Protests over water firms dumping sewage in rivers

The Report Desk

Published: April 24, 2022, 07:46 PM

Protests over water firms dumping sewage in rivers

Thousands of people have taken to rivers and waterways to protest against water companies dumping sewage in them.

Anglian Water admitted dumping raw sewage 389 times last year for more than 4,000 hours in the River Stour.
Hundreds turned up to protest against Southern Water in Worthing.

The day of action, organised by the charity Surfers Against Sewage, involves 12 protests across the UK, BBC reports.

Campaigners also gathered on Fistral Beach, Newquay as part of the action coordinated by Surfers Against Sewage.
A river sample in Manningtree showed high levels of E.coli.

In Manningtree, Essex, wild swimmers marched and dressed up in mermaid and giant poo costumes by the River Stour.

Lots of children who enjoy swimming in the River Stour got involved in the Manningtree protest.
People protesting in Manningtree say they love swimming in the river there but they are worried about how clean it is.

Anglian Water, which admitted it dumped sewage in the river 389 times last year, said it was investing millions of pounds to rectify the "historic issue".

Manningtree has a wild swimming group with more than 100 members who are very passionate about water quality.
In Belfast they protested against the Northern Ireland Water company.

Water companies discharged raw sewage into British rivers 372,533 times last year, for a total of more than 2.6m hours, according to data from the Environment Agency.

Protesters in the Warleigh Weir, near Bath campaigned against Wessex Water.
Wild swimmers in Manningtree dressed up as mermaids to protest against Anglian Water.

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: "Data from our 2021 monitoring programme tells us our performance continues to improve, and the increasing visibility we have of combined sewer overflow (CSO) activity gives us even more opportunities to act faster in the areas where we can have most environmental benefit.

Link copied!