Fury as ‘Santa’ protest at UK beach cancelled because of pollution | UK | News
A campaign group said the “irony was not lost” after they were forced to cancel a protest against pollution due to sewer discharge. The Santas Swim Against the Sewers event was planned for this week at Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth by Cornwall-based Surfers Against the Sewers but hit a major hitch at the last minute. Protesters decided to cancel the plans after South West Water (SWW) released storm runoff into the sea, making it potentially dangerous for people to go inside.
A spokesperson for the group told Cornwall Live: “Unfortunately, we couldn’t swim due to South West Water dumping the sewage! Not forgetting the irony. We decided to continue the protest anyway and gathered a lovely little group on the shoreline to demand SWW clean up their act.”
SWW agreed to pay £24 million for wastewater leaks earlier this year after it was judged to have failed in its legal obligations to have its treatment works and network managed by water company Ofwat.
The firm said this week’s runoff in Falmouth was caused by heavy rainfall that triggered storm flooding “in line with its permits.”
Jasmine Boniface, a 20-year-old university student who attended the protest at the beach, told the BBC: “We were planning to go out in the sea and defend the fact that a lot of people use the water, and we needed to be able to show how we felt about cargo and sewage being pumped in here and making it unsafe.”
“It’s ironic that we found out we couldn’t even get into the water to protest.”
Fellow student Verity Jones, 21, added: “It really proves why we’re here. It’s scary and shocking but at the same time no one was really shocked because that’s why we’re here.”
SWW, which serves 1.8 million customers in southwest England, was found to be the biggest culprit of sewage discharge into shellfish waters last year, accounting for 13,000 leaks spanning 98,000 hours.
Last May, nearly 17,000 customers were warned to boil their water before drinking it after more than 50 cases of cryptosporidium, a parasite linked to animal feces.
A spokesman said it had begun installing a new rainwater storage tank under the Gyllyngvase Beach car park, which would “significantly reduce” the use of storm floods. They also described the overflows as “essential pressure relief valves” that prevent waste from accumulating in homes and public spaces during bad weather.
“We are serious about reducing the use of storm floods, but change on this scale takes time, ambition and greater investment,” they added.
