The Save Windermere Strike Against Sewage: Our Battle for Clean Water
Hmm, how can we get United Utilities to pay attention? Let’s try a different approach, and no we aren't going to glue ourselves to anything.
Every Monday from 9am to 10am, a member of the Save Windermere team will be planting themselves right in front of the United Utilities Information Centre, in the heart of Windermere.
This will be an opportunity for all those who oppose United Utilities’ discharging of sewage into our lake to come and stand their ground in the Strike Against Sewage.
The strike will begin on Monday 6 November at 9am outside United Utilities Information Centre, 8 Crescent Road, Windermere, LA23 1EA.
Whilst our strike is light-hearted in nature, what is happening to our lake is no joke. Save Windermere is calling on United Utilities to put their money where their mouth is and invest in their infrastructure instead of engaging in PR initiatives in the catchment.
Watch the film to learn more!
What are we striking against?
United Utilities’ planned investment in the Windermere catchment is, to put it simply, inadequate. It’s like trying to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with a garden hose. When you factor in inflation, their recent proposed investment is even smaller than their previous one, and that began a decade before the next asset management planning cycle is set to officially begin.
Is what is being proposed good enough? We’ll let you decide… Last year alone United Utilities returned £300 million to their shareholders and the next planned investment into Windermere is £40 million. This investment will, from a regulatory perspective, have to be completed by 2030 - 7 years from now. If United Utilities were to continue returning dividends to shareholders at the same rate, then in the next 7 years they will have paid out £2,100,000,000 (that’s £2.1 BILLION) to shareholders. The balance seems off to us!
But just when you think this s**t show couldn’t get any worse, enter the Wild Fish Judicial Review. The review has demonstrated that if water companies are failing to meet their statutory duty due to a lack of capacity, the cost should fall on the company – not on us, the bill payers. So how much of this investment should really be covered by United Utilities and sit outside of the usual investment cycle? Well, our knight in shining armor Professor Hammond of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution has uncovered instances of illegal spilling (i.e. lack of capacity) as recently as 2022 at Ambleside, Grasmere, Near Sawrey, and Hawkshead sewage pumping station. So our guess is, quite a lot of it!
United Utilities holds the rather unenviable title of ‘most significant source of phosphorus input into Windermere’. This phosphorus overload is what’s causing the green appearance of the lake. Algal growth, fueled by phosphorus, is threatening life within Windermere waters. As if that’s not enough, Windermere is ill-equipped to face the challenges of our changing climate. With increased rainfall on the horizon, there’s bound to be more discharges into the lake, and the risk of droughts is ever increasing. Hot weather, more sewage discharges and insufficient investment in infrastructure are the ingredients for algae proliferation. As a sign of what's to come, in August 2022 the entire North basin of Windermere turned green and could be seen from space.
The call to action is simple: United Utilities, eliminate all your sewage discharges into Windermere. Similar investment and long-term management plans have worked wonders in places like Lake Annecy in France and Lake Washington in the United States. The former is now classified as the cleanest lake in Europe. We will be in Windermere every Monday to remind you of this.
Please come to join us and our special guests each Monday in the Strike to Save Windermere.
