As Britain’s rivers and seas continue to decay, threats to its citizens’ health increases

Joseph Arthur

Amidst war in Europe, an impending energy crisis and a newly appointed Prime Minister, one issue is flying dangerously under-the-radar within the UK – sewage dumping. However, the consequences of ignoring this issue are threatening to not only decay our oceans and seas to a point of no return, but also cause irreparable damage to human health.

While holidaying in Devon, an eight-year-old girl named Heather Preen died after contracting E. coli 0157, a deadly bacterium that invades a person’s gut and can lead to brain damage and kidney failure. An inquest into her death found the infection was likely caught from sewage discharged into the sea near the beach she was swimming in. This occurred over two decades ago, in the summer of 1999.

As recently as 2018, a study conducted by the University of Exeter found that individuals who regularly swim in the UK’s rivers and seas are three times for likely to have harmful bacteria like E. coli 0157 present in their gut.

Yet, despite the obvious health consequences, Surfers Against Sewage, the marine conservation charity established by concerned surfers, has found that water companies across the UK have been increasing their sewage dumping. SAS CEO Hugo Tagholm said that in 2021 there was “2.7million hours’ worth of sewage discharged into UK waterways across 370,000 separate sewage pollution events”.

According to SAS’s latest water quality report, 2021 saw sewage discharge notifications issued for bathing waters increase by 80% on the previous year; bathing waters being rivers, lakes and seas where people swim. Further, just 14% of UK rivers are currently rated as having ‘good’ ecological status, our bathwater is the worst in Europe and 75% of rivers tested posed a significant threat to human health.

This trend appears to have continued into 2022. The UK’s water industry regulator, Ofwat, will appear in the High Court later this week after being accused by environmental campaign group Wild Justice of ignoring its duty to protect the environment by allowing water companies to get away with undetected sewage spills.

Sewage dumped into domestic waterways flows directly into rivers, lakes and seas and has a devastating impact on the marine environments it compromises. Decades of sewage dumping has left these rivers and seas in a critical state, one that has been influencing the health of recreational water users like Heather Preen for decades.

Alex Ford, a University of Portsmouth researcher specialising in marine ecosystems and surfer said: “Put simply, recreational water users are more likely to get ill. If they’re in water when there’s been a storm and sewage has been discharged and left untreated, those swimmers are likely to get nose, throat and stomach infections.”

“I grew up surfing along the Welsh coastline and we were always told drink a can of Coke after we’d been in the water because the drink’s acidity supposedly kills any bugs in the stomach.

“It’s not just the surfers, but also the paddleboarders, wind surfers, fishermen, dog walkers and even tourists who could be at risk.”

In 2015, SAS partnered in developing an app, Safer Seas & Rivers Service, which notifies users when a body of water is safe to swim in. Last year, there was 5,000 occasions when the app notified a user not to swim due to the water being unsafe. Of the 365 days, 16% of ‘swimmable days’ were lost because of advice not to swim in sewage polluted water for 48 hours after a discharge. These discharges and storm water overflows were the biggest issues preventing swimming in 2021.

Despite the work of organisations like SAS, Ford believes a large segment of Britain is “blissfully unaware” that their waterways are flowing toxic chemicals into oceans and rivers. This neglect isn’t due to ignorance however, but in fact a lack of visible consequences.

He said: “A phenomenon I’m quite interested in is the fact that people can see the condoms, sanitary towels, wet wipes and nappies that end up on the shore; people seem outwardly bothered by this.”

“What they don’t see is the chemicals and sewage which might be more harmful for the marine environment and the wildlife, but because they’re invisible and dissolved in the water, people are unaware of the issue.”

Emily Saunders, a 22-year-old regional ambassador for SAS’s Devon chapter and a BSc graduate in ocean science and marine conservation currently completing an MA in environmental consultancy, has uncovered some frightening realities.

“We are at a critical point. I’ve seen it in both my research at university and throughout SAS’s water quality report but in layman’s terms, the ecological status of some of our rivers is falling to a point where some ecosystems are in a state where they can’t be preserved or restored in the future.”

“From where we are now, education and awareness are of the utmost importance. Even if you don’t live by the coast, you need to be exposed to the consequences of these threats and be taught how you can best help. The environment is an enormous part of everyone’s future.”