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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Gaby Hinsliff

Finally, there’s something to unite Britain – disgust at what is happening to our waterways and seas

Combined sewer overflow pipe on Ryde beach, Isle of Wight.
‘My family has a faintly depressing new holiday routine of waking up and checking the Surfers Against Sewage app before heading to the beach.’ Combined sewer overflow pipe on Ryde beach, Isle of Wight. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

After the third lockdown ended, in that summer when everyone felt faintly broken, we ran away to the sea.

At first it rained torrentially. But then the sun began tentatively to come out, and my son went snorkelling in a hidden rocky cove near the Cornish cottage we had rented. When the next day he started being violently sick, my first thought was food poisoning. But the whole family had eaten the same food, and the only one to fall ill was the lone swimmer.

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