Sewage anger to #floodthestreets and hit the screen

Campaigners have announced they will take to the streets on 26 October – and called for the public to join on mass – to press the government to do more to clean up Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas.

Feargal Sharkey is heading up the March for Clean Water https://marchforcleanwater.org/ through central London to Parliament Square on 26 October; a mass protest organised by River Action and backed by a growing number of environmental, sports and community groups. It is timed to mark the end of the first 100 days of the new government, and to take place days before the Chancellor’s first budget on 30 October.

River Action said the Water (Special Measures) Bill is welcome but stops short of what is needed to end all causes of water pollution. The march will call on prime minister Sir Keir Starmer “to take immediate and decisive action to end the poisoning of our rivers, lakes and seas by the lethal cocktail of raw sewage, agricultural waste and other chemical pollutants, that over recent years have been allowed to leave most of our waterways so filthy that they present major risks to human health and untold damage to nature”.

River Action said the actions must include:

• “A plan to address the continuous illegal dumping of raw sewage by the water companies.

• A full set of solutions to end all other major sources of water pollution.

• The reform of our failed regulatory system, including Ofwat and the Environment Agency, so the law can be effectively enforced against polluters.”

The organisers said the event will be “a legal, peaceful, family-friendly and inclusive demonstration”. However the material and language being used to promote it is emotive. The campaign video says water is “dying, drop by drop”. It shows fish kills and says water users risk contracting cystitis, intestinal infection and blood poisoning. 

It also links the issues with water privatisation, saying the public was “lied to” about rigorous protections as laws have been “repeatedly broken” and watchdogs defunded – all the while water shareholders have reaped £78bn of reward and water bosses £58m in salaries and bonuses. The video calls for the public to rise up, act now and demand change to get Britain’s water “off life support”. 

On X, Sharkey invited people to "#floodthestreets with your rage, your anger, and your disappointment. It's time to take control”. Speaking on Good Morning Britain, he also called for a root and branch review and for the government to “suspend this price increase” (PR24) arguing we need “decisive, clear leadership and an urgency to this that’s really going to grapple with this problem and fix it and stop preening around the edges and tweaking.” 

• Separately, the Royal Television Society (RTS) reported Channel 4 has commissioned a “sewage dumping drama” from the team behind Partygate, a drama on the Number 10 Covid scandal. In an article on its website, RTS quoted Channel 4 commissioning editor Rita Daniels as saying: “For too long, the UK water companies have been swimming in profits, whilst our rivers and seas are drowning in sewage…Isle of Sh*te (w/t) will flush out a story of corporate greed, exposing how these companies have been able to get away with polluting our precious resources for so long.” Writer and director Joseph Bullman was quoted as calling the new commission “brave” because “it explores corporate law breaking, and a national scandal which, in terms of the amounts of money extracted from the British public, has the potential to dwarf other scandals which have come to light in recent years.”