Feargal Sharkey has accused a water company of destroying England’s largest lake by “poisoning” it with sewage.
The water campaigner and former Undertones singer claimed the pollution of Windermere, which has had toxic algal blooms in recent years, was due to corporate greed at United Utilities. At a protest in Cumbria he also accused the Environment Agency of failing to act.
Meanwhile, ministers have announced that £11 million from water company fines will be funnelled into a long-delayed fund to restore waterways.
Sharkey visited Windermere on Monday for the 23rd week of a Greta Thunberg-style “sewage strike” organised by Matt Staniek, a 27-year-old campaigner.
“This beautiful idyllic setting behind me is being destroyed. It’s being poisoned by sewage. It now turns green during the summer. This is one of the most extraordinary lakes,” Sharkey told Good Morning Britain. “It’s being destroyed by corporate greed, profiteering and an utter failure of the regulator to properly protect this lake, like every river in this country. That is horrendous. That’s got to stop.”
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The Save Windermere campaign run by Staniek last year involved the comedians Steve Coogan, Lee Mack and Paul Whitehouse, who attended a rally over water pollution in the area.
Based on Environment Agency data published last month, Staniek calculated raw sewage was leaked into the Windermere catchment for 9,000 hours last year, from seven sites run by United Utilities. He has been calling for a real-time map of the discharges, akin to the one published by Thames Water. Water firms have a legal obligation to produce one by the end of the year.
Tests of waterways running into the Windermere by the charity WildFish have found insect numbers are as much as two thirds lower downstream of sewage works.
“We know United Utilities has been polluting our lake for decades and we know the Environment Agency is failing to hold them accountable for this pollution,” Staniek said. The young activist has protested outside the company’s information centre in Windermere at 9am every Monday since last November. Initially alone, he has since been joined by others, often in the pouring rain.
United Utilities (UU) said it had invested £45 million to halve the phosphorus entering the lake from its sites.
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A spokesman said: “We have ambitious plans to do even more. A further £41 million is being invested at four sites to halve the phosphorus levels from those. It is important to understand the complexity of the situation at lake Windermere. There are a total of 107 discharge permits into the lake and only 18 belong to UU. The other 89 discharge permits belong to hotels, campsites and businesses and many treat sewage to a lower standard than UU.”
The Times Clean it Up campaign is calling for greater investment to curb sewage pollution. The regulator Ofwat will decide in summer whether to approve £96 billion of spending across the water sector between 2025 and 2030.
From late July, money from a new government Water Restoration Fund should start being distributed to conservation groups to help clean up polluted waterways. The Times reported in February that 15 months after being promised the fund did exist, there was no timetable for its establishment and steering groups to establish it had not even met.
However, Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, said groups could begin applying for £11 million in fines collected since April 2022 and hypothecated for the fund. Previously the money had gone straight to the Treasury.
About £3.3 million was raised from fines and penalties levied on Thames Water, whose parent company last week defaulted on a debt repayment last week. A further £3.1 million came from Anglian Water and £2.2 million from South West Water. The rest came from Yorkshire Water and United Utilities.
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“I know how important our precious waterways are to local communities and to nature, which is why we’re taking tough action,” Barclay said.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We are absolutely committed to improving the water quality in Lake Windermere.”
