Residents in Bournemouth, Dorset, can now use Wessex Water’s Coast and Rivers Watch interactive map to see when local storm overflows have recently operated and may be discharging into rivers and the sea. The tool went live for the Bournemouth/Dorset area in early February 2026 and provides near‑real‑time alerts — the monitors take readings every 15 minutes and the data is normally available within an hour of a discharge starting.
The system uses monitoring equipment (Event Duration Monitors and related sensors) to detect when overflows operate; the monitors record start and finish times but do not measure the volume of a discharge. These near‑real‑time monitoring and public‑reporting duties stem from obligations introduced under the Environment Act 2021 (Section 82) and subsequent regulatory guidance requiring water companies to publish monitoring data.
The map covers the local area, including the River Stour and Christchurch Harbour — waterways used for recreation and local fisheries. Environmental groups such as Surfers Against Sewage have long campaigned for public access to this kind of data and already use live discharge data in their Safer Seas and Rivers services.
To reduce the frequency of spills, Wessex Water completed a £30 million upgrade to the Holdenhurst Water Recycling Centre by March 2025. The scheme added roughly nine million litres of additional storm storage — about a 40% increase in capacity — to reduce the risk of the system overflowing during heavy rainfall.
Wessex Water says the map shares the same monitoring data used internally by its engineers, and the Environment Agency continues to regulate and audit discharges. The company and local authorities say the greater transparency is intended to help local volunteers, shellfishery operators and recreational users make better informed choices about using beaches and rivers.
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