The Sun, Travel News
Holiday warning as tourists told NOT to swim at 14 popular UK beaches due to health fears
Jun
TOURISTS are being warned against swimming at a number of beaches following heavy rainfall.
Popular beaches such as Bournemouth, Brighton and Poole have been affected.
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The warning has been issued by Surfers Against Sewage, who publish an interactive map showing the warnings around UK beaches.
And recent heavy rain has caused sewage to be discharged into the sea at a number of beaches, resulting in a health warning as it can cause skin infections.
A number of beaches across the UK, including in Cornwall, Devon and Kent, have been affected.
This includes:
- Seaton
- Porthluney
- Pentwean
- Combe Martin
- Widemouth Sand
- Summerleze
- Beer
- Poole
- Bournemouth Pier
- Brighton
- Scarborough
- Herne Bay
- Tankerton
- Robin Hood’s Bay
The warning states: “Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.”
Surfers Against Sewage publishes the shocking interactive map which tracks real-time sewage overflows and pollution risk forecasts.
It monitors the water quality at over 400 locations around UK rivers and coastlines.
The marine conservation charity has spent years urging politicians to introduce a legal duty on water companies to stop discharging raw sewage into rivers and the ocean.
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Last year, Southern Water was fined a record £90 million for deliberately pumping 16 to 21 billion litres of sewage into the sea between 2010 and 2015.
In 2020, more than 100 beaches had a sewage warning following heavy rain.
Rivers have also been affected.- in 2020, there were 403,171 sewage discharges for rivers, an increase of 37 per cent on 2019 when there were 292,864 incidents, the figures show.
Brits instead need to head to a Blue Flag beach in the UK, which is awarded the status for a number of reasons including no sewage discharge.
There is currently a total of 182 Blue Flag beaches across the UK – 77 of these can be found in England.
This means that England now boasts more Blue Flag beaches than South Africa, Cyprus, or Mexico.
Here are some of the cleanest – and dirtiest – beaches in the UK.
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