Photo: The Wave Project
An English charity was forced to cancel its Santa-themed surf event due to a sewage discharge last week. The disheartening mishap is yet another example of the ongoing water quality concerns that have plagued English surfers.
The event, an annual Santa Surf organized by the charity Wave Project, was set to take place at Fistral beach in Newquay on Saturday, November 30, the BBC reports. It was part of the Big Give Christmas Challenge, a campaign in which eight charities have their funds matched by organizer The EQ Foundation.
However, as CEO Ramon Van de Velde told local outlet Cornwall Live, the Santa Surf had to be cancelled because of sewage pollution from the water utility South West Water the day before. The 35 surfers set to participate were unable to enter the water for 24 hours after the overflow, for insurance reasons.
“An ocean full of sewage is not a safe space,” said Van de Velde. “It compromises the health, wellbeing and trust that underpin everything we do. It’s deeply disheartening, and confusing, when we must tell our surfers that the same environment we champion as life-enhancing is, in moments like these, unsafe and harmful.”
South West Water said the spill occurred due to heavy rain and lasted for less than an hour. “The alert was removed in the early hours of Saturday morning following a full tidal cycle,” explained the company. “This means that after 12.5 hours, bathing water quality will no longer be impacted by our storm overflows.”
Water pollution due to sewage discharges has been an ongoing point of contention in England. English water companies have received public criticism over dumping raw sewage, and the overall poor-water quality of rivers and beaches, since the industry was privatized by the then Conservative government in 1989. Environment Agency data shows that untreated sewage was pumped into England’s rivers and oceans at least 301,091 times in 2022 – 824 times a day on average. Last year, the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage even organized a national day of action to protest the water quality.
