Feargal Sharkey has warned flood waters across Britain are “invariably massively” contaminated with sewage.”
The Undertones star and keen angler, 65, alerted his nearly 230,00 followers to the issue on X, formerly known as Twitter, following flooding across the country caused by Strom Henk.
He said: “In this country flood water is invariably massively contaminated with sewage. You have been warned.”
Extreme rainfall has led to the worst day of sewage discharges into rivers in parts of south-east England since public records began.
Thames Water simultaneously discharged waste from nearly 300 separate locations last Thursday, figures from the water firm showed.
This is the highest number recorded since the firm started publishing its data last year.
James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, said: “While farmers face devastating crop failures, there is a sinister undercurrent to the flooding of communities across the country: millions of gallons of sewage is being released by water companies into floodwaters. Thanks to decades of underinvestment and deregulation, sewerage networks cannot cope with seasonal rains resulting in raw sewage flooding along streets, across playgrounds and into shops, offices and homes.
“It is totally unacceptable that families and businesses should bear the additional burden of potential infection from pathogens such as e.coli on top of rebuilding their lives after flooding. Welcome to another year of corporate profiteering thanks to a failed Government at the cost of thousands of peoples livelihoods, homes and health.”
Thames Water has apologised for the discharges, which it said were made worse as the storm “came at a time when the ground was already saturated from a long period of wet weather”.
Water firms discharge untreated sewage into rivers from combined sewer overflows (CSOs) during periods of heavy rainfall.
This is to prevent their pipe systems from becoming overwhelmed and sewage backing up into people’s homes.
But campaigners and members of the public have taken aim at water forms for the amount of sewage they are dumping into waterways.
Meanwhile some firms have been accused of breaking the law by discharging sewage water on days of no rainfall in 2022.
Dry spilling is banned because it can lead to higher concentrations of sewage in waterways, posing environmental and health risks.
