Summer rains could pose health risk to bathers: warning

This summer’s heavy storms could lead to sewage discharges from overwhelmed drainage infrastructure posing a potential pollution and health risk on Britain’s bathing beaches, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has warned.

The MCS, a charity dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its wildlife, has called for permanent signs on all bathing beaches, advising swimmers of the dangers following heavy rain bursts.

Following periods of heavy rainfall, and to avoid floodwater overwhelming local sewage treatment plants, CSOs divert untreated sewage away from treatment plants and discharge directly into rivers and coastal waters.

Diffuse pollution, which can also invade ground water, rivers, streams, estuaries, or discharge directly into the sea, can affect any beach even if it is not subject to CSO and storm water outfalls, the MCS said.

Many bathing beaches have some of the UK 25,000 Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) and storm water outfalls sited near them, the society said.

The WHO has found a "proven causative link" between such pollution and both gastroenteritis and acute febrile respiratory illness (AFRI).

The epidemiological evidence linking sewage pollution with diseases such as hepatitis A, enteric fever, poliomyelitis and typhoid is less conclusive, but may be proven given sufficient clinical research, the MCS has said.

A spokesperson for the society said that while storm discharges were necessary to avoid sewage flooding people’s homes, bathers can be put at risk in MCS recommended beaches.

Thomas Bell, MCS Good Beach Guide Officer, said: “We accept that pollution surges are at present an almost unavoidable consequence of heavy rain. MCS is therefore urging the government and beach managers to adopt a mandatory national scheme to provide permanent public information about storm pollution on every bathing beach.”

The MCS Good Beach Guide has been published annually since 1987 and provides information on water quality and sewage discharges at over 1,000 UK beaches.

(gmcg)