End Sewage Pollution Coalition Call For a Public Inquiry
Across the UK, there were at least 604,833 discharges in 2023. In England alone, untreated sewage was discharged for 3.6 million hours.
Ending the sewage scandal formed a central part of the parties’ election campaigns and was a key issue for voters. The new UK government has a clear mandate to take action to deliver on this public priority. With a new government freshly in post following a general election where sewage pollution was a key issue for voters, there is a real opportunity to finally turn the tide on sewage pollution.
But we need the government to go beyond tinkering with the system. We want the UK Government to tackle the systemic issue and launch a public inquiry to delivery transformational reform of the water sector.
That’s why we’ve joined environmental charities, sports governing bodies and community groups to create the priorities for a new government.
Created by water lovers united by an ambition to deliver thriving water environments, the priorities sets out what we need from a new Government to deliver an end to sewage pollution once and for all.
Read the Priorities for a New Government
Read the priorities for a new government in fullThe Coalition - Who we are
FAQs
Over the past few years, there has been a groundswell of public interest and outrage on the state of our waterways and the daily discharge of untreated sewage into rivers and seas. To tackle this, we have seen statements from politicians and Party’s across the political spectrum but we want them to go beyond vague promises.
The priorities for a new government does the legwork for politicians and sets out how they can help to End Sewage Pollution. With the coalitions guidance, politicians can put an end to the problem.
We know that with a broken sewage system, we need transformational reform to the way it currently works. A review will help the new government to develop a new system to deal with sewage, removing the rot from the roots rather than tinkering around the edges.
The priorities represents water lovers and water users across the UK. We have worked together to ensure the calls are representative of a wide range of audiences and tackle the issues they face in their local areas. We are surfers, swimmers, yachters, nature lovers and more. To find the full list of groups backing the plans, take a look at the plan in full here.
With a brand new government, committed to tacking sewage pollution, we must show the people in power that we believe there is a way to End Sewage Pollution and that groups representing all types of people can point to and agree on the solutions we need.
Joining our voices together will amplify the calls we are making and show the strength and belief in the solutions we need to ensure the people in power take note and act on our calls.
We are using the priorities to call from the beaches to the frontbenches. This is not about politics but the hundreds of sewage discharges happening into waterways on a daily basis and the power the new government has to solve the crisis. Supporting the plan is campaigning for the health of your local waterway and the future health of people and planet.
There are many ways you can support the campaign. First – read the priorities! Get to know its calls and understand the solutions to the problems you face. We at HQ are already starting the campaign by holding conversations with politicians from as many parties as possible to encourage them to support the plans.
And you can help too by reaching out to your local MP and telling them why you support the plan. You can use our email template here.
Over the next few months we will be developing tools to help people and communities to speak to their MP’s in more detail and ask them to back the campaign in the Governments first 100 days in power. So, watch this space for me info and sign up to our newsletter here.