Speech delivered at Sands Films Studio event for THE MAN WITH THE PLAN on 12th and 13th April 2025
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LearningTranscript
00:00that was brilliant to hear and thank you so much we have got our final speaker
00:05head and what I want you to do is move forward come on everyone move forward
00:08let's welcome up here our final speaker who is Juliet Lawson from Surfers Against
00:14Sewage please shout and cheer and welcome
00:17thank you everyone and thank you so much for your incredible incredible energy
00:26here today my name is Juliet Lawson and I'm a regional rep volunteer at Surfers
00:31Against Sewage so whoo for those of you who don't know Surfers Against Sewage is
00:41a UK-based marine charity that campaigns to protect our seas our rivers our lakes
00:48and our oceans by fighting against sewage pollution the water crowd thank you
00:55the water quality crisis we face today is staggering in 2023 alone water
01:02companies discharged raw sewage into our waters not 10 or 100 or even a thousand
01:07times but 450,000 times that is such a shame shame and as said earlier we want
01:19fish in our rivers not faeces did you know that only 14% of UK rivers meets good ecological status
01:29southern water are responsible for 20,000 hours of sewage discharge in 2022 alone shame
01:39swimmers in polluted waters have three times higher risk of getting sick from E. coli and other pathogens
01:50shame and the most shocking stat to me is raw sewage incidents have increased by 87% between 2020 and 2023 this is a huge issue
02:04and they have gone up yes they have
02:11clean water should be a right back in 1942 beverage stood for public services that served the people
02:20and not just shareholders and profit margins
02:23and that's what they wanted to do with you know the people that have gone up yes
02:35because the water company executives received millions in bonuses while our rivers and seas remain polluted shame
02:36since the privatization of water companies in 18 no sorry in 1989 10 years before i was born
02:43we've witnessed a catastrophic decline in the health of our blue spaces but we need to cut the crap
02:51Cut the crap
02:57Clean water is and should be a fundamental right
03:02We're calling for proper investment in infrastructure stronger enforcement of existing regulations and a system
03:10That values our blue spaces as essential to community well-being
03:21Join us in demanding that our waters be protected not for shareholder profits, but as a vital resource for all of us
03:34Thank you very much everyone