ENVIRONMENTAL groups called on the public today to mobilise this autumn and ramp up pressure on the government to tackle Britain’s water pollution crisis.

River Action, Surfers Against Sewage and Greenpeace are among the groups who will join the March for Clean Water in Central London on October 26.

It will mark the end of the first 100 days of the Labour government, and take place just days before Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first Budget.

An escalating water crisis looms, driven by factors such as ageing infrastructure, lack of investment from water firms and industrial pollution.

More than 3.6 million hours of raw sewage discharges poured into rivers and seas last year — a 105 per cent increase compared with 2022.

Campaigners are demanding that the government implement a plan to address the illegal dumping of raw sewage by water companies and reform the regulatory system so that the law can be effectively enforced against polluters. 

Charles Watson, River Action chairman and founder, said: “The initial noises coming out of our new government regarding cleaning up our filthy waterways, whilst encouraging, do not nearly go far enough to deal with the scale of the problem they have inherited.

“Nothing short of wholescale reform of our failed regulatory system and comprehensive strategies to address all major sources of pollution, including sewage discharges and agricultural run-off, will suffice.”

Singer-turned-environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey said: “It is now time to hold to account those industries that for too long now have been allowed to knowingly and wantonly pollute our waters driven by nothing more than profit and greed.

“We call on everyone in the country who is concerned or angry at the state of our waters to join us and march.”