Anti-sewage campaigners hold 'walk and talk' with Wessex Water around Weymouth and Portland
Extinction Rebellion have hosted a public meeting
Extinction Rebellion say their concerns about sewage were ‘batted away’ when they met with the directors of Wessex Water.
Local clean water campaigners guided the water company’s decision-makers on a coastal walk around Weymouth and Portland.
Over the course of two-hours, campaigners highlighted the pollutants that they say are blighting local waterways and expressed the impact it was having on people’s health, wellbeing, tourism, fishing, leisure and wildlife.
Caz Dennett from Extinction Rebellion said: “We wanted to walk with them to show them what is at stake and I just don't feel that they felt anything was at stake.
“They didn’t even accept that there is any environmental impact from discharging sewage into our local waters and they hardly acknowledged that there is a public health impact to raw sewage being in bathing waters.”
Campaigners recently uncovered that there are more sewage outfalls around Weymouth and Portland than initially anticipated.
Only outfalls at designated bathing waters (8) were publicised on the Wessex Water website but Ms Dennett claims there are actually 18 sewage discharge sites in the area.
She said: “Sea water swimmers we speak to are concerned about their health and although Wessex Water say the bathing quality in Weymouth is excellent, if you look at how much data that is based on – four samples every year – I think it's disingenuous to say we've got excellent bathing water.”
Local sea-swimmer Val Graves added: “It has been quite a surprise to learn there are more sewage outfalls that discharge into Radipole Lake, Weymouth Harbour and Portland Harbour. This really impacts our local area, and for swimmers it is critical we know when sewage is present.”
A Wessex Water spokesperson assured us: “Water quality at designated bathing waters in Dorset is assessed by the Environment Agency and rated Excellent, including at Weymouth and Portland.
“Wessex Water was the first UK water company to provide overflow discharge alerts 365 days a year, with complete coverage of all bathing waters in our area, and we’ve provided this data for the Surfers Against Sewage app for more than 12 years.
“Although storm overflows are licensed by the Environment Agency and discharge mostly rainwater, we’re committed to reducing how often they operate and are investing £3 million every month on schemes to achieve this.”