Crowds of protestors made up of surfers, cold water swimmers, kayakers, paddle boarders, coasteering companies, divers, lifeguards, and regular beach-going families took to a Pembrokeshire beach on a sunny weekend this month, with the message of ‘enough is enough, cut the crap!’

As part of the national ‘Surfers Against Sewage’ Paddle Out Protests, campaigners took to the sea at Broad Haven beach on Saturday, May 18 demonstrating to the Government, along with water companies such as Dŵr Cymru, and regulators like Natural Resources Wales the will to stand up for people’s rights to clean water, and that those rightly concerned will not stop until there’s an end to sewage pollution.

Surfers against Sewage protest
Protestors took to the Pembrokeshire sea with the message of ‘enough is enough, cut the crap!’ (Pic: Peter Bounds)

Broad Haven Buccaneers surf lifesaving club who were a part of the protests, along with local Blue Tit Chill Swimmers, revealed that the group were forced to cancel four beach lifesaving training days last summer due to sewage pollution.

Also on hand to address the crowds was Pembrokeshire mother Jayne Etherington who offered a stark warning after her daughter Caitlin became seriously ill after becoming infected with e-coli following a swim in the sea at Amroth one August morning, at the height of summer!

With such pollution threatening people’s health, Jayne told the crowd of campiagners: “This is about life and death! It’s about time something changed.”

At the start of the week, the Wales Coast Award winners for 2024 were announced, spotlighting coastal sites achieving supposed ‘high standards’ required to receive what is meant to be a ‘prestigious’ Blue Flag.

Preseli Pembrokeshire was polluted by sewage 7,659 times in 2023, lasting 91,401 hours - that's 10.58 years!

Broad Haven pollution protest
Crowds of protestors made up of surfers, cold water swimmers, kayakers, paddle boarders, divers, lifeguards, and regular beach-going families took to the beach of Broad Haven in Pembrokeshire on the weekend (Pic: Peter Bounds) (Pic: Peter Bounds)

Monitoring was disabled in some locations, so even more sewage could have found its way into our waters last year.

Kate Evans of Planet CIC - one of the organisers of the protest, said: “The event was great - we were really pleased with the turn out.”

Surfers Against Sewage has also created the ‘End Sewage Pollution Manifesto’ which has five very clear, key solutions to end sewage pollution and will be pushing the next Government to adopt their demands and give them their full backing.