Protestors gathered on Cresswell Beach in Northumberland to stand against sewage discharges into the UK's rivers and seas.
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00:00 Thousands of people gathered across the country to stand with Surfers Against Sewage for a
00:06 national protest to end sewage discharges being released by water companies into the
00:11 UK's rivers and seas. Surfers Against Sewage want to stop discharges into all bathing waters
00:17 and high priority nature sites by 2030 as these overflows continue to have a devastating
00:22 impact on ecological and human health. Members of dipping groups across Northumberland took
00:27 part in a national protest on Crestwell Beach.
00:31 We're the Crestwell Dippers and we're standing here alongside fellow dippers up and down
00:37 the coast. So we've got the Amble Swimblers from further up the coast who have joined
00:43 us today. The Blythe Bluetits have joined us from further down the coast because they
00:48 like us feel very strongly about the fact that our water companies are polluting our
00:54 rivers and seas by dumping sewage into them. It not only causes health problems for people
01:01 who come on the beach, use the seas with things like E.coli or Salmonella infection. It's
01:10 not just unpleasant when you come across things like sanitary towels or toilet roll bobbing
01:18 along while you're in the sea. It also creates big problems for our marine life. Dumping
01:27 sewage in the sea increases nutrients into rivers and seas which means that algae blooms.
01:34 Algae blooming then means that it depletes the oxygen in rivers and seas which then means
01:41 that aquatic life and marine life are in trouble. So we all know about cutting trees and deforestation,
01:52 carbon footprints and the problems. We should now start thinking about what we're doing
01:57 to our seas and protecting our seas. It's got a fantastic coastline and really the North
02:06 Umbrian water should not be discharging raw sewage into the oceans at any time, never
02:13 mind 2024. It's really time that they're stopped and the way that we'll stop it is by constantly
02:22 putting pressure on them. We have a plan in place to make sure that they will no longer
02:28 be able to do so but we'll hit them financially which means that if we get everybody to stop
02:36 their direct debits for at least one month at their financial year end, this could mean
02:42 that that would hit them in the pockets where they only seem to have profit to take care
02:49 of. So absolutely brilliant, I mean it's great turnout. We all have this mental health issue
02:56 and awareness now and this should be prescribed on the NHS. Swimming, everybody's smiling,
03:03 Wonderful day here. Can't beat it.
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