Who’s to blame for Britain’s sea sewage problem? It’s not as simple as you might think

When confronted with a scandal so obvious, the next logical step is usually to look for the culprit. Who on earth allowed this to happen, asks Marie Le Conte

Britain’s beaches are becoming unusable (AFP/Getty)

I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t know a lot about sewage. Life is short, we all have our priorities, and somehow the disposal of various effluents had never quite appealed to me as a topic. Still, sometimes you can see something and know it to be wrong, even if you are not an expert.

Britain’s beaches becoming unusable due to, among other things, human excrement being pumped out into the sea by water companies feels like one of those things. You don’t need a degree in waste management to feel that it is not an ideal state of affairs.

When confronted with a scandal so obvious, the next logical step is usually to look for the culprit. Who on earth allowed this to happen? According to one especially viral tweet, the answer is simple. Brexit meant that Britain could no longer import the chemicals it needed to treat water, so the government allowed water firms to get rid of sewage in rivers and the ocean. Clear, straightforward.