Surfers Against Sewage: Water Quality Report

Client: Surfers Against Sewage

Sewage pollution is blighting UK waterways, decimating ecosystems and causing harmful impacts to human health. Despite rising public outrage, the government is dragging its feet, allowing profiteering water companies to wreak havoc on our beloved rivers and seas.

In November 2022, Surfers Against Sewage unveiled groundbreaking new data exposing potentially illegal activity by water companies in the form of ‘dry spills’ –sewage discharges taking place when there hasn’t been any rainfall. These stomach-churning statistics were released to coincide with official event duration monitoring data from the Environment Agency as a result of a carefully planned Freedom of Information request. The data was brought to life in an interactive microsite, enabling readers to learn about the wider systemic issues as well as exploring the health of their local blue spaces, interspersed by compelling personal stories from people who had become seriously ill after swimming to illustrate the very real impacts of this incessant pollution. Thanks to the launch of the report, sewage pollution was pushed to the top of the news agenda, stimulating widespread conversations across media and social media. It even reached the corridors of power, with Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord raising the findings in Parliament following a briefing by SAS and calling for immediate action from the government.