BATHERS in Dorset can now check the quality of the water before going for a swim.

Wessex Water is releasing storm water spill information online for the first time.

At the touch of a button, people can check if bathing water quality may have been comprised if storm water has been discharged off the coast following heavy rainfall.

Wessex Water is the first water company in the country to publish information that shows when storm overflows have been used.

Dr Julian Dennis, the firm’s director of compliance and sustainability, said: “The information we now provide online is based on combined sewer overflows that have been identified by both us and the Environment Agency as having the greatest potential to impact on bathing water quality.

“Although for many years we have notified local councils if our emergency or combined sewer overflows that might affect bathing water quality have been in use, this is the first time we have been able to provide information for the public to see.”

Wessex Water has invested in equipment that notifies the company when an emergency overflow has operated. It is this information that is being used to indicate if bathing water quality may have been affected.

Dr Dennis said: “Eliminating the use of sewer overflows is not an option. It would mean reconfiguring the country’s sewerage system that has been in use since the nineteenth century.

“Instead, we are managing the existing system by ensuring it has adequate capacity for flows under normal weather conditions.”

Water quality can be checked for any of the 47 bathing waters in the Wessex Water region through a facility on the company’s website at www. wessexwater. co.uk/ bathingwaters