Surfing was my life. In 2022, I even moved to Devon to work as a teacher so that I could be closer to the waves. As a surfer, I’ve always had a respect for the sea and the power of the tides. But I never realised that it was perhaps the quality of the water that was the biggest risk to my health.
At work one day, I suddenly experienced deafening tinnitus in my left ear. At an emergency doctor’s appointment I was told I had an ear infection and was given antibiotics. The doctor said the likely cause was exposure to sewage in the sea. I was eager to surf again, but I waited the recommended month before getting back in at Saunton Sands beach in north Devon. Perhaps naively, I forgot to check the sewage warnings and only noticed afterwards that there had been a sewage alert in place.
The next day, I had another sudden onset of extremely loud tinnitus, this time followed by an attack of rotational vertigo, deafness and vomiting. I couldn’t move so the emergency GP came out and told me it was labyrinthitis, an inner-ear infection that can take several months to recover from. My recovery began smoothly, but then it kept coming back, again and again. I was completely debilitated, never knowing when an attack would strike and forced to spend days in bed recovering from each episode. It lasted for months and I became scared to go out on my own in case I’d have an attack and not be able to get home. I spent months on the sofa and eventually lost my job.
A specialist eventually diagnosed me with Ménière’s disease: a chronic inner-ear condition with no known cure that causes progressive deafness, roaring tinnitus and loss of function of your balance organ leading to rotational vertigo. The doctor thought it could have been due to sewage but said it would be impossible to prove.
In the last year, there have been almost 2,000 cases of people falling ill after being in the sea, and that is just those reported to the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage. The sewage that’s causing this is released into our rivers and seas by the hugely profitable water companies. Since the water companies were privatised in 1989, under the promise that they would upgrade our Victorian sewage system, they have accumulated £54bn in debt while paying out at least £65bn to shareholders. There has been no sizeable upgrading of infrastructure, and so billions of tons of sewage have been dumped into our seas. There is also evidence of dry spills (when sewage is discharged into the ocean despite no rainfall) and failures to upgrade monitoring technology – all allowed to happen because of a lack of regulation. Water companies have consistently shown that they will put profit over the adequate maintenance of our water system, until they are compelled to do otherwise.
The water companies claim that they are investing in upgrading the sewage network, but it’s a case of too little, too late. Surfers Against Sewage’s latest water quality report has shown that last year 60% of popular inland swimming spots in England would have a quality rating of poor according to the Environment Agency methodology. Coastal swimming spots aren’t much better. Due to pollution consistently being flagged up by the Surfers Against Sewage’s Safer Seas and Rivers Service (SSRS) it is rarely possible to get in the sea at my local Blue Flag beach. A Blue Flag beach supposedly meets stringent environmental criteria and is a recommended spot for bathing, yet in reality this fails to be the case.
The lack of action from the water companies and the regulator Ofwat is disgraceful. I feel lucky that in the last few months most of my symptoms have gone into remission and I am surfing again. They still could come back. The challenge is to live with the uncertainty, while enjoying my current health to the full. But I would urge swimmers to track live water quality by checking the SSRS and then make an informed decision on whether to get in the sea. It is also time for signage at beaches warning people of the danger. A lot of people would be surprised to see their favourite swimming spot is polluted.
But it really is down to politicians and the water companies to solve this; we shouldn’t have to avoid swimming or surfing in the sea to avoid sewage that results from their greed and inaction. This is their fault and they must clean it up. I often ask myself the question: when will politicians finally act on the dire state of our water system? Depressing as it may be, it is perhaps when they are forced to avoid the sea on their summer holidays.
Reuben Santer is a surfer based in Devon
