SAS campaigners starred in this weeks shocking BBC 1 Panorama programme ‘Britain’s Dirty Beaches’. The programme showed the nation SAS’s exclusive footage of raw sewage discharging into rivers and bathing waters. This is a scene that is replicated in rivers, seas and bathing waters all over the country after heavy rain.

It was the most watched Panorama programme of the year and really hit a nerve across the country. The response we have received since Panorama aired has been fantastic, a mixture of shock at the previously hidden primitive methods of regular sewage disposal and gratitude to SAS for helping Panorama highlight this disgusting practice.

If you missed the programme you can watch it here until the 14th of September. It will also be available for 12 months on the Panorama website. Take our advice and don’t watch it whilst eating – it’s enough to turn your stomach.

Always ahead of the game, at the start of the 2009 bathing season SAS launched the pollution incident report form, giving you the information and tools to log any suspected pollution incident with SAS and the Environment Agency (EA). This is still live on our website and we encourage all our supporters to remain on the alert.

In response to SAS’s Panorama programme the EA have unveiled their new ‘Clean Seas Forum’, inviting surfers, farmers and NGOs to inform the EA on problem bathing waters. SAS will of course be involved. So if you want us to take your concerns about your local bathing water to the forum please let us know on [email protected] or 01872 555 952. We will be calling on the EA for better public information and already have some innovative ideas we are now hoping will receive a welcoming reception.

Finally, we would like to thank the Panorama team for helping SAS get the CSO issue on the public agenda. However, we must maintain the pressure on the water companies and regulators to keep this critical issue on the public health agenda until the system provides clean and safe water for all our supporters. Please use our pollution incident report system and contact Panorama with any concerns to help us collect the evidence for an even harder hitting follow-up on this polluting practice.