Just 15% of adults in England believe the Government is handling the sewage crisis effectively, according to new polling released today, as thousands prepare to take to the water this weekend in the largest day of protest action the campaign has ever seen.

The figures, published by environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) reveal the depth of public anger over water quality and government inaction. 

This Saturday they are launching their nationwide Paddle Out Protests across more than 50 beaches, rivers and lakes across the UK, to protest the ongoing sewage crisis and to demand reform of the water industry.

According to SAS latest polling, just 17% of people feel water companies are being properly held to account, and only 15% believe ministers are willing to challenge the interests of water company shareholders.

Support for the existing privatised water model has effectively collapsed: 7% of the public back private ownership with shareholder profits, while 77% want a change in how the industry operates and more than a third support full public ownership. A quarter of adults have considered withholding their water bill in protest at their supplier’s conduct.

The polling lands days after the King’s Speech introduced the Clean Water Bill, which SAS argues will problematically lock in the current failed system rather than reform it, putting the Government sharply at odds with public opinion.

The protests this weekend take issue with the government’s handling of the water crisis. Among the protesters will be Julie Maughan, whose daughter Heather Preen died aged eight after contracting E. coli from a Devon beach in 1999.

Maughan said: “I lost my daughter Heather to dirty water, and I will not stop fighting until no other family has to go through what mine has. This government has had every opportunity to fix the broken water system and chosen not to.” 

Their family’ s story was depicted in Channel 4’s docudrama Dirty Business, actors from which will also be joining the protest.

According to SAS’s data, sewage has been discharged into bathing waters for more than 89,000 hours so far this year, and over half the UK population worry about getting sick when swimming outdoors. Since 2019, SAS has received more than 7,600 reports of illness from people who have fallen ill after entering the water.

Giles Bristow, SAS Chief Executive, said the Clean Water Bill was “nothing more than a whitewash, locking in a failed system that has seen pollution, shareholder profits and consumer bills soar over three decades.”

SAS is urging the public to sign its People Before Payouts petition calling on the Government to end the current privatised water industry model.

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