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The Latest Breaking News from Surfers Against Sewage

England’s sewage spills: why citizen scientists want to test for pollution themselves

Thousands of volunteers across England now regularly take out their own testing kits to study the levels of pollution in rivers and the sea.

The Conversation

Untreated sewage spilled into English rivers, seas and lakes once every two minutes in 2025

There were 291,492 sewage spills in 2025, a decrease from 2024’s figures

The Independent UK

Did polluted water cause my incurable illness? A surfer’s story

A shocking new Channel 4 drama, Dirty Business, exposes England’s water-company scandal. This is surfer Reuben Santer’s story

The Guardian - UK

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Dirty Business: Channel 4's answer to Mr Bates vs The Post Office uncovers the shocking truth behind Britain's sewage scandal

The Channel 4 dramatisation of the consequences of illegal sewage dumping is causing a much-needed reaction among viewers

Woman & Home

Channel 4’s Dirty Business is a clarion call to nationalise the water industry

As the drama shows, private firms no longer able to pollute the coast of England of Wales just switched to rivers instead

The Guardian - UK

Misery for many as rain falls for 40 days in some parts of UK

Persistent wet weather is affecting farmers, builders, sports, wildlife – and damaging roads and homes

The Guardian - UK

Fed-up swimmers take on the Thames in fight against water pollution and tell lawmakers it's a "national scandal"

Eight athletes took part in the mammoth swim in support of a Surfers Against Sewage campaign to clean up British rivers

Advnture

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Voices: ‘A system set up to fail?’ Readers say Ofwat should go – but can’t agree on whether water should be nationalised

YOUR VIEWS: Readers overwhelmingly support scrapping the regulator, but remain deeply divided over whether fixing the water industry means reforming regulation or returning it to public ownership

The Independent UK

Voices: The Cunliffe report on our failing water industry will make a splash

COMMENT: There is much to recommend in Sir Jon Cunliffe’s 88-point plan, says Sean O’Grady – not least that it paves the way for the utility to be brought back into public hands

The Independent UK

Thousands meet with MPs in Westminster for mass lobby on climate action

Campaigners, school children and grandparents were among those calling for MPs to give the crisis the ‘precedence it needs’.

The Independent UK

Interim water review ‘not the finishing line’ to fix failures, campaigners warn

The independent commission said the water sector in England and Wales needs a ‘fundamental reset’ as it published the interim report on Tuesday.

Evening Standard

What is the UK's sewage scandal?

What drove thousands to a paddling protest this weekend? And could your trip to the local lido be cut short by spilled sewage?

Evening Standard

Thousands turn out for paddle out protests over ‘sewage scandal’

People take to beaches, rivers and lakes to call for reform of water industry

The Independent UK

‘My husband went surfing and had to take three days off work’ - Over half of Britons fear swimming in UK waters will make them sick

Sewage was discharged over half a million times into UK waters in 2024, for around 4.7 million hours

The Independent UK

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The Independent UK

Warning UK rivers are ‘toxic chemical soup’ as all now plagued by sewage

Sewage spilled into our rivers 513,234 times last year for more than 4 million hours

The Independent UK

‘I spent five days in hospital’: Surge in swimmers falling ill from polluted UK waters

Diseases such as dysentry and Weil’s disease have led to swimmers and surfers becoming seriously unwell

The Guardian - UK

Water companies’ pollution incidents in England increased by 30% in 2024

The sector, which had been set a target to reduce spillages by 40%, needs ‘radical reform’, campaigners say

The Independent UK

‘I needed heart surgery after swimming in polluted water’: Health warning as sewage spills reach decade-high

As a result of sewage pollution, 331 people have seen a doctor with chest infections and gastroenteritis and some were hospitalised

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Evening Standard

Water pollution in England at 10-year high, campaigners warn

Firms were collectively set a target of a 40% reduction in pollution incidents but instead recorded a 30% increase, Surfers Against Sewage said

The Independent UK

Water pollution across UK surged by nearly a third and highest in decade

Only a third of survey respondents believe their supplier will take the necessary steps to address water pollution

Evening Standard

More than 68,000 sewage spills across Britain so far this year, say campaigners

Surfers Against Sewage have launched a new data hub with real-time information on sewage overflows.

Evening Standard

Anger over water bills hike which campaigners say will not solve sewage crisis

Clean water campaigners describe settlement for water companies as a ‘travesty’ and ‘nightmare before Christmas’ for customers.

The Guardian - UK

The best Christmas gifts for swimmers in the UK, from swim socks to snorkels

Here’s what everyone from top-level coaches to year-round ocean-dippers told us they’d love to unwrap on Christmas Day

The Guardian - UK

Revealed: the ‘catastrophic scale’ of sewage spills in England and Wales

Water companies have logged five sewage spills a day, every day, for a decade, analysis by the Observer shows

The Independent UK

Thousands gather across UK to demand clean rivers, beaches and lakes

Protesters call for an end to sewage discharges into all bathing and high-priority nature sites by 2030

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