Putrid filthy sewage was filmed and photographed spewing into Langstone Harbour at the weekend. Southern Waters holding tanks at Fort Cumberland once again became inundated with rainwater as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bertha passed through.

The Environment Agency are closely monitoring the situation and urging Southern Water to bring forward its improvement works to the treatment plant to the end of this year.

This latest discharge was filmed and posted to YouTube by officials at Eastney Cruising Association. Its being described as an appalling black and foul smelling mess.

Honorary boating club secretary Dave Joliffe said: This is disgraceful conduct. Bathers must be unwittingly subjecting themselves to a serious risk to their health and the general environmental damage in such a sensitive location is potentially catastrophic. The tourist and leisure industry is vital to this area and every effort should be made to ensure a clean and healthy environment for all water users.

Southern Water were fined 150000 three years ago for illegally discharging sewage into the harbour. In a statement regarding this recent slick the Environment Agency said: We fully understand the concerns of local residents businesses and interested groups and thats why we are working closely with the water company to fast track their 15m programme of improvements to redesign the site.

We have encouraged Southern Water to bring forward the improvements ahead of their original proposed completion date of September 2015. We have received assurances from Southern Water that they are now set to be completed by the end of this year. Members of the public who are concerned about pollution are encouraged to call our 24-hour emergency hotline on 0800 807060.

Southern Water also issued a statement: We released stormwater from our Fort Cumberland outfall on Sunday during heavy rain. This happened once our storm storage tanks which hold millions of litres of water were full and was a course of action taken to prevent flooding.

Outfalls are a necessary part of all sewer systems as they protect towns from flooding during heavy rain. The vast majority of water released is rainwater. In cities it is not uncommon for the first release of stormwater to be darker because it will include run-off from roads. This applies in particular to Portsmouth as there are very few separate surface water sewers the majority of rainwater and surface water from the catchment flows into our sewers.

Were nearing the end of a 20m flood alleviation scheme to divert rainwater away from some of our sewers in Portsmouth. The scheme will see a significant amount of rainwater up to 6000 litres per second which would normally go into the existing sewers diverted straight to sea through surface water outfalls easing the pressure on the sewers during storms and greatly reduce the risk of sewer flooding.

You can see the YouTube video here www.facebook.com/haylingisland