Water bosses whose companies pump sewage into rivers should be jailed, broadcaster Nick Ferrari has declared.
The LBC presenter told the BBC’s Question Time that was the only way to make sure the disgusting practice was ended.
Environment secretary Therese Coffey has faced calls to resign after sewage was pumped into rivers and the sea more than 300,000 times last year.
During a debate on the issue on last night’s Question Time, Ferrari said it was time for radical action.
He said: “I can solve this at a stroke and let me tell you how we do it.
″The water company bosses are paid an average of around £1 million a year. Between the 22 or 23 of them they bank £25 million.
″The profits that they make are eye-watering. The fines that are levied by the government are almost built in to the business model - they don’t actually care because they are making so much money.
″Meanwhile, people in Bexhill and Eastbourne are out there swimming in a word I won’t even use and you can’t water your hydrangeas.
“This is the way we solve it and it’s very simple. When the government wants to, they can bring in a law overnight, like the Public Order Act, which saw six people with some banners and a load of rubber bands arrested and thrown in jail.
″This is the law that needs to come in. Any chief executive who continually allows his or her company to put raw sewage into the water - let’s get this law enacted - will go to jail for five years.”
To applause from the audience, he added: “They are playing with people’s lives by putting sewage in the water. Put them behind bars, it will be solved overnight.”
Tory MPs last month voted down a bid by Labour to stop raw sewage being put into the water.
The party wanted to introduce a new law bringing in legally binding targets and automatic fines for water companies who do it.
The government has announced its own plans for legally binding targets to cut sewage discharges.