England's water and sewage companies have issued an apology for not "acting quickly enough" to tackle sewage spillage issues.
These firms have been criticised over continued spilling of raw sewage into rivers and seas.
In 2022, raw sewage was dumped into rivers and seas for 1.75 million hours - or 825 times a day on average.
The apology was made by Water UK, the industry body which represents England's nine water and sewage companies.
Ruth Kelly, Water UK chair, told the BBC: "We're sorry about the upset and the anger from the fact that there have been overspills of untreated sewage onto beaches and into rivers over the past few years. We're sorry that we didn't act sooner, and but we get it."
Alongside the apology, the companies promised to triple funding available for sewer system upgrades, provide the public with "near real-time" data on sewage spills and cut spills by up to 35% by 2030.
The companies said they were ready to invest an additional £10 billion (€11.5 billion), but it could mean higher bills.
The apology follows increasingly vocal criticism from the government, campaigners and the public over the number of times raw sewage has spilled into the UK's rivers and seas.
Companies are sometimes allowed to spill sewage following heavy rainfall to prevent the system becoming overloaded and backing up into people's homes. But the criticism has been that these spills are happening too often.
Water companies apologise for sewage waterways pollution
