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Raw sewage in Diss river brings protests onto the streets

Rallies organised by local activists across Norfolk are protesting sewage dumped in rivers, even when there hasn't been heavy rainfall.

Peter ThurlowbyPeter Thurlow
January 25, 2022
in Anglia, Environment, REGIONS
Diss sewage protest

Protesters in Diss ask residents to vote on their 'Stinkometer' if the River Waveney smells bad. Photo © Kate Leith.

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The sight and smell of raw human sewage polluting the River Waveney brought protestors out onto the streets on Saturday.

The public stink about the presence of human excrement first occurred in November. It was a House of Lords amendment to the Environment Bill placing tighter strictures on water companies which continued the practice of allowing raw sewage to be pumped into rivers.

But the government backed an amendment of its own with weaker wording, to the fury of the opposition and of clean environment campaigners.

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Protests after claims of ‘turning a blind eye’

There were immediate protests around the country, and in particular in Suffolk and Norfolk. Protestors who had already organised against the MP for South Norfolk, Richard Bacon, took up the argument, since Mr Bacon declined to vote against the government’s plan. Posters criticising him were distributed around his constituency.

But protests against raw sewage dumped into water courses have also taken place in place in Eye and Kings Lynn. Diss residents held their first demonstration during December.

Gaywood River today was almost clear & sadly I could see the terrible condition of the river bed🤢ruined by pollution originating from upstream at Bawsey @EnvAgencyAnglia this storm drain meters from the King’s Lynn IDB office doesn’t help at Kettle Mills @N_Rivers_Trust pic.twitter.com/BCbxsyhvNt

— Russell ChalkStreamsInCrisis 🍃💚🍃 (@RussellB1ggs) August 6, 2021
Kettle Mills storm drain, River Gaywood, Kings Lynn. In the second video, excrement can be seen floating in the stream.

Since then, two stories have emphasised the problem. The first was a report from Parliament’s Environment Audit Committee earlier this month. It claimed every river in England is polluted with a ‘chemical cocktail’.

“Poor water quality in English rivers is a result of chronic underinvestment and multiple failures in monitoring, governance and enforcement,” the committee warned.

Only 14 percent of English rivers meet good ecological status, with pollution from agriculture, sewage, roads and single-use plastics contributing to a dangerous ‘chemical cocktail’, poisoning our waterways. Not a single river in England has received a clean bill of health for chemical contamination.

The committee was told of a lack of political will to improve water quality, with successive governments, water companies and regulators seemingly turning a blind eye to antiquated practices of dumping sewage and other pollutants in rivers.

  • Gaywood sewage protest
  • Waveney sewage protest
Protesters by the sewage outflow (L) on the River Gaywood, Kings Lynn (R) on the River Waveney, Diss. Photo © Kate Leith

Instructions not to investigate ‘low impact’ pollution

The second story to bring the problem to the public’s notice was the leak of internal Environment Agency memos which revealed instructions to staff not to investigate ‘low impact’ pollution incidents. According to a report in the Guardian:

“’Should staff hear of a category 3 or 4 incident that does not relate to a water company or a regulated site’, they are told: ‘Do not substantiate report, call site or add any details. Shut down report.’ Template reply letters have been created for agency staff in anticipation of complaints.

“One Environment Agency officer, who did not wish to be named because staff have been warned against speaking to the media, said: ‘A lot of category 2 incidents start off as 3s until they are attended’ and that an example of a category 3 could be a ‘2km spill of oil or sewage in a river’.”

This week’s local anger was stirred by reports that there was a disgusting smell and the presence of human excreta pumped from the outfall pipe on the Waveney in Diss, directly behind and obnoxiously noticeable from a supermarket. A local kayak group reported seeing human excreta whilst using the river.

Canvassers claimed that, downwind during the past week, the smell of the sewage was noticeable across half the town.

The outfalls of sewage are supposed to be permitted in certain limited circumstances, specifically after heavy rainfall when the ancient sewage system can’t cope and there would be a danger of the sewage flooding back into homes.

But it has been an unusually dry January, with no heavy rainfall for weeks.

  • Sewage pollution in the River Waveney.
  • Excrement floating in the River Gaywood, Kings Lynn.
Sewage pollution in the River Waveney. Photo © Elana Katz / Excrement floating in clouds of sewage in the River Gaywood, Kings Lynn.

The River Babingley: a chalk stream
Anglia

COP26: Norfolk’s chalk streams – a rare and beautiful habitat under threat

byCameron Holloway
November 5, 2021
Tags: Sewage
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Peter Thurlow

Peter Thurlow

Peter Thurlow has spent 50 years in politics, as councillor, strategist and elections organizer – mostly with the Labour Party but later the Greens. He is now grateful to have no party ties, but instead turns his attention to other forms of political activity. He has also spent a career in public relations and public affairs, mostly working in health, law, politics, the EU and diplomacy. Peter is a member of the EAB editorial team.

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