91Èȱ¬

Eleven water companies in England and Wales have been ordered to pay fines for interruptions to water supply, pollution and buildings being flooded by sewers.

Ofwat is an organisation which makes sure water companies do their job properly looked at whether they had met targets and followed the rules.

It has ordered the water companies which failed to follow rules to give some money back to their customers.

The decision comes after water companies were found to be releasing untreated raw sewage into rivers during periods of heavy rain.

Almost £150 million will be taken from suppliers and returned to customers.

Thames Water and Southern Water were found to have performed the worst and have been told to return almost £80 million.

On Monday the government said water companies that dump sewage in rivers and seas will face fines of up to £250 million.

The Environment Secretary Ranil Jayawardena also wrote to water company bosses asking them to outline how they will improve environmental performance.

Ofwat's review also comes after a period of drought when many water companies bought in hosepipe bans to try and conserve water.

David Black, chief executive of Ofwat for England and Wales, said: "When it comes to delivering for their customers, too many water companies are falling short, and we are requiring them to return around £150m to their customers.

"We expect companies to improve their performance every year, where they fail to do so we will hold them to account."

Ofwat also noted that water companies may increase the amount of money they charge customers for water, so that they can get some of the money back that they will lose through these fines.