Thousands of protesters will take to coasts and rivers across the UK this Saturday (18th May) to protest against the state of the nation’s waterways, with 1 such protest taking place in Gurnard. The protests have been coordinated by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), who are calling for an end to the sewage discharges plaguing the UK’s rivers and seas, as sewage overflows continue to have a devastating impact on ecological and human health. Over 30 protests are set to take place at local beaches and rivers, spanning locations from Cornwall to Edinburgh. Flagship protests are taking place at West Pier in Brighton and at Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth, with Olympian and keen paddle-boarder Dame Kelly Holmes set to join protesters on the south coast. Here on the Island, a paddle out is setting off from The Green at Gurnard from 11:00. Chani, Courtney Volunteer Regional Rep for Surfers Against Sewage:
“We deserve clean seas, Southern Water have invested and done trails with their Pathfinder project. We now need to see these measures with full scale roll out and no delays not only from Southern Water, but from the Environment Agency, DEFRA and the Isle of Wight Council. With over 38. 648 hours when the combined sewage overflows were discharging into our seas last year we need better solutions to manage our water. “Last year had over 273% more rainfall than the long-term average, but these exceptional circumstances will only increase with climate change. We are the custodians of our waters and need to demand action to ensure our marine ecosystems and our health are not detrimentally affected by sewage pollution. Please stand with me at this day of national protest and be heard”
Water companies have proposed plans for £11 billion in investment for reducing sewage discharges for this period, with customer bills increasing in tandem – a move that has sparked outrage among the public, particularly in the context of the profits paid out to water company bosses and shareholders year on year. According to analysis by the Financial Times, water companies in England and Wales paid out £2.5bn in dividends in the two financial years since 2021 and a total of more than £78bn in dividends in the 33 years since privatisation. In 2023, there were 584,001 recorded discharges across England, Scotland and Wales – a 51% increase on the previous year – with sewage released into waterways for a total of 12,966,322 hours. Of the 11 water companies with monitoring in place, United Utilities was the worst offender, reporting 97,537 discharges in 2023. Yorkshire Water and Severn Trent Water were hot on its heels, reporting 77,761 and 60,253 discharges respectively. The Environment Agency boasts that 100% of storm overflows in England are now fitted with monitoring devices. However, analysis of this year’s Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) data by SAS has revealed that EDM monitors at 1,930 storm overflows, 13.3% of the total monitored overflows, are operating at less than 90% capacity – which means the discharge figures for England in 2023 are an underestimate.
Nevermind, keep building hundreds more houses. More run off, more sewage…..
nothing will change ..funny £11 billion..just for starters guess whos paying that..US