Warning UK rivers are ‘toxic chemical soup’ as all now suffering from sewage | EUROtoday

All of the UK’s rivers at the moment are polluted with sewage, with campaigners warning of a “toxic chemical soup” in our waters.

Leading marketing campaign group Surfers Against Sewage is asking on the federal government and water corporations to sort out the problem, as new knowledge confirmed solely 40 per cent of rivers are deemed to be in good ecological well being.

According to the web site Top of the Poops, which collects info on sewage dumps, discovered there have been at the least 513,234 spills into rivers in 2024, lasting greater than 4 million hours.

Sewage can hurt wildlife and river ecosystems as a result of chemical substances, together with the whole lot from pharmaceutical medication to phosphates, getting into the water from sewage programs are poisonous. It can gasoline the speedy progress of algae, which may choke out different types of life by consuming all of the oxygen.

It will also be a supply of And coliwhich may trigger diarrhoea, abdomen cramps and fever when ingested by swimmers.

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Wessex Water was listed because the worst offender, with 5,221 sewage spills into the River Avon, which runs by means of the southwest of England between Bath and Bristol.

Other rivers with vital air pollution embody the River Trent with 3,186 spills final 12 months, in addition to the River Ouse in Yorkshire and the River Severn within the South West.

In Wales, the River Teifi endured 2,232 sewage spills by Dwr Cymru Welsh Water over 22,288 hours. Consistent dumps had been recorded in Cardigan Bay regardless of its reputation with swimmers, kayakers and its abundance of wildlife.

In its annual water high quality report, SAS recorded spills into Scotland’s rivers and lochs each 90 seconds final 12 months, with a scarcity of accuracy over its knowledge leaving folks not sure if it was protected to swim.

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The group stated that whereas the “missing data” means the true determine isn’t identified, it might have been as excessive as 364,629 discharges.

SAS chief government Giles Bristow advised The Independent: “Every time we test the water, we find a worse toxic chemical soup. It’s pharmaceuticals, toxins, sewage – it’s worse than we’ve feared, we can only describe it as a continued environmental degradation.

“We are the canaries in the coal mine. These are rivers and lakes that are poisoned with sewage, fungus and toxic chemicals.

“Nature does not have a chance, yet we pay these water companies to clear up these issues.”

SAS stated it acquired 1,853 illness experiences within the UK final 12 months, which it stated was the equal of 9 years’ value of sick days linked to sewage air pollution.

But it warned the true scale of illness was prone to be “far higher” as most individuals don’t report it.

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Kirsty Davies, neighborhood water high quality supervisor at Surfers Against Sewage: “Our rivers are in a dire state.

“People up and down the nation depend on our blue areas for his or her bodily and psychological wellbeing, however threat their well being every time they take a dip. This is unacceptable and all due to our profiteering water corporations, who deal with our rivers like open sewers.

“With the climate warming up and the official bathing season about to start out, increasingly folks will probably be flocking to the UK’s rivers and seashores to get pleasure from their pure magnificence.

“However, these waterways stay choked with sewage air pollution. Despite the federal government promising billions in additional funding to scrub up our waterways, we can not finish the sewage disaster till we see radical, systemic change and finish to air pollution for revenue.”