Almost 700 sewage dumps, totally more than 3,500 hours took place in the Wells constituency in 2021.

The shocking figures, collated by Top of the Poops, show that of the 470,000-odd sewage spills, adding up to more than 3.4million hours (that's the equivalent of 388 years) in just one year in England and Wales – 696 of them were in the Wells constituency.

Although the numbers are large, they are however, a marked increase on the previous year with 480 fewer sewage dumps and more than 6,000 less hours of sewage.

This table on Top of the Poops shows that the majority of the dumps came from the Meare Wastewater Treatment Works and the Glastonbury Water Recycling Centre.

The issue of sewage spills (the practice of intentionally dumping sewage into waterways) has come back to the public's attention in recent days and weeks after heavy rain overwhelmed sewers leading to pollution warnings across more than 40 beaches and swimming spots in England and Wales.

Downing Street condemned the industry for not reducing sewage discharge and putting shareholders before customers.

Environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey told the BBC that issues with sewage showed the water industry was in an "extraordinary state of chaos" and said decades of regulatory failure, underinvestment and profiteering had led to the current situation.

A government spokesperson said ministers expected water companies "to take urgent action on this issue or face fines", but politicians themselves – including Wells MP James Heappey – are finding themselves under fire by campaigners who say that they could have done more to prevent the issue.

Campaigners say that last October Tory MPs voted in favour of dumping sewage into waterways. Although not absolutely incorrect, that's not absolutely correct either. Rather, they didn't actively vote to stop the dumping, instead voting for a rather more watered down version of the proposal.

Here's what happened…

The House of Lords voted for an amendment to the Environment Bill (which is now the Environment Act) which proposed many things, including a "duty" on water firms to take "reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged" from storm pipes.

There was various to-ing and fro-ing between the Commons and the Lords, about the language, and in the end a compromise was reached which stripped out this crucial line, so instead of a duty to "ensure untreated sewage is not discharged", the law would force firms to ensure "progressive reduction in the adverse impact of discharges" from storm overflows. And MPs voted 268-204 to pass the amendment with this change.

The Government's argument is that upgrading all the Victorian sewer systems to stop any discharges could cost up to £660billion, and would result in a hike in customer water bills. They also say that the amendment was unnecessary because it is already tackling sewage dumping, and that all overflow pipes will have monitoring devices by the end of 2023.