🚨 Today is the day. Our new and improved Safer Seas and Rivers Service app has officially launched! We provide the only national real-time water quality alert service which exposes the dirty practices of water companies and allows you to make informed decisions about where you can safely use the water. We partnered with the talented team of designers and developers at Brighton-based ASquared, whose shared passion for sustainability and the climate have given the app a new lease of life to make sure it can keep providing an invaluable service of non-biased, free real-time water quality alerts for years to come. We’ve made it easier than ever to search out a swim, surf or sail spot, which is safe to enter and clear from sewage on the day you want to get in the water. 🚨 What's new? 🚨 👁️ Create your own watchlist and be notified when there is a sewage discharge or reduced water quality. ⌚ See more information about a discharge, including the time and exact location ➡️ Easily share alerts and information with your family and friends if they need to be alerted of a risk 🍀 Northern Ireland is now included, with 6 locations across the coast now receiving alerts ⚠️ Scottish locations are back online following a cyber-attack back in 2020 which disabled their service As water companies start to bring their own real-time water quality alert services into the public domain, it’s essential that we don’t let them control the narrative and greenwash themselves out of the damning truth. They have been pumping raw sewage into our waterways for decades while disregarding the dangerous risks to human health and the future of our planet. Can we trust them to put the health of people and nature above profits and public image? What’s changed? Look at the SSRS after rainfall and decide for yourself… Download the app ➡️ click the link in our bio @surfersagainstsewage.

🚨 Water companies are regularly pumping untreated sewage into our rivers and seas, racking up enormous fines and reporting huge financial losses. Whilst the UK faces the cost-of-living crisis and another bathing season spent swimming in 💩, water companies prioritise paying out millions of pounds of #dirtymoney to their shareholders and CEOs. Does that seem fair? We don’t think so either. Sign the petition now. Click the link in our bio @surfersagainstsewage. #dirtymoney #fatcatsewerrats #sickofsewage #profitingfrompollution

We're #SickofSewage! Are you? 🤢 It's time to #EndSewagePollution. Pledge your support for cleaner rivers and seas, and fight back against the profiteering water industry. ✊ 🌊 Join SAS today 👉 link in bio @surfersagainstsewage. 📷 PA Media

Across the sea, our Northern Ireland reps have been doing outstanding work! ☘️ As of the 1st of June, they helped to secure real-time water quality alerts in Northern Ireland. There are now 6 locations you can check for water quality. This is crucial to ensure bathers in all the devolved nations can enjoy the water safely. 🌊 Ruby Free, our NI rep, won the Environmental Hero award at the Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards at the weekend for her work with SAS! 🙌 Ruby and the NI Reps have been integral in the water quality scene in Northern Ireland. Educating, campaigning and protesting for a better and more transparent system. They are making huge strides! To check out the amazing stuff they're doing and to get involved follow them 👉 @surfersagainstsewageni

Plastic is one of the biggest sources of marine pollution. It’s estimated that by 2050, the amount of plastic could outweigh the amount of fish in our seas. ❌ Microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic debris resulting from the breakdown of larger plastics such as single-use packaging and ghost nets, have seeped into every corner of our environment. They've even been found in our bloodstream. 😥 Without a thriving, clean ocean, we cannot thrive either. Why not join one of our #plasticfreecommunities this #PlasticFreeJuly, and take the first step towards turning back the plastic tide? Link in the bio ➡️ @surfersagainstsewage. #endplasticpollution #plasticpollution #plasticfreeocean #plasticwaste #plasticfreeUK #plasticocean #oceanplastic #choosetoreuse #oceanactivists

Did you know that taking part in a clean can have immense benefits? 🌞 ♻️ Taking part in cleans and engaging with nature can reduce stress and anxiety, and it's also effective in removing polluting and hazardous materials from our local ecosystems, allowing them to thrive, all the while creating a safe space for other users! 🌊 Get outside this Plastic Free July and help us protect our green, blue and urban spaces. Join the #MillionMileClean today. 🙌 To get involved, simply register through the link in our bio ➡️ @surfersagainstsewage. You’ll receive public liability insurance, free equipment for up to 30 people, along with information on how to be a clean lead! Or join a public clean hosted by one of many leads on our interactive map. #endplasticpollution #plasticpollution #plasticfreeocean #plasticwaste #plasticfreeUK #plasticocean #plasticfreecommunities #oceanplastic #choosetoreuse #oceanactivists

A staggering £3.3m fine for Thames Water, which is already on the brink of financial collapse. This is unacceptable. ❌ They must be held accountable for their financial mismanagement, awful pollution track record, and lack of care for the environment and people. We need urgent action to #EndSewagePollution. Source: 'Thames Water fined £3.3m over river sewage' - BBC

One of our incredible reps in Northern Ireland, Ruby Free, won the Environmental Hero award at the Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards at the weekend. 🎉✊ Ruby won for her nature and campaigning work, and we couldn’t be prouder to have her as part of the SAS community. 🙌 Here’s to Ruby, and all of our Ocean Activists raising the flag for our blue spaces in their communities. Ruby said: “As much as I am delighted to have such profound recognition, this trophy is dedicated to all activists everywhere fighting for a better world where nature and people can thrive. Because it’s going to take all of us.” Ruby's part of the fantastic reps team over at @surfersagainstsewageni 🌊

A kick in the teeth for bathing water applicants... Today, 7 weeks into the bathing season, Defra has updated it's guidance for communities seeking designated bathing water status for their local blue space. TLDR: we finally have clarity (good) but more barriers (very bad) THE GOOD - we finally have clarity on what communities need to achieve. -- Previous guidance was murky, at best, meaning lots of hard community activism going to waste with applications rejected with no obvious reason. Now that shouldn't be a problem. However... The BAD - more clarity but undoubtedly more barriers. Proposed sites must: 💩 be proven to have at least 100 bathers a day during the bathing season! And that's excluding other water users such as paddleboarders or kayakers. We think that's far too many and doesn't address the diversity of sites, how they're used, or the ecological impact of this number of bathers. 💩 have toilet facilities bathers can use during the bathing season, within a short distance of up to about 500m from the site. This is symptomatic of the fact that Defra haven't recognised that river swim locations are used differently from coastal locations. One size doesn't fit all when considering designation for inland and coastal sites. The UGLY - the efforts of communities who are in the throes of campaigning for designation, and who don't meet the above criteria, will have gone to waste! We're not happy with the changes and are working out our next steps in the Protecting Wild Waters campaign. Photo - @tazzybrophotography #endsewagepollution #sewage #saveourseas #saveourrivers #riverpollution #oceanactivists

Pipe dreams 🤩🌊

It's the start of #PlasticFreeJuly! Our Plastic Free Communities are out in force this summer running Mass Unwraps in their local supermarkets ✊ and you can join them! Mass Unwraps highlight the scale of unnecessary single-use plastics produced by brands and supermarkets. In one event in Lady Bay in Nottinghamshire, shoppers unwrapped a staggering 300 pieces of plastic in just two hours. Half of this was avoidable fruit and veg packaging. Together, we can say NO ❌ to single-use plastics in our shopping and push for a faster move towards plastic free alternatives. Want to get involved? Contact your local Plastic Free Community and find out if there is a Mass Unwrap planned for your area this summer, see the link in our bio to find out more. #plasticfree #plasticfreecommunities #massunwrap #chooseloose #oceanactivists

This Thursday, we delivered our #DirtyMoney petition to Ofwat, and made all of our collective feelings known to the water industry outside their annual awards ceremony - we’re sick of false promises, spineless apologies and the shameful pollution of our waterways.  💩💩💩