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“Mermaids” (“美人鱼”) come together against water pollution

Water pollution is damaging the UK’s rivers. Environmentalists (环境保护主义者) believe the problem has been caused by water companies and weak regulation (监管). Some of them have come to river banks to make their voices heard.

Surfers Against Sewage (污水) is a charity of water lovers. On April 23, thousands of the group's members gathered on river banks across the country. Their marches attracted large numbers of people. The beach-loving public are calling for an end to the dumping of waste water into the UK’s bathing waters (浴场水城) by 2030.

In Manningtree and Essex, people went on a march by the River Stour. Many of the swimmers dressed up in mermaid costumes. One of the signs on the site said, “Don’t be mean (卑鄙的). Keep water clean.”

Anglian Water is a water company in the east of England. Last year, it poured raw sewage (未经处理的污水) into the River Stour 389 times. This happened over a period of time of more than 4,000 hours. The company said it was spending millions of pounds in order to deal with this problem.

Anna Baxter organized the Manningtree march. She said that the situation was “completely unacceptable”. According to data, water companies poured raw sewage into British rivers 372,533 times last year, for a total of more than 2.6 million hours. Also, every single one of England’s rivers failed a pollution test in 2020.

Hugh Tagholm, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, said, “When I go for a surf, when my son goes for a swim, or when anyone takes the time to enjoy the UK’s blue spaces, we shouldn’t have to do this at the risk of getting sick from sewage”.