All in on ending sewage pollution
Our new 2026-2030 strategy is here
We’re going all in on ending sewage pollution
Water companies dump raw sewage into the UK’s seas, rivers and lakes more than a thousand times a day. People are getting seriously sick from using the water they love, and in England and Wales, the private companies responsible are profiting from this pollution.
For a long time, this felt like something that would never change. Now it can.
Public anger has reached a point no government can ignore. Water bosses now face criminal liability for covering up pollution, and new laws are on the table that could transform the broken privatised water industry for good. That didn’t happen by chance. It came from the fight we’ve waged together: every petition you signed, every paddle-out you joined and every email you sent a water company boss.
What we do with this moment matters. The decisions made in the next few years will decide whether our waters get cleaner or whether the industry is permitted to carry on as before. Moments like this don’t stay open for long, and we’re not going to let it pass.
Going all in
So over the next four years, we’re putting everything we have into ending sewage pollution of the UK’s waters. Our strategy for 2026 to 2030 sets out how.
Our main focus is systemic reform of the broken water industry. The Clean Water Bill is due to make its way through parliament, and it could fundamentally shape how water in England and Wales is owned, regulated and policed for decades. We’ll be pushing to make sure it delivers a system that puts public health ahead of profit, a regulator with real teeth and penalties that polluters actually feel. The lessons from this fight will feed into our battles across all four corners of the UK.
Alongside that, we’re campaigning for more bathing waters and stronger protection for them, because designation is one of the few tools that legally forces polluters to clean up specific places. In Lyme Regis, local campaigners won back protection for Church Cliff Beach, and their water company is now locked into a clean-up plan. We want that to be possible for every community.
Focusing like this means stepping back from our plastic pollution campaigning for this strategy period. That wasn’t an easy decision, because of how urgent the plastic crisis is and the strength of our movement on plastic. Across the UK, the amazing SAS community has taken on single-use plastic in hundreds of towns, villages and cities, and brought thousands of local businesses with them. Tens of thousands of volunteers have picked, counted and logged every bottle and wrapper, and turned that data into Brand Audits that named the companies behind the problem. Supporters have also driven our national campaigning, holding government and industry to account, from years of pressure for a Deposit Return Scheme to calling for a strong Global Plastics Treaty. That was your work, and it made a real difference.
So we’re not stepping back because plastic stopped mattering, or because the work didn’t count. But for a charity our size, spreading ourselves across several fights means winning less of each one. With so much now within reach on sewage, this is where our full weight needs to be.
Evidence that holds power to account
Winning a new law is one thing. Making sure it actually cleans up our waters is another. So we’re investing more in data and evidence: expanding our citizen science, digging deeper into water company and regulator figures, and finding new ways to show what’s really happening. Million Mile Clean will continue too, growing into a broader way for communities to take on whatever threatens their local waters. All of that evidence will hold polluters to account, and government too, so the changes it makes deliver cleaner water rather than just good headlines.
Our Safer Seas & Rivers Service app is at the heart of this. Half a million people already use it to check the water before they get in. It will stay a vital public tool, and it’s becoming more than that: a way into the movement for new campaigners, and a source of hard data that makes our demands impossible to dismiss.
Photo credit: Mat Arney
One movement
Until now, SAS supporters have been organised around individual campaigns, and together we’ve had some stunning successes. But when our community is split across different campaigns, our power is split too. Our decision to focus on one fight at a time means it’s time to bring everyone together into one connected movement. When we all move together, on the same fight at the same time, polluters and politicians will feel the full weight of it.
The next generation
Young people don’t need persuading that our waters are in trouble. Many are already angry, already organising and already online. And they have the most at stake: the decisions made in the next few years will shape the water they swim, surf and paddle in for the rest of their lives. Ending sewage pollution won’t happen overnight, and the young people who join us now will be the ones leading this fight in the years to come. They’ll also bring the fresh energy, ideas and skills our movement needs to grow.
So over the next four years, we’re doing much more to bring them into the SAS movement and the fight. One part of that is a new Youth Campaigner Initiative for 16 to 25 year olds, shaped by a paid Youth Advisory Panel who’ll have a real say in where it goes.
Every corner of the UK
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own water laws, ownership models and politics. Water is privately owned in England, primarily run on a not-for-profit basis in Wales, and publicly owned in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Every one of those systems is still letting sewage into our waters, and each needs a different fight to fix it. Over this strategy period, we’re stepping up our presence across all four nations, giving campaigners wherever they live the backing to win locally and pushing for change that fits their own system.
Still SAS
Some things aren’t changing. SAS’s uniquely fearless campaigning approach, our passion for the water and our fun-loving energy are at the centre of our new strategy, alongside our single-minded focus on winning this fight. We’ll continue to aim big and say things straight. We’ll be clear about what we’re fighting for. And we’ll keep having fun doing it, cutting polluters down to size with parody and pisstakes, and getting in the water, because we simply LOVE IT. A movement that enjoys itself is one that keeps going.
We’ll also stay independent. We don’t take money from polluters, and we never will.
What this means for you
It means a stronger, more focused SAS, more determined than ever, with everything we have going into ending sewage pollution. Every hour of campaigning, every pound you give and every action you take will be aimed at the fight where it can make the biggest difference.
It also means your voice counts for more. As we bring our community together into one movement, you’ll hear from us when it matters most, with clear asks and a real sense of what your action is achieving. Whether you sign petitions, paddle out, test your local water or clean your local beach, you’re part of the same fight.
By 2030 we want a Clean Water Act that works, a regulator polluters fear, more of our waters properly protected, and a movement bigger and stronger than ever. We can’t get there without you. Read the full strategy to see how, and bring someone with you.
The more of us there are, the louder we get, and together, we’ll uncrap our seas.