Primary school children raise concerns about sewage pollution

Children at Exeter Road Community Primary School have been making their feelings known on sewage pollution and high water bills.

As an English exercise, teacher Rachael Johnson asked Year Six pupils to write letters to Simon Jupp expressing their concerns.

The letters were going to be sent to Mr Jupp at his Exmouth office, but Rachael said it was closed because of the upcoming General Election.

In their letters the children said they had been directly affected by sewage in the sea. Ethan, aged 11, said: "So, so many of our events where we were planning to go in the sea were cancelled. It is unfair!'

Molly, aged 10, wrote: "Me and some of my friends went swimming with the school on Thursday 6 June and the water was very dirty."

Serenity, aged 11, wrote: "It is affecting mine and my classmates' education of sea swimming."

(Image: Exeter Road Primary School)

The children also expressed concern on behalf of the wider Exmouth community. Joel, aged 10, wrote: "Local residents are frustrated that sewers are overflowing and are simply being ignored. It has caused problems such as horrific smells, flooding and sewage pouring on the streets. The residents should be provided with more of an early alert to know if it is necessary to cancel sea swimming plans."

Molly wrote: "South West Water need to spend more money on pipes and make us pay less water rates. Drains need to be looked at because they are dumping sewage in the water out of dirty drains. They need to fix and clean drains so they won't overflow as much."

Serenity wrote: "South West Water is dumping all the raw sewage in the sea which has made me quite frustrated because it is harming animals like dogs, birds, and possibly the animals in the sea."

Ethan wrote: "I have also realised that house growth is a problem. We cannot add more pipes joining on until the sewage system can work more effectively."

A spokesperson from South West Water said: “We share the passion our customers have for our 860 miles of coastline and we are serious about reducing the use of storm overflows.

"We have successfully maintained 100% bathing water quality for 3 consecutive years and we were one of the first water companies to have all our storm overflows monitored. This means we know what is happening, when and where, allowing us to target investment and make changes where it matters most.

"We are serious about tackling storm overflows and change of this scale takes time, ambition, and increased investment – and that is why we are investing more than ever.

"We will also be the first water company to meet the Government target of less than 10 spills per overflow, per year – a decade ahead of target.”