Bath-headquartered Wessex Water has been urged to do more to stop sewage discharges into rivers and waterways in the face of growing public anger over the issue.
Charity Surfers Against Sewage, which monitors how discharges impact water quality, says research it commissioned confirms its call for tougher regulations.
It also claims public backing for its aim of stopping bosses of water companies that fail to adhere to minimum environmental standards from claiming bonuses.
According to a survey carried out by the Cornwall-based charity, 68% of those questioned said the government should be doing more to tackle sewage pollution, while 83% thought regulators needed to do more to make sure water companies reduce it.
Some 85% of people in the South West supported a ban on bonuses for CEOs if their firms failed to meet environmental standards, while trust in Wessex Water was “at rock bottom” Surfers Against Sewage said, with just 21% of adults confident that it was using their money to improve services.
The research findings have been released just weeks after data from water companies and the Environment Agency revealed that sewage was dumped into rivers and seas in England, Scotland and Wales just under 400,000 times last year – despite 2022 being one of the driest years in decades.
Last year, Surfers Against Sewage found evidence of 143 ‘dry spills’ – sewage overflows that occurred when there had been no rain for two days – indicating potentially illegal activity by water companies. The charity is calling for an end to sewage discharges into UK bathing waters and a 90% reduction in sewage discharges by 2030.
It also said its survey results showed water quality was likely to affect the way people voted, with 35% of respondents in the South West saying environmental issues were the most important factor in yesterday’s local elections. Among these, 75% said they cared about water pollution the most.
Surfers Against Sewage head of communications Josh Harris said: “Last year water companies paid out a combined £1bn to their shareholders while dumping sewage into UK waterways almost 400,000 times.
“It’s time to put an end to this shameless profiteering. Water companies should not be allowed to profit from pollution, and our data shows that the public agree, with a huge majority calling for an end to industry fat cats pocketing bonuses whilst failing to meet minimum environmental standards.
“And it’s not just the water companies that need to clean up their act. The government and regulators should be enforcing high standards and holding water companies to account, but it’s clear to the public that they’re not doing enough.
“We’ve suffered decades of broken sewers because of our broken system, and now the public have had enough and are demanding an to end this sewage scandal.”
Surfers Against Sewage is seeking to convert public outrage into action by staging a mass paddle-out protest against sewage pollution, featuring simultaneous events at beaches and rivers across the UK on Saturday 20 May, including at Warleigh Weir on the River Avon, near Bath.
Claverton Down-headquartered Wessex Water, which is owned by YTL Power International, part of the Malaysian conglomerate YTL, supplies water and sewage services to 2.8m customers across an area of 10,000 sq km stretching from Bath and Wiltshire to Bristol, Somerset, Dorset and parts of Gloucestershire.
The firm’s £1.4bn capital investment programme for 2020 to 2025 is its largest ever and includes making improvements to its infrastructure and supporting the environment.
It says through this investment, it aims to generate economic growth, accommodate new development, increase the resilience of its services, enhance river quality and reduce pollution.
Pictured, top: ‘The Floater’, a surfboard made using raw sewage by Cornwall-based product designer Niall Jones to highlight the extent of sewage pollution in the UK’s seas and rivers
