PROTESTERS will unveil satirical blue plaques in Taunton claiming to “highlight MP’s Rebecca Pow failure to support the tightening of environmental legislation, to regulate the discharges of the water companies”.

Extinction Rebellion said they “will join a national day of action called Dirty Water to highlight the “shocking state of the waterways”.

The plaques will be unveiled on Saturday (January 28) at sites along the River Tone and the event will finish with a piece of Street Theatre in French Weir.

Taunton Deane MP and Water Minister Rebecca Pow said this is “the first government to require the roll-out of storm overflow monitoring, with now almost 90 per cent coverage”.

Reverend Jonathan Morris, a retired priest from the Diocese of Bath and Wells, and a member of Taunton Extinction Rebellion said: “We’ve watched in horror as our rivers and seas have become open sewers since October 2021, when the government, including the Taunton MP Rebecca Pow, voted down a proposal to stop water companies pumping waste directly into our rivers.

“They justified this by claiming that the proposal was too expensive. These plaques shine a light on the government’s failure to protect our waterways, the natural world, and all of us.

“The government’s failure to properly tackle the issue of sewage pollution has been hugely controversial.

“Last summer over a hundred beaches were closed to the public after a series of sewage discharges by water companies left the sand and sea contaminated with human sewage.

“Meanwhile, only 14 per cent of the UK’s rivers achieve ‘good’ ecological status with pollution from agriculture, human sewage, roads, and single-used plastics creating a dangerous ‘chemical cocktail’ in our waterways.

“In December the Environment Agency announced it was pushing back targets to clean up England’s rivers, lakes, and coastal waters from 2027 to 2063, prompting an outcry.

“Members of Extinction Rebellion hope that the action on Saturday will draw attention to the state of our waterways and the failure of our MP to take action and work in the interests of those who elect her.”

MP Rebecca Pow said: “I have been clear that the amount of untreated sewage which enters our waterways and pollutes our beaches is unacceptable.

“We are the first government to require the roll-out of storm overflow monitoring, with now almost 90 per cent coverage. It is because of this monitoring – increased from just 5 per cent by this Government - that we are able to take action to clean up our water.

“Since 2015, we have also seen the number of bathing waters classified as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ increase to 92.8 per cent.

“We have also seen record levels of fines for water companies who break the law, and secured record levels of industry infrastructure investment to tackle sewage spills.”

Government have taken significant action in recent years.
Recent action includes launching Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan in August 2022.

This requires water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.

New targets include:

By 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water; and improve 75 per cent of overflows discharging to high-priority nature sites.

By 2050, all remaining storm overflows covered by our targets will have to meet the new requirements on rainfall and environmental impact, regardless of location.