Extinction Rebellion Newark and Sherwood project a slide show onto Newark Castle highlighting concerns about the dumping of sewage into rivers

Extinction Rebellion Newark and Sherwood projected a slide show onto the side of Newark Castle late on Friday evening to highlight their concerns about the dumping of sewage into local rivers that they say include the Trent and Devon.

The stunt aimed to highlight the government’s "continued failure to sufficiently tighten environmental regulations and force water companies to clean up their act."

Graham Keal, retired journalist, speaking on behalf of the group, said: “The state of our rivers is a national disgrace and our government is not doing enough to put things right.

“On 20th October 2021, Robert Jenrick MP voted to block a proposal that would have forced water companies to reduce the harm caused by sewage pollution. The government justified this by claiming that the proposal was too expensive, and yet water companies are making huge profits. We wanted to highlight what is happening and the threats posed to our health and to wildlife. We need MPs to take this issue seriously.”

Last summer, it was reported that 90 beaches were closed off to the public in August alone after a series of sewage discharges by water companies left the sand and sea contaminated with human sewage.

Meanwhile, say Extinction Rebellion, only 14% 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 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 outcry.

Kate Martin, retired NHS Scientist and resident of Southwell, said “I am horrified to discover that the stream running through the local park, past a school and children's play area is regularly contaminated by sewage.”

“It’s disgusting, literally, to think about what’s being pumped into our local rivers. Sadly, the government and the water companies we pay our money to, aren’t going to clean up their act unless ordinary people put pressure on them. We need everyone who cares about our rivers and seas to stand up with us and speak out.

The stunt was just the first part of a bigger campaign to protect nature and our waterways.

Many blue plaques have also appeared this weekend by waterways and at some of Newark and Sherwood's most iconic locations, reading 'Robert Jenrick MP voted against reducing the dumping of raw sewage in our rivers. Demand change now.'

Residents are being challenged to see how many they can find and share on social media using #dirtywater.

In response Mr Jenrick said: "This is completely untrue. No government has done more to tackle the issue of storm overflow discharges.

"A growing population, Victorian infrastructure and an increase in extreme weather events has brought the frequency of discharges to an unacceptable level.

"It was a Conservative Government that first set out our expectation that water companies must take steps to significantly reduce storm overflows.

"In August 2022, we launched the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan which requires water companies to make their largest ever investment into water infrastructure — a £56bn capital investment by 2050.

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

"By 2050, all storm overflows covered by our targets will have to be improved. We will review the targets in 2027. If it is possible to go further and faster while balancing the cost to consumers, we will not hesitate to do so.

"Complete separation of sewage and rainwater systems (which would stretch 2.5 times around the earth) would cost £350bn-£600bn and cause significant disruption. Most of the combined system runs under our towns and cities and would have to be dug up.

"Reducing discharges to zero in an average year at all inland waters using other options, such as building storage tanks (equivalent 40,000 Olympic swimming pools) would cost between £160bn- £240bn and would impact on consumer water bills.

"It was a Conservative government that directed water companies to initiate mandatory monitoring of storm overflows.

"We have increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network from 5% in 2016 to almost 90% now monitored, and we will reach 100% cover by end of this year.

"We will also place duties directly on water companies to monitor the water quality impact up and downstream of all their assets. Powers in the landmark Environment Act, mean there are now more protections in place for our water environment than ever before.”