The parched floor attributable to the scorching heatwaves of the previous month meant the heavy rain that adopted couldn’t be absorbed, inflicting the sewage system to overflow, water bosses defined. Air pollution warnings have been put in place for greater than 40 UK seashores and swimming spots, with the south-west and south coast of England worst affected.
Swimmers are suggested in opposition to bathing at seven seashores in Cornwall on account of storm sewage overflows, with 4 in Devon and 5 in Dorset additionally polluted by the latest downpours.
9 seashores in Sussex, three on the Isle of Wight and three in Essex have been additionally hit by storm sewage.
Elsewhere, there have been warnings in place at spots in Lincolnshire, Cumbria, Lancashire and South Wales, in addition to two inland wild swimming spots close to Bristol and close to Minehead in Somerset.
Many Twitter customers rushed to remark blaming Brexit and the change in rules for the appalling photographs of the polluted seashores.
Twitter person with the username Parody Liz Truss wrote: “40 seashores within the UK at the moment are dangerously polluted.
“It is because leaving the EU enabled us to start out dumping uncooked sewage onto seashores once more. This is among the advantages of Brexit.”
Somebody with the username The Purple Pimpernel wrote: “Forty years in the past, EU rules pressured the UK to wash up its seashores.
“Two years into Brexit, and we’re wallowing in uncooked sewage.”
READ MORE: Campaigners livid with water firms after sewage dumped into sea
Carol Hedges additionally wrote: “Sewage within the sea: a metaphor for #brexit Britain. Swallow it down, you voted for it. #ToryBrexitDisaster”
And Chris added: “A reminder that final yr Boris Johnson instructed water co’s that as a result of Brexit had precipitated a scarcity of chemical compounds, they wanted to pump tons of uncooked sewage into our rivers and sea.
“Britain is now actually swimming in s**t due to Brexit.”
Laws over the method of dumping sewage into the ocean modified in 2021, when the Surroundings Company issued a waiver permitting firms to eliminate it with out utilizing one sewage remedy chemical referred to as ferric sulphate.
The acidic resolution which is used to suppress the expansion of algae, was then in scarcity as a result of provide chain obstructions attributable to a scarcity in HGV drivers.
A number of months later, in a report printed in July, the Surroundings Company mentioned water firm bosses ought to face jail for the worst air pollution incidents, describing the sector’s efficiency in 2021 because the “worst we now have seen for years”.
An Surroundings Company spokesman mentioned on Wednesday: “The present threat of floor water flooding reinforces the necessity for sturdy motion from water firms to scale back discharges from storm overflows. We’re monitoring the present scenario and supporting native authorities the place wanted.”
