Two thirds of Brits fear sea is too filthy to swim in: Campaign group 38 Degrees leads calls for the next government to take action.

Veronica Hawking, Campaigns Director at 38 Degrees discusses the extent of sewage pollution in our waterways.

Transcript

00:00You know, we feel passionately about the fact that our waters, our seas and our rivers should

00:07be clean. We should all be able to go to the Great British Seaside and be able to paddle

00:12or swim if we want. But sadly, that just simply isn't the case for too many of us. We've done

00:17research recently that shows two-thirds of the British public feel that the sea is too

00:22filthy to swim in.

00:24Recently, 38 Degrees toured traditional seaside resorts in an ice cream van covered in poo

00:30emojis. They handed out what they called sewage Sundays in a bid to highlight how the traditions

00:37of the Great British holiday are being spoilt by sewage.

00:42We wanted to do something really eye-catching around the election to get this issue into

00:45the spotlight. So we hired an ice cream van, we wrapped it in our lovely poo emoji wrap.

00:53It wasn't really sewage flavoured, it was lovely, normal ice cream. Lots of people

00:57were taking the opportunity to sign the petition. It was just an eye-catching way to try and

01:02educate more people about the issue and firmly get it onto politicians' agendas.

01:08As part of a long-running campaign to clean up our waters, 38 Degrees is calling on whichever

01:14party forms the next government to pledge to holding polluting water companies properly

01:20accountable. It's a campaign that has been massively popular, with tens of thousands

01:26of people signing their petition.

01:28At the moment, water companies are far too often, far too regularly, far more than they're

01:34meant to, discharging waste into our rivers and seas and they're getting away with it.

01:39So we feel that enough is enough and we feel really strongly that whoever forms the next

01:43government, they must take action against water companies to hold them to account for

01:49this, to make sure that they're following the rules, to fine them if they're not and

01:53if they still don't continue to clean up their mess, then to take the water companies into

01:57public ownership.