Trafford Labour politicians have called on the government to stop water firms from continuing to dump a tsunami of raw sewage into rivers and canals.

Cllrs Barry Winstanley and Sarah Haughey say residents are extremely angry at the reaction from ministers as they shirk any responsibility for the crisis.

They want government to enforce a ‘polluter pays’ model that would see industry bosses foot the bill for their own environmental catastrophes.

Meanwhile, the budgets needed to adequately fund organisations like the Environment Agency have been slashed by those currently in power.

Since 2010, environmental protection funding has dropped by 80pc and enforcement funding by 40pc, said Cllr Winstanley.

While prosecutions fell from almost 800 in 2007-08 to just 17 in 2020-21.

During a meeting of Full Council on Wednesday, both Cllrs Winstanley and Haughey tabled a motion and called for a shift in the way water companies are held to account.

“We need a re-balance in the way this industry is governed – re-balanced in favour of ordinary people not shareholders,” agued Cllr Winstanley.

“That is why the motion calls for the polluter pays model to be introduced.

“Water companies must pay for their own failures and fix ongoing issues out of their own pocket.”

Cllr Haughey echoed her colleagues concerns and said far more needed to be done to stop the ‘legal’ but immoral and unethical discharges into waterways.

She added: “Since privatisation in 1991, water companies have paid a staggering £50 billion in dividends to their shareholders.

“This country is awash with Conservative-approved filthy raw sewage.

“Over the last six years, there have been more than one-million sewage discharges meaning by the time I’ve finished speaking there will undoubtedly be more.

“Meanwhile, Conservative MPs continue to block changes that would end sewage discharges and finally hold water companies to account.

“In doing so they have effectively said ‘it is business as usual’ green lighting another 4.8 million discharges through to 2035.

“This is an environmental hazard, a health hazard, and an economic hazard.

“Meanwhile, I’m fearful of how this billion-pound sewage scandal will impact Trafford’s businesses and economy given the full scale of the problem is still not fully known.”