Following 1 of the hottest summers on record, which saw families flock to the Island’s beaches, new data has revealed 13 seaside hotspots across the Island as having ‘excellent’ bathing water quality.
Beaches at Cowes, East Cowes, Seagrove, St Helens, Bembridge, Whitecliff Bay, Yaverland, Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, Compton Bay, Totland Bay and Colwell Bay have all been classed as excellent, with just 2 Island beaches – Gurnard and Ryde – ranked as ‘good’.
Across the 84 bathing waters that Southern Water governs, 79 have been ranked as Excellent or Good by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Southern Water has invested more than £32million in improving bathing waters in the past 5 years including major programmes in Worthing, Sussex and Shanklin.
The full map and details of specific details about the ranking is available here – https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/
Toby Willison, Southern Water’s Director of Quality and Environment, said:
“We play our part in improving the standard of bathing waters, through major investments in treatment works along our 700 miles of coast – and we are working hard to extend our efforts and partnerships with other agencies to make an even bigger positive impact.
“Customers rightly expect the water industry to eliminate the use of storm overflows, and we are developing our own plans to tackle this issue, while continuing to protect people’s homes from flooding.
Article continues below this advertisement “And while we have an important role to play in enhancing and maintaining water quality, there are a wide range of pollutions which have an impact – contaminated rainwater running off roads and agricultural land, wastewater from privately owned treatment works, boats and animals on the beach such as dogs and seabirds, and the overall steep rise in bathing water users all play a part. That’s why it is so important for all parties to work together.”
Southern Water’s Cleaner Seas and Rivers Taskforce is leading the industry in exploring engineering and nature-based solutions to ‘slow the flow’ of excess rainwater into sewers, which leads to overflows permitted by the Environment Agency.
Anyone else confused about this story. Self congratulatory pat on the back by Southern Water when just last summer we were warned not to swim at these beaches because of the raw sewerage they pumped out. What did they do – test the water the day before they pumped it out this time? These people make me sick – we all know they are destroying our beaches and sea and yet they think just by giving themselves awards we will accept it. Makes my blood boil.
Yep. Anyone swimming in the sea these days needs their head examining
To many people on this little Island of ours.
The water has got to go somewhere.
So last week the echo was reporting the endless contamination and this week all is well. Talk about joined up reporting! Thus is simply reprinting a press release.
Ok there may have been fewer releases during the drought but we know southern waters reporting is under independent review for dodgy data. And we know a great deal of self reporting is allowed.