Campaigners have welcomed the multimillion-pound fines proposed for three water companies – but warned the penalties highlight the “sheer state of disrepair” of the industry.

Ofwat has proposed £168 million of fines for three of England’s biggest water companies for failing to manage sewage treatment works and allowing too much pollution into rivers, including a £104 million penalty for Thames Water.

The regulator said the burden of the fines on three water firms will fall on investors, rather than customers.

It comes amid high levels of public fury over the polluted state of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters and at a lack of investment in water infrastructure, rising bills, high dividends and executive pay and bonuses at privatised water firms.

Surfers Against Sewage chief executive Giles Bristow said: “These fines illustrate the sheer state of disrepair of our broken water industry.

“This is a system on its knees and the Government must recognise this fact and use their upcoming Water Bill to deliver root and branch reform.

“It’s time those in power prioritised public health, the environment, value for customer money and crack down on the profiteering polluters – let’s hope today is the start of that long-awaited turnaround.”

He added: “Whilst these findings are bleak, this is a win for campaigners who have been demanding those in power enforce the letter of the law – a simple task that has been beyond them in recent years.

“We will be making sure Ofwat keep their pledge that companies will not be able to recover the money for any penalties from customers and that customers will not be charged twice where additional maintenance is required.”

And Mr Bristow added: “People demand healthy rivers, lakes and seas and the Government must ensure they, and the water sector, delivers it.”

Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s director of policy, said: “It’s good to see this rogue industry finally paying the price for years of pollution.

“But it is our rivers, seas and everyone who enjoys them that pay the real penalty, with added interest for every year this abuse is allowed to continue.

“Our watercourses and the ecosystems that rely on them are in desperate need of protection and there is huge public support for this.”

He called for Ofwat to bring in a full ban on shareholder dividends and bonuses for “these serial polluters”.

And he urged the Government to give full backing and additional resources to regulators and recognise that the privatisation of this most vital of industries has failed.

The fines come amid rising spills from storm overflow outlets, which are only supposed to be used in “exceptional circumstances” to prevent sewage backing up from drains in heavy rain, but which released untreated wastewater into England’s rivers and seas for more than 3.6 million hours last year.

Ofwat said the firms “failed to ensure that discharges of untreated wastewater from storm overflows occur only in exceptional circumstances, which has resulted in harm to the environment and their customers”.

Charles Watson, chairman and founder of campaign group River Action, said: “Last year sewage was discharged across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales more than 596,666 times.

“That’s over 1,600 times a day – and with many of these discharges being illegal, this situation is completely unacceptable.”

He said the regulator was “finally waking up to the scale of the public’s outrage” and starting to impose meaningful penalties, but said the £168 million was against a backdrop of more than £1.4 billion handed to shareholders in dividends last year.

“Until the ability of these polluting companies to hand out so much cash is severely curtailed, pollution will continue to be a highly profitable activity with inadequate incentives for the water companies to fix their creaking infrastructure and stop filling our rivers with raw sewage,” he said.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron said: “After years of inaction and failure under the last Conservative government, it is welcome to see the regulator finally impose proper fines.

“This should only be the start if these polluting firms are to clean up their act.

“We now need a ban on bonuses and an end to bumper profits on the industry.

“Sadly this is all a game of catch-up after Conservative ministers turned a blind eye to this environmental scandal.”

Tessa Wardley, from the Rivers Trust, said she was pleased to see Ofwat had acted on the results of their investigation into water companies.

“The figures cited in today’s announcement reveal the systematic issues within the water industry that we have long suspected, and it seems highly likely that there is more to come when investigations into the other eight water companies is concluded.

“As environmental advocates, and as water company customers, we must always demand higher standards, there is much more to be done to recover our rivers, however, let’s hope these fines help to drive better environmental performance by water and sewerage companies in the future,” she said.