The issue of water pollution has led to seven UK organisations, representing almost 450,000 members, elite athletes, participants and many more water users across the country, to join forces and call for change.

The Clean Water Sports Alliance of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), Angling Trust, British Rowing, British Triathlon, GB Outrigger, Paddle UK  and Swim England, who all rely on UK waters for sport and recreation, have teamed up and announced a vision to achieve healthy and nature-rich blue spaces across the UK for everyone to enjoy water sports.

They are calling for change to protect those they represent and the natural world in which they participate.

Pollution from various sources contaminates UK inland and coastal waters, damaging ecosystems and causing illness within people who take part in sport and physical activity in, on or around these waters. Water that is unfit to host water-based sport has also caused events, training sessions and activities to be cancelled or postponed because it has not met the standards for safe participation.

By uniting, the Clean Water Sports Alliance will work together to influence decision makers and drive positive change, working collaboratively to highlight issues and create solutions to help return the UK’s blue spaces to be where nature can thrive and sport and recreation can be enjoyed.

Pollution from outfall pipe discharging untreated sewage into a tributary of the Gwendraeth Fawr, Carmarthenshire, Wales, April 2022. Photo credit: camera lucida environment/Alamy

The Alliance’s three key priorities:

• Further and faster action on pollution. Improving the health of UK waters by 2030
  Enable people to make real-time informed choices about where and when to participate in water-based sports and activities
  Recognition of all recreational water users across decision-making and policy

Three asks of regulators and decision-makers:

• Regulators to be adequately funded to monitor, investigate and hold polluters to account, harnessing nature-based solutions
• Enable accurate access to real-time water quality information all year round including the compulsory monitoring of all sewage outlets; recognition of open source science relating to water quality and the creation of a centralised information hub for all water sports users
• Advocate a change from ‘bathing waters’ to ‘recreation waters’ within government policy to recognise the wide range of activities that depend on clean water

‘Poor bathing water quality’

Swimmer walking out the sea next to outflow pipe at Longrock beach between Penzance and Marazion in Cornwall. Photo credit: horst friedrichs/Alamy

The UK has continued to score near the bottom of the European bathing water quality index, with the limited action currently being taken not making significant improvements.

Biodiversity is also being put under immense pressure, threatened by pollution as well as by invasive species which alter our ecosystems, introducing new pathogens and costing the UK £4 billion a year according to a 2023 paper.

Advocating for the restoration of the UK’s blue spaces for the enjoyment of all, the Alliance want to see these environments free of pollution and havens for wildlife, as well as places for everyone to be active in sport and recreation.

Angling Trust campaigns and advocacy manager, Kris Kent, said: “Anglers have been at the forefront of the campaign against the scandalous pollution of our precious rivers by the water industry and we have been calling for a massive step change in capital investment to upgrade a creaking and leaking wastewater infrastructure that is demonstrably no longer fit for purpose.

“We need regulators to enforce the law and we need government to be more ambitious in their plans to end the discharge of raw sewage.”

‘Pollution from various sources contaminates UK inland and coastal waters, damaging ecosystems and causing illness within people who take part in sport and physical activity in,’ says The Clean Water Sports Alliance . Photo credit: Andrew Michael/Alamy

British Rowing CEO, Alastair Marks, said: “Clean water is a topic which is increasingly receiving the attention it deserves on a national level. With this new partnership we hope to embody the dedication of our athletes and strive towards cleaning, protecting and preserving the blue spaces on which our sports rely.

“This Alliance, along with our own Environmental Sustainability Strategy, is another step on the road towards tackling one of the biggest challenges facing the future of our sport.”

British Triathlon CEO, Ruth Daniels, said: “The issue of polluted water is well known and by uniting to form this alliance, we want to make our collective voice heard for our members, athletes, participants and wider community, as well as the natural environment, both now and for generations to come.

“For too long not enough has been done and we want to see real change to promote and protect clean open water here in the UK.

“Water quality is one of the central pillars of British Triathlon’s sustainability strategy, Endurance 2040+, through which we will act, collaborate and amplify the message that action needs to be taken to protect the world in which we swim, bike and run.”

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Paddle UK Head of Access and Environment, Ben Seal, said: “Water quality and pollution is one the biggest concerns for all users of blue space right now.

“Paddle UK, like our colleagues who use and love blue space, are receiving ever more concerned enquiries about the impact poor water quality is posing to health and in some cases, to livelihoods.

“We know there has been progress in some areas, but not enough. The government and the sector needs to commit to going further, faster to protect human health. We will continue to do everything we can to be a strong voice in the watersport sector and for our members.”

Royal Yachting Association chief executive officer, Sara Sutcliffe, said: “This Alliance represents the interests of millions of recreational water users whose experiences are impacted by substandard water quality and pollution every day. For the RYA, we believe a failure to act is not acceptable. Access to water is the foundation of our Together on Water strategy, we must protect our playground to inspire the next generation.”

Royal Yachting Association environmental and sustainability manager, Phil Horton, said: “We go boating because we love being out there in the natural environment. We know people participating in sailing and boating at a grassroots level, including our club members and the parents of young people, are concerned about the health of their local water.

“If measures to improve water quality for all recreational waters, not just bathing waters, are not acted on soon then participation in our sport will be impacted negatively, with a knock-on effect on health and wellbeing.”

“We must protect our playground to inspire the next generation,” says RYA CEO Sara Sutcliffe. Photo credit: Ian West/Alamy

There has been ‘scandalous pollution of our precious rivers by the water industry’ says the Angling Trust. Photo credit: David J. Green/Alamy

Swim England Chief Executive Officer, Andy Salmon, said: “We’ve come together with other sporting governing bodies as all our sports and activities are impacted by poor water quality.

“We are united over the need to promote and protect the UK’s blue spaces and will continue to push for quicker action to improve the health of our waterways for the benefit of swimmers, all water users, wildlife and the environment alike.”