More than 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for the CEOs of two water companies given damning environmental ratings, to "swim in the mess they've made".
The 38 Degrees campaign addresses the CEOs of South West Water, Susan Davy, and Southern Water, Lawrence Gosden, after their companies received one-star in the governmnent's 2021 report Water and Sewerage companies in England: environmental performance.
The Environmental Agency (EA) report told of England's water and sewerage companies having the worst environmental performance "we have seen for years" and said "the sector's performance on pollution was shocking".
Southern Water and South West Water were among four companies which saw their their ratings plummet, though were the only two to have their grading fall to one star.
Southern Water handles water and wastewater services for Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and South West Water, which provides drinking water and waste water services throughout Devon and Cornwall and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset.
In January pollution warnings were in place for beaches along the south coast include Senne in Cornwall, Goodrington in Devon, Langstone Harbour in Portsmouth, Littlehampton in West Sussex and Kent's Herne Bay.
On January 4, marine conservation and campaigning charity Surfers Against Sewage, which tracks real-time combined sewage overflows (CSOs), noted more than 60 warnings in place across the UK.
Discharges occur in the seas around Britain's coast regularly and are allowed to happen when there is particularly heavy rainfall. This, water companies claimed, is in a bid to stop the sewage system from becoming overwhelmed.
The campaign launched this month, which at the time of writing had garnered 54,442 signatures, said: "We challenge the CEOs of South West Water and Southern Water to swim in the mess they've made", and addressed this challenge to Lawrence Gosden and Susan Davy.
"Last year Southern Water claimed their sewage discharges are "95 - 97% rainwater and so should not be described as sewage," the petition read.
"But to the hundreds of thousands of us every year who are faced with having to swim, paddle, fish and make a living out of seas infested with discharge from your companies, it's hard to think of a different way to describe it.
"As South West Water and Southern Water were the worst performers out of ALL the water companies in 2021 - with only one star ratings from the Environment Agency - we, the public, are challenging you to take a dip in the sea after your companies' next storm overflow release."
The petition said signatories had also chipped in to make a donation of up to £5,000 to Surfers Against Sewage.
It was "signed" by "thousands of members of the public - including your customers".
When approached for comment, a spokesperson for Lawrence Gosden said there were "many" contributing factors to water equality and that Southern Water worked closely with a range of partners to protect and enhance the environment.
A spokesperson for Susan Davy declined to comment.
It was not clear what would happen if the campaign reached it's goal number of signatories - 100,000.
The release of utreated sewage into coastal waters had been heavily criticisedand accusations of funding cuts and deregulation have been levelled at the government. Ministers have argued they were working to tackle discharges and cut them by a quarter by 2025.
A foreword in the EA report from chair Emma Howard Boyd said water company directors had "let this occur and it is simply unacceptable".
Mr Gosden's spokesperson said: “The UK’s network of storm overflows prevent flooding of homes and schools when flows increase in the sewer network during wet weather. However we recognise that this system is no longer acceptable to our customers and communities, so we are acting to reduce the volumes and increase our capacity.
“As part of a £2bn investment in our network between 2020 and 2025, we are exploring innovative engineering and nature-based solutions to either slow or keep surface water out of sewers.
"We have ambitious targets to significantly reduce storm overflows by 2030 across our region, and are currently going further than Government plans have set out.”
Across England, serious pollution incidents had increased to 62 - the highest total since 2013 - while there had been eight of the most serious incidents, compared with three in 2020.
Most companies - seven of the nine - were responsible for an increase in serious incidents compared to 2020.
Ms Howard Boyd outlined a need for more significant fines for "environmental crimes" committed by water companies in the form of financial penalties and "prison sentences for Chief Executives and Board members whose companies are responsible for the most serious incidents.
"We would also like to see company directors being struck off so they cannot simply delete illegal environmental damage from their CV and move on to their next role," she added.
"Water companies exist to serve the public. Their environmental performance is a breach of trust. The polluter must pay."
