More than half of councils have seen a rise in sewage dumps, figures from the Liberal Democrats show.

New Scottish Water figures analysed by the party reveal that the number of sewage dumps increased in most council areas between 2022 and 2023.

There were 20 council areas that saw an increase between 2022 and 2023 alone.

The data also reveals that between 2022 and 2023, Fife experienced the biggest percentage increase in sewage dumps, with the number of dumps almost quadrupling from 213 to 733.

Moray also saw a huge rise over the single year, with the number of sewage dumps increasing by 117.5%.

Argyll and Bute had the highest number of sewage dumps with 3,768 in 2023 and dumping lasting 30,078 hours.

Sewage dumps in South Lanarkshire totalled 3,111 and lasted 27,682 hours in 2023, while the number of dumps in Dumfries and Galloway came to 2,397 and lasted 24,682 hours.

Across the whole of Scotland in 2023, there was a 10% increase in the number of sewage dumps, with 21,660 discharges logged.

However, the true scale of the figures cannot be fully known as monitoring does not take place in Dundee, East Dunbartonshire and Edinburgh and, in 10 authorities, just one or two sites were recorded.

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