Harbour paddle protest calls for end to sewage pollution

Bristol paddlers will join a national movement of people taking to the water on Saturday to protest the continuing issue of sewage polluting water courses.

The Paddle-Out Protest is part of a national day of events to highlight the pollution crisis and call for total reform of the water industry following a 30 per cent increase in sewage spillage incidents by English water companies last year, despite the Environment Agency setting targets for a 40 per cent reduction.

Sewage was discharged over half a million times into UK waters in 2024 amounting to 4.7 million hours of spillage, the highest volume of incidents recorded in a decade.

Private water companies reportedly returned £1.2bn in dividends to their shareholders in the same period.

Environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), who are coordinating the day of action on Saturday, May 17 to mark the official start of the bathing season in England and Wales, say the sector should be reformed to place environmental and public health over profit.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for real reform,” Bristol SAS member Karlie Evans said. “People in Bristol and across the UK are fed up with pollution in our waterways. We’re coming together, on boards, boats, or from the shore, to demand an end to this scandal.”

Bristol SAS members took part in a beach clean at Weston earlier this year as part of the Million Miles Clean initiative to tackle plastic pollution, the biggest of its kind in the UK – photo: Bristol SAS

The Bristol event, one of more than 40 planned across the country, will begin at Baltic Wharf at 10.30am.

Speakers including Meg Avon, the poet who became the wife of the river in 2023 and features in the Rave on for the Avon film currently touring nationally, will rally the community around the campaign for clean waters.

The protest will then take to the water in a mass paddle from Baltic Wharf to the Arnolfini. Water-based protesters must register to take part.

“We are more than surfers, more than sewage,” the Bristol group said. “We’re calling on all environmentalists and water lovers across the UK to join us on the Harbour and paddle in protest.

“People from all corners of Bristol must come together to show the polluters the tidal wave of support there is backing an end to sewage pollution.”

SAS has developed a free app with real time pollution updates to allow water users to check safety before swimming.

The charity was also behind the campaign for an Independent Water Commission, which is currently reviewing its evidence before making recommendations to government on water industry reform in England and Wales.

“The Commission must deliver what the public demands,” said SAS CEO Giles Bristow. “If the government settles for the status quo, history will keep repeating itself and we will never end sewage pollution.

“The people paddling out in Bristol are part of a groundswell of ocean activists across the UK letting the water companies, government and Independent Water Commission know, loud and clear, that we will not settle for yet another year of risking our health to swim in the sea.

“People should be free to use the water without fear of getting sick.

“We cannot keep chucking good money down the drain to service debt, dividends and dodgy bosses, whilst the deluge of sewage discharges contaminates our wild waters and the ocean. The time for tinkering around the edges of a broken system is long gone.

“This year’s Paddle-Out Protests will show those in power that the public are watching and will not let up until public health and the environment is prioritised over profit.”

SAS is urging people to email their MP calling for transformational reform of the water industry in England and Wales, and increased transparency and monitoring of water quality in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Find details of the Bristol protest here or email bristolsurfersagainstsewage@gmail.com

Main image: Elliott Glynn

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