would have stopped water companies from discharging sewage into the sea and rivers.
“This goes right back to the fundamental concept of privatising these utility companies in the first place. We [the Lib Dems] would transform private water companies into private benefit companies.
“It’s not the commercialisation that is wrong, it’s the current ownership incentive.
“We would force them to have an environment champion on every board.
“Ofwat [the Water Services Regulation Authority] needs to be abolished and replaced with a more powerful regulator.
“Assertive action from politicians is what’s needed. This cannot go on.”
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Last year, the water quality at three north Norfolk beaches - East Runton, Mundesley and Sea Palling - was downgraded, meaning they lost their Blue Flag status.
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Mr Baker said the claims made against him were "not reflective of the facts”, and it is “not legally operable” to ban combined sewage overflows.
“My job is to be a responsible legislator - I can’t vote for unworkable pieces of law,” he said.
“I can’t vote to turn off using combined sewage overflows and flood our homes with sewage. It isn’t feasible. What is feasible is what we have done now.
“All combined sewage overflows will be monitored by the end of the year so we can monitor these discharges properly. In real-time we will know if a water company behaves illegally.
“Our storm overflow reduction plan has already allowed companies like Anglian Water to reduce their spill frequency by nearly a half since 2021 and, of those spills, we have managed to reduce their duration by a further 54pc.
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“Our new 'plan for water' will also see the establishment of a new water restoration fund backed by water company fines, and unlimited penalties on those that pollute our waters.
"Dividend payments will be linked to water company performance and £56 billion pounds of investment is scheduled to be spent on our sewage network to phase out these spills.
“In conjunction to this, the Environment Agency and Ofwat have also launched their largest ever criminal and civil investigation into wastewater treatment works to hold those that have broken the law accountable.”
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