Raw sewage from nearly 40,000 people and businesses is being pumped straight into the sea because the British overseas territory of Gibraltar does not have, and has never had, a wastewater treatment plant.

For decades, untreated sewage has poured into the Mediterranean from the southern tip of the peninsula at Europa Point, where the government of Gibraltar says there are “high levels of natural dispersion”.

The area is supposed to be protected for wildlife but often there are “wet wipes and plastic pollution entangled in algae and all over the rocks”, said Lewis Stagnetto, of the Nautilus Project, a local environmental charity.

Raw sewage pollution can trigger toxic algal blooms that strip oxygen from the water, choking aquatic life. It exposes fish and mammals to a cocktail of chemicals and plastics that can disrupt reproduction and damage health, and puts people at risk by spreading pathogens and antibiotic-resistant genes.

Unlike Britain, Gibraltar’s sewerage system uses seawater, and drinking water comes from desalination. The Gibraltar government says the salinity “historically created challenges that are not present in other wastewater treatment plants around the world”. It also claims that wet wipes “that appear occasionally on our beaches have … come from outlets in nearby Spain”.

In 2017, the European court of justice ruled that the UK was in breach of wastewater law by failing to treat Gibraltar’s sewage, but the European Commission lost any power to take action after Brexit.

Attempts to fix the problem have repeatedly collapsed. In 2018, Gibraltar’s government awarded a contract to a joint venture between NWG Commercial Services (Northumbrian Water) and Modern Water to design, build and operate a treatment plant, only for the deal to fall apart after a Modern Water subsidiary went into liquidation.

“This had a significant impact on the delivery of this vital project,” a Gibraltar government spokesperson said. Preliminary talks with the European Investment Bank also “fell through as a direct result of the UK leaving the European Union”, they added.

In June 2025, the Gibraltar government awarded a 25-year contract to Eco Waters to build a wastewater treatment plant at Europa Point. Advanced works have begun on the design and geotechnical aspects of the plant and a planning application was submitted in March 2026.

Northumbrian Water, which partnered with the government from 2003 until 2024 through a joint venture called AquaGib, was keen to distance itself from the sewage failures. It said operations “centred on the provision of drinking water” and that it was not responsible for day-to-day operations.

“Northumbrian Water was never responsible in any way for wastewater operations in Gibraltar,” a spokesperson said. Its “involvement was as a shareholder and strategic partner, not as the operator or regulator. All decisions in relation to wastewater management were taken by the government of Gibraltar.”

AquaGib said it operated a number of pumping stations that pump sewage from low-lying areas into Gibraltar’s main sewer but it “is not responsible for the main sewer or any wastewater treatment”.

The sewer itself appears to be in poor shape. Last year, the opposition Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD) party described “popular tourist hotspot areas … embarrassingly subjected to the stench of raw sewage”, with waste “directly seeping through the city walls … causing damage to the marine ecosystem”. The government blamed decades of underinvestment for the problem, including years when the GSD held power.

The government said there was an “ongoing major project to lay new sewerage mains in phases: a £15m investment in Gibraltar’s sewer infrastructure” as well as “various relining projects which … have resulted in the main sewer being reinforced and improved within the city walls”.

As for the beaches, the government said: “Bacteriological water quality is routinely measured in all of Gibraltar’s beaches … and the latest results indicate that all bathing areas in Gibraltar attain excellent bathing water quality.”

Last year, England’s water companies released untreated sewage into rivers, lakes and seas nearly 300,000 times, despite having wastewater treatment plants in place.

Hugo Tagholm, the director of the charity Oceana UK, said: “The public are outraged that our rivers and seas are treated as a dumping ground. It’s an environmental and economic injustice, with the fingerprints of big business all over it.

“The government must get its act together at home and abroad – our seas need proper protection from sewage and plastic pollution. It’s high time they end the outrage and stop the pumping of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea.”