Portobello Demonstration Calls Out ‘Gaslighting’ From Scottish Water
(Napier Journalism Portfolio, originally published 28/11/2023)
Marine charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) staged a demonstration at Portobello Beach on the weekend amid criticism of the dumping of sewage in popular bathing sites across Scotland.
SAS made headlines last week when they released their condemning 2023 Water Quality Report that detailed Scottish Water’s dumping of sewage across the UK including Edinburgh’s own Portobello Beach.
In the report, they say their tests found dangerously high levels of E. Coli in Portobello waters, and the total number of sewage discharges across Scotland amounted to 58,304 times over the last 5 years. The group say this number could be much larger and are calling for better monitoring of sewage overflows.
Charlie Oddy, SAS spokesperson for Scotland helmed the demonstration and outlined their campaign goals: “We’re calling for better monitoring of combined sewage overflows. Currently in Scotland, only 4% of overflows are monitored, and we don’t even know how closely.”
They are also calling for year round testing in Scotland and an extension to the Scottish water bathing season, which is currently from June to September: “We’d like an extension to what’s called the Scottish bathing water season, which currently is May to September… We’d like SEPA to be doing year round water quality testing because the water and sands here at Portobello are used every single day of the year.”
As a publicly owned company, Oddy thinks the government has a greater responsibility to tackle this issue: “It’s their responsibility to take care of our water and our waterways, whether they’re fresh, sea or waste… And they aren’t doing that adequately at all. You know, there are hundreds of thousands of spills a year of raw sewage. And that’s dangerous to humans. It’s dangerous to our flora and fauna as well.”
Scottish Water has responded to the criticism by claiming these sewage discharges are done to prevent flooding in homes, and are made up of mostly rain water.
Simon Parsons, Director of Environment Planning & Assurance at Scottish Water said: “When we get lots of rain coming into our sewer system, the sewer system is designed to stop houses and businesses flooding, and it discharges what is 99% rainwater into the environment. So it’s not sewage, it’s primarily rain water that’s discharged out into the environment.”
Charlie responded to the comments from Scottish Water: “I do not think that’s fair at all. I think that’s entirely unreasonable…
“They’re saying that they’re actually protecting us by spilling sewage into our water. Because if they don’t do that, it’s gonna back up through our houses and through our toilets, you know, and that type of approach in other circumstances would be called gaslighting.”
