A WORRIED grandfather has spoken of his outrage at regularly seeing human excrement deposited at the bottom of his garden.
Trevor Ward, who lives on the river bank in Helmsley, said he encountered the problem every summer when the river dried up.
"You name it, everything that is flushed down the toilet appears at the bottom of my garden," said Mr Ward, who lives with his wife, Freda.
He added that in one day he counted 43 faeces in one minute floating past.
"I've got young grandchildren who come to see us regularly. It's not very nice for them, or me and my wife for that matter."
Helmsley's case is one of those highlighted in a report presented to the Government by the consumer group WaterWatch.
The report describes how flash floods - during which the River Rye has dried up - cause storm drains to operate and the effluent is discharged into the dried-up river bed.
The Government has now published a report on sewage treatment and disposal, calling for all water companies to produce sewer renewal programmes in which sewers are replaced as quickly as they deteriorate.
It also wants the storm drains to be designed to meet tougher standards, so that raw sewage is not flushed into steams and rivers when there is only moderately heavy rainfall.
But Pete Bowler, national campaigns officer for WaterWatch, said: "My fear is the way these sort of problems are being approached.
"We're only looking 10 to 15 years ahead - that's no good. We need to be looking at what the towns such as Helmsley will be like in 50 years' time."
He added: "I am absolutely disgusted that in the 20th century we still have raw sewage going into water courses. We're a modern country, this shouldn't be happening when we have the means to stop it completely."
A spokesman from Yorkshire Water said: "We are currently investing record amounts of money - over a million pounds a day - to improve water services for our customers."
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