A water company is pumping sewage into one of the world’s most important sites for globally migrating birds.

Chichester Harbour was used as a water network overspill during storms for 2,559 hours last year, despite it being a sensitive wildlife habitat.

The harbour is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), a special area of conservation (SAC) and a special protection area (SPA) for birds, making it one of the most important sites for wildlife in the UK.

It is also a wetland of international importance and became an area of outstanding natural beauty in 1964.

The sewage spills have sparked a response from Greenpeace which says Southern Water must act now and stop the practice.

Megan Corton Scott, political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “These are the casualty figures from a war which nature is losing, badly.

“Private water companies treat our countryside as a toilet and their vandalism doesn’t stop at some of our most sensitive conservation areas.

“Beloved lakes, beaches, rivers, rare wildlife habitats and sites of special scientific interest are being sacrificed so water company bosses and shareholders can continue to reap huge profits.”

The campaigner said that nothing matters to shareholders “except profit” and they cannot “be shamed into doing the right thing”.

“The only way to force them to clear up their mess is to make all of their dividends and bonuses dependent on actual results,” said Megan.

“Instead of long-term targets and empty threats, ministers should actually force the water companies to do the job we pay them for, starting now.”

Southern Water said it agrees with the public that the process of emptying sewage into the sea during heavy storm weather is “no longer acceptable”.

Nick Mills, head of Southern Water’s clean rivers and seas taskforce, said: “We share our community's passion for the environment and we work very closely with the Environment Agency, who assess outfalls for environmental risk potential, and we ensure our stormwater outfalls comply with strict permits and are located and managed appropriately. 

“These stormwater outfalls are used when the system is overloaded with surface and groundwater, so homes, schools, hospitals, and communities are not flooded. Furthermore, such discharges are heavily diluted with rainwater.

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“We have prioritised sensitivity of watercourses when rolling out Event Duration Monitors (EDM) which are now at almost 100 per cent coverage. We know that providing accessible data is a crucial step in understanding and being transparent about why, where and when storm overflows are used.  

“We are working extremely hard and investing heavily to reduce their use across our region and are already exceeding the government’s own reduction targets, thanks to the rollout of innovative nature-based and engineering solutions designed at reducing and slowing the flow of rainfall entering our sewers.”

The government’s current storm overflow reduction plan, published last summer, outlines a target to “improve” 75 per cent of pipes discharging into high priority areas by 2035, extending to all high priority areas by 2045.