URGENT CWAG FUNDRAISER FOR NEW RAPID TEST TRIAL

Aim

The Clean Water Action Group want to trial a new rapid testing method alongside our lab tests in Hastings & St Leonards in 2025.

Hello Friends!

Thank you for your continued support and interest in the Clean Water Action Group. In 2023/4 you raised £7,000 for our project which we spent on 10 months of lab testing, gathering the data, sharing the results and lobbying to clean up the water and change the law to enforce this. Now...

We're excited to share an important new project!

Over the next 10 weeks (Jan 20 – Mar 31 2025), we have a unique opportunity to trial & compare two water testing methods. This time-sensitive project could transform how we track water quality, to better understand and monitor the health of our seawater.

But we can’t do it without your support.

What do we aim to do?

With the help of our newly trained team of testing volunteers we aim to continue conducting 4 tests per week:

• Trialling a new cutting edge mobile water testing device - Fluidion Alert 1 - that detects E. Coli and provides results within just 14 hours!
• Using our trusted laboratory tests (which give results in around 4 days)

Our progress:

We’re part way there -  Southern Water’s Bathing Water Quality Team has loaned us the new mobile device and is covering all associated costs for this portion of the trial. This is a direct result of all the testing and lobbying we have been doing, with your support, over the past 18 months!

However, because the method is new we need to run our lab-based tests alongside it, ensuring accurate comparisons and robust data.

What we need:

To make this happen, we need to raise funds for the lab testing portion… and we need your help.  So we’re setting a new target of £4,000 to fund these vital lab tests through to the end of March.

What you will get:

• We will share the lab test results, while in the background we will plot the new mobile device results alongside it.
• We will continue to pressure Southern Water to invest in waste water infrastructure and stop sewage releases.
• We will continue to report any high readings for faecal bacteria to SW, EA, HSBC and ESCC.
• We will continue to lobby our MP for year-round bathing water testing implemented by the Environment Agency (EA). This is already part of the proposed Water (Special Measures) Bill going through Parliament. Again, this is a direct result of testing and lobbying by clean water activists over the past few years.

How you can help:

• Donate to support this project.
• Share our campaign with friends, family, and local businesses who care about the health of our waters.

Your support could make all the difference in determining if this newer faster method will work for Hastings and St Leonards water quality monitoring.

Thank you from the CWAG Testing & Coordinators team!

Some background: who are CWAG?

In July 2021 a Southern Water pipe burst in the Bulverhythe area flooding the beach, beach huts and local homes with sewerage. Already dealing with the impact of outflow spills, a group of concerned swimmers formed Clean Water Action Group to try and hold Southern Water to account for this continued pollution. CWAG are a non-partisan group of volunteers who are testing, lobbying, collaborating and sharing evidence-based information to reduce pollution and improve water quality.

Impact

Clean water affects every single person in the community, whether that is the people who swim in the sea all year round, the thousands of families who bring their children to the beach, the dog walkers or anyone who eats seafood, this affects you. We need the ocean for the human race to survive and we should be protecting our precious marine life for generations to come, this issue is universal and immediate action must be taken before it is too late.

Why are we crowdfunding?

You have probably already heard in the news about the "Sewage Scandal" that is plaguing the UK's precious rivers and beaches. It is now common knowledge that Water companies pollute our Rivers and Seas in order to avoid spending money on infrastructure so that they can take huge payments in dividends. 

We know that Southern Water has been releasing untreated sewage onto our beaches here in Hastings and St Leonards and so far this year just one outfall in st Leonard spilled for 1052 hours, or 6 weeks of continuous sewage pollution! There have been 66 reports of people being sick after swimming in Hastings and St Leonards, including someone who lost their hearing in one ear.

So who is monitoring the pollution?? 

The Environmental Agency test the water in the "bathing season' which is from 15th May to the end of September, but no one is monitoring the pollution in the months of October to April! People are still in the water swimming, walking their dogs, paddleboarding, Kayaking and letting their children paddle year-round.  

Earlier in 2023 the CWAG testing team started testing on beaches in Hastings and St Leonards to see what the bathing water was like. The results were shocking, we found dangerously high levels of E.Coli and Faecal Bacteria on multiple occasions. 

We want to continue monitoring the water quality for our health and safety as well as for the environment. We want to test from the beginning of October to the middle of May. These results will help us protect the sea by putting pressure on the EA and other relevant organisations to implement changes to bring this pollution to and end.

How we spent the money raised in our initial fundraiser

The money we raised has been spent on testing the water with Eurochem Labs through the period when the Evnviroment Agency does not test (Oct - May). Each test costs £35.04 plus postage (N.B. these prices have increased to £48.21 in 2024) which has to next day delivery as the samples need to reach the labs within 24 hours (this is very important!). 32 weeks of testing  cost around £5468.80 and we continued to test into this following year Autumn as we exceeded our target!

Any additional money raised over the target amount went into education events for local people about water pollution and testing.

This project successfully funded on 13th December 2023