Crowdfunder goes live for testing of local sea waters

Faced with the dumping of raw sewage in the sea by Southern Water, and the Environment Agency’s inadequate testing regime, Hastings and St Leonards Clean Water Action have launched a crowdfunder to pay for independent tests in the winter months. HOT’s Chris Connelley dips his toe into murky waters.

The furore over the pollution of our coastal waters has been raging for months now, following revelations last autumn that a number of water companies, including Southern Water, who serve the Hastings area, had been routinely discharging tons of raw sewage into the sea water used by many local swimmers – the company was given a record £90m fine for its transgressions.

A major sewage leak at Bulverhythe last July, which led to the flooding of beach huts and the closure of the beach, prompted sizeable protests which generated national television coverage.

The already febrile mood was ramped up last month on discovery that Southern Water didn’t pay any corporation tax last year, despite having made operating profits of £213m, which it used to service debts, thereby putting it in the red and outside of the tax net.

This prompted an angry response from Old Hastings Green Councillor, Julia Hilton,  who raged, “A week rarely goes by without reports of yet more outrageous behaviour from our privatised water companies. Billions of pounds that could have been spent on upgrading our sewage infrastructure has gone into company pockets since privatisation. Water is a public good and should never have been privatised.”

And if that’s not enough, local campaigners in the Hastings and St Leonards Clean Water Action Group (CWA) have revealed that the Environment Agency restricts water testing to the period between May and September, leaving swimmers in the dark about the state of their local water for over half the year.

Independent testing

This data drought prompted CWA to set up a crowdfunder to pay for independent testing between these times, which it launched at a rally outside Azur in St Leonards last weekend.

Campaigners came together on the seafront at noon on Saturday for speeches and a photocall to raise awareness of the crowdfunder, which set out to raise £800 to pay for weekly testing in the winter months, the results of which will be available online. Each test costs £25 and the crowdfunder, if met, will provide independent all-year round verification of the pollution and toxicity in local waters.

Amanda Jobson, one of CWA’s founders, said, “Here in Hastings and St Leonards, we are about to join a network of volunteers launching Citizen Science projects to undertake local independent testing. This will provide valuable data on the safety of our sea waters, which we can share and compare, in pursuit of proper safe standards for all those who love and use the sea.”

Addressing the rally, CWA co-founder Becca Horn added, “We’ve had enough and are now taking the lead. We are doing something that should already be happening but which we can’t wait any longer for.”

Stewart Rayment, from the Liberal Democrats, was also present at the rally, lending his party’s support to the testing campaign. “Hastings and Rye Liberal Democrats will be submitting an amendment to our Spring conference on ending sewage discharges,” he commented. “Current rules only cover rivers and waterways but should also cover the sea. We back this local effort big time”.

At the time of writing, more than £1,360 has been raised, with the first tests undertaken on Valentine’s Day.

 

To find out more and to donate, visit the Crowdfunder site. CWA’s Facebook page.

 

 

 

 

 

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