PROTECTED wilderness areas in England and Wales were repeatedly flooded with raw sewage last year by profiteering water companies, a damning new report revealed today.

Greenpeace said the two countries’ “most sensitive wilderness areas” suffered sewage pollution for a total of 300,000 hours in 2022, despite being protected by conservation regulations.

The environment campaign group matched water companies’ sewage spill data with maps showing England and Wales’s sites of special scientific interest, special areas of conservation, special protected areas and Ramsar sites to identify every pipe that discharged within 50 metres of a protected nature site.