00:00All right Naila, so can you start us off by telling us a little bit about how this actually happened?
00:04So it started as Southern Waters Treatment Facility in Eastbourne and the company says that what
00:09happened is damaged water filters basically allowed thousands if not 10 tons of these little
00:16bio beads to leak into the sea and like I said as you can see on the screen there are these tiny
00:21little plastic pellets that are used to clean waste water essentially but once they enter the
00:28open water they travel far and they travel very very fast I mean they've already reached the likes
00:33the likes of Cumber Sands, Cumber Sands excuse me and Ronnie Marsh and even St Mary's Bay which is
00:40just 50 kilometers away from the treatment plant itself. How serious is this? Are Kent coastlines safe?
00:47It's quite serious when you consider the fact that this is just another mark on Southern Waters
00:51reputation. I mean they have confirmed that it's very likely like highly likely that these beads
00:58have come from that specific treatment plan and what we have to remember is Southern Water is under a lot
01:03of criticism and scrutiny in Kent from its residents especially in regards to sewage pollution in the
01:10sea and also increasing water bills. I mean it was just earlier this year that Southern Water pled guilty
01:16to 13 charges for releasing untreated sewage into open water. I mean they've been fined millions if not
01:23tens of millions of pounds for releasing raw sewage into protected water and the public aren't happy
01:31Kent's residents aren't happy about this. They are boycotting the company by refusing to pay water bills
01:37until Southern Water essentially cleans up its act. In terms of if the coasts are safe environmental groups
01:43including one called strandlines and even some members of Southern Water are cleaning the debris.
01:51I think around 80% of the debris have been cleaned so far but local councils aren't happy. I mean
01:56rather district council has warned that it's likely more pellets will come through onto shores onto beaches
02:03in the coming weeks. And then you mentioned there that it's been brought to the attention of the council
02:07has it been discussed in parliament at all? It absolutely has. I mean Emma Hardy who is the minister for
02:13water and flooding in parliament. She has called the situation the issue an appalling pollution
02:20incident and she says that the immediate priority is to protect the wildlife and to prevent further
02:25impact on the community on these beaches. And it's not just Emma Hardy who's discussing this but
02:31Folkestone and Hive MP Tony Vaughan has posted a video on his social media on his Instagram basically
02:37holding Southern Water to account saying come and clean up your mess, stop harming our wildlife,
02:43stop harming our birds. So it is being discussed quite a lot, yes.
02:47All right, very interesting. Thank you so much Nila.
02:49Of course.
Comments