Veronica Hawking, Campaigns Director at 38 Degrees discusses the extent of sewage pollution in our waterways.
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00:00You know, we feel passionately about the fact that our waters, our seas and our rivers should
00:07be clean. We should all be able to go to the Great British Seaside and be able to paddle
00:12or swim if we want. But sadly, that just simply isn't the case for too many of us. We've done
00:17research recently that shows two-thirds of the British public feel that the sea is too
00:22filthy to swim in.
00:24Recently, 38 Degrees toured traditional seaside resorts in an ice cream van covered in poo
00:30emojis. They handed out what they called sewage Sundays in a bid to highlight how the traditions
00:37of the Great British holiday are being spoilt by sewage.
00:42We wanted to do something really eye-catching around the election to get this issue into
00:45the spotlight. So we hired an ice cream van, we wrapped it in our lovely poo emoji wrap.
00:53It wasn't really sewage flavoured, it was lovely, normal ice cream. Lots of people
00:57were taking the opportunity to sign the petition. It was just an eye-catching way to try and
01:02educate more people about the issue and firmly get it onto politicians' agendas.
01:08As part of a long-running campaign to clean up our waters, 38 Degrees is calling on whichever
01:14party forms the next government to pledge to holding polluting water companies properly
01:20accountable. It's a campaign that has been massively popular, with tens of thousands
01:26of people signing their petition.
01:28At the moment, water companies are far too often, far too regularly, far more than they're
01:34meant to, discharging waste into our rivers and seas and they're getting away with it.
01:39So we feel that enough is enough and we feel really strongly that whoever forms the next
01:43government, they must take action against water companies to hold them to account for
01:49this, to make sure that they're following the rules, to fine them if they're not and
01:53if they still don't continue to clean up their mess, then to take the water companies into
01:57public ownership.