Polluting rivers with sewage a national scandal, say Steve Coogan and Lee Mack

Steve Coogan and Lee Mack called sewage pollution a “national scandal” as they joined campaigners to protest against the pollution of England’s largest lake.

The comedians said that privatised water companies need to take responsibility and remove sewage from Windermere in the Lake District.

The pair took part in an event at The Glebe in Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria, for Friends Of The Lake District, an environmental charity.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Coogan said: “It is a national scandal. The privatised water companies, since they’ve been privatised – United Utilities, who is the biggest wastewater polluter in Windermere by a country mile – have paid out £72 billion in investor dividends whilst basically not maintaining the integrity of the lake.

“They’ve been polluting it since its inception. What we’re saying is they should reduce it to zero, there should be no pollution in Windermere, and they are putting out a lot of obfuscation to try to dilute that message.

“It’s a simple message: stop putting sewage in the lake and remove the pollution of what sewage is already there.”

Mack, who stars in the BBC comedy Not Going Out, said: “It’s not just about Windermere. Windermere is obviously England’s biggest, most famous lake.

“If the biggest lake is struggling with it, what are other smaller lakes and waterways having to handle?”

Since water companies were privatised in 1989, a total of £72 billion has been paid to shareholders by the sector, according to analysis carried out by Prof Peter Hammond, an economics specialist at the University of Warwick and first reported in the Financial Times.

He examined data by Ofwat, the water services regulator, and the Environment Agency, with campaign group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution using environmental freedom of information requests.

Friends Of The Lake District, which has campaigned since 1934 to protect the landscapes of Cumbria, has called for the end of all sewage discharges into the lakes.

There were 246 days in 2022 when sewage was discharged by United Utilities from storm overflows into Windermere lakes, according to Environment Agency data.

The Save Windermere campaign said that high phosphorus levels from this sewage are leading to a rapid increase in potentially toxic algae blooms, which damage the wildlife and ecosystem of the river.

There has been a 99 per cent reduction in the number of sea trout caught by line on River Leven since 1980, according to Friends Of The Lake District.

Data from the Environment Agency released last week show there was an average of 825 sewage spills per day into England’s waterways in 2022, with United Utilities discharging sewage into rivers for more than 425,491 hours.

In a statement to Good Morning Britain, United Utilities said: “The factors affecting water quality and Windermere are complex and without targeted action by multiple sectors we will not see the changes we all want.

“We are determined to play our part by improving our operations and their contribution to the overall health of Windermere.”