Sewage

This is SAS’s core campaign protecting the health of recreational water users from sewage polluted water.

Scientific studies have consistently highlighted that those using beaches, lakes or rivers forsports are most at risk of falling sick from an illness associated with sewage polluted water. In some cases this risk is 3 times greater than your typical bather because sports like surfing involve more immersion and ingestion of water.

Despite SAS’s success at virtually eliminating continuous sewage outfalls there are some notable brown spots’ across the country where raw sewage is still discharged on a daily basis and these areas are subject to current SAS campaigning. The main examples of this are in Brighton, Guernsey, The Thames and Northern Ireland.

We are also seeking improvements to the combined sewer overflow (CSOs) systems that pollute recreational waters all too ferquently, usually after heavy rainfall.

The way water companies plan their investment programmes also requires major attention. Much of the current investment has ignored or disregarded the impacts of climate change, in particular changing weather patterns that will result in increased flows of water into and out of the sewage works without treatment because there is not enough capacity to store the sewage. It is therefore discharged through CSO’s. More pollution incidents are expected because of this and that means more time out of the water for the likes of YOU and US!