Regional representative hosts protest following Surfers Against Sewage water quality report release

Transcript

00:00 So today we're here just by the sundial in Plymouth which is quite a sort of

00:10 landmark for us and we engage with the public to get their opinion as to what

00:16 they're thinking about the ongoing sewage crisis. We have them have a guess

00:21 as to how many litres and how much pollution goes into our rivers and

00:27 seas every day. We're engaging with kids. We generally want to raise awareness

00:33 about the ongoing sewage pollution crisis in this country.

00:38 Our annual water quality report is something that every year focuses on

00:47 slightly different aspects of water quality and water pollution. In this

00:51 year's water quality report we took a specific focus on the four nations so

00:56 there's a big part not just about England but also Wales, Scotland and

01:00 Northern Ireland in it. When it comes to England there's a lot of focus on river

01:06 pollution and we commissioned some citizen scientists who analysed water

01:12 quality in bathing sites on riversides and we found some quite shocking results

01:16 where 60% of those test results showed that there's actually not even safe to

01:23 swim in those bathing areas on riversides. So it's an area that we're

01:28 now growing into and also want to want to cover not just sea bathing sites but

01:34 also river bathing sites.

01:37 I personally myself I'm from South East Cornwall. I live just next to Seton

01:48 Beach and we've been out in the summer and we focused on the sewage pollution

01:53 there. The Seton River some people might know some people might not is the most

01:57 sewage polluted river in all of Cornwall. It's something that we've been trying to

02:02 highlight all this time and normally we have some of our paddle outs and

02:08 some of our going into the sea itself. Today we're out in the middle of a city

02:13 in Plymouth. Plymouth is the nearest city for us in Cornwall, in South East

02:18 Cornwall and so yeah we're here now to engage with the public and ask them some

02:24 questions. I started with Surfs Against Sewage about a year and a half ago

02:31 because I got really angry about the ongoing water pollution and that not

02:36 enough is being done about this. So I'm still feeling quite angry but at least I

02:41 can I have an outlet I can actually do something. So I protest in the water, I

02:45 protest in the city, I've speak to lots of people discussing the issue, I've been

02:49 discussing the issue with Southwest Water itself so it's something that's

02:53 really dear to my heart and at the same time I'm angry, I'm annoyed but I'm also

02:58 hopeful for the future.