Last week, water companies responsible for polluting UK waters were once again let off the hook by the government, but a growing fightback from swimmers, surfers and environmentalists is gaining momentum. While global leaders met at COP26 in Glasgow, campaigners on the north Kent coast highlighted the ongoing issue of raw sewage being dumped into rivers and seas.
Andy Taylor, a local musician and environmentalist, has monitored the tidal brook beside the Swalecliffe wastewater treatment plant near Whitstable for 15 years. He pointed out overflow pipes that sometimes discharge untreated sewage directly into the stream. 'Some days you come down here and it’s fine... Other times it’s just dead and stinking, this nasty coffee colour,' he said. Taylor has documented eels, a protected species, floating lifeless on the water's surface after swimming thousands of miles from the Sargasso Sea.
Resident Jackie Kohler described how heavy rain causes tanks to overflow, sending sewage running down the road near her home. 'The kids have to use this bridge across the brook to get to school so residents have to come out and sweep it clean,' she said.
The brook was referenced in sentencing remarks by Mr Justice Johnson in July, following Southern Water's guilty plea to 51 counts of discharging untreated sewage into coastal waters over six years. The judge noted that untreated sewage was discharged for a total of 61,704 hours, with an estimated volume of 16-21 billion litres—equivalent to 7,400 Olympic-size swimming pools. Southern Water was fined a record £90 million, but the judge remarked that previous fines had not deterred offending behaviour.
The scandal reflects a nationwide problem: only 16% of English waterways are in good ecological health, and the UK ranks 25th out of 30 EU countries for coastal water quality. Between May and September this year, there were 200,000 outflows of raw sewage into bathing waters across the country. In response, community activism has grown, with a public meeting in Whitstable organised by MP Rosie Duffield leading to further protests by local groups such as the Bluetits sea swimmers.
