Brighton, on England’s south coast, has been described as Britain’s hippest city, and is a haven for tourists, especially Londoners keen to escape the capital. But surfer Stu Davies says the waters off Brighton and along the Channel coast are less attractive, describing them as an “open sewer”. Human faeces, wipes and tampons are regularly discharged into seas and rivers, angering local residents who are now taking action. “First hand I have surfed in raw sewage in this coast and city, and it’s disgusting,” Davies, a member of Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), told AFP on a seawall in the seaside resort. A short distance away, a storm overflow pipe stretches out across the beach towards the popular pier, before being slowly submerged by the rising tide. Similar structures dot the British coastline. “Suddenly you become aware of the smell, you can smell sewage, you can smell faeces and you can see faeces, and see bits of tissue and paper and other things that folk put down their toilets and enter into the sewage network,” Davies said of encountering waste while surfing. The water also takes on a “brownish” hue, he added. In very heavy rainfall, water companies are permitted to dump such waste to prevent sewers, many of which date back to the 19th century, from becoming clogged and flowing back into buildings. According to SAS, which campaigns for clean water, water companies reported more than 5,500 discharges in the year to the end of September — an 87.6-percent increase in one year. The association, which has developed an app to alert swimmers and surfers, points out that more and more discharges occur during “normal rainfall events”, not exceptional precipitation. It also believes that the figure largely underestimates the problem because it only refers to coastal waters. “This is clearly being used as a means of regular sewage disposal,” said SAS director Hugo Tagholm. The Environment Agency found that only 14 percent of English rivers were “environmentally satisfactory” in 2020.