Couple hit by stomach bug after swimming blast Southern Water for releasing sewage into the sea - Daily Mail

Couple who were struck down by stomach bug after swimming at Herne Bay in Kent blast Southern Water for releasing sewage just 24 hours before they went in the sea

• Georgia Hearn and her partner Chris were visiting Herne Bay in Kent on August 1
• A swim in the sea left them with a serious dose of gastroenteritis from sewage 
• The illness can cause 'sudden, watery diarrhoea' and 'projectile vomiting'
• Ms Hearn lashed out at Southern Water for dumping sewage in the sea nearby  

By Alastair Lockhart For Mailonline

Published: 19:01 BST, 3 August 2022 | Updated: 19:02 BST, 3 August 2022

A couple who caught gastroenteritis after swimming in the sea have slammed the water company that dumped sewage nearby just a day before.

Georgia Hearn and her partner Chris were visiting Kent with their dog Sully when they went swimming off the coast of Herne Bay on Monday August 1.

All three were hit with a serious case of gastroenteritis shortly afterwards - ruining the rest of their holiday.

When Gerogia complained to Southern Water about the incident, a spokesperson replied on Twitter the company was 'sorry for the inconvenience'.

She tweeted: 'I mean I'm completely disgusted at Southern Water's response and utterly appalled about the lack of warning to tourists regarding sewage being dumped in the sea.

'If I had known I would have never have got into the sea - it's not just myself who is poorly. It is also my partner and our dog too.

What is gastroenteritis?

Gastroenteritis is a illness which can cause severe vomiting and diarrhoea after a bacterial infection or tummy bug.

The condition can be caused by food poising or swallowing sewage water.

According to official NHS guidance, gastroenteritis can cause 'sudden, watery diarrhoea'.

Other symptoms include 'projectile vomiting', nausea a fever, aching limbs and a headache. 

For anyone suffering from the illness, the NHS recommends drinking lots of water to cope with the dehydration caused by vomiting and diarrhoea, and resting at home.

 

 Source: NHS Official Guidance 

'It unfortunately has ruined our last day visiting the south coast. I'm extremely angry and frustrated about the lack of concern for public safety from Southern Water.

'There is absolutely no warning for locals or tourists about the potential risks you face by entering sea filled with raw sewage. I mean how are the water companies even allowed to dump raw sewage into the sea?

'Something has to change. It's completely unacceptable.'

The Southern Water representative who replied to her tweet said the company's Beachbuoy app gives almost real-time updates about wastewater releases.

SOS Whitstable, a campaign group which holds Southern Water to account for its sewage releases, asked: 'Why are water companies not legally responsible for making people ill?'

Southern Water was fined a record £90 million by the Environment Agency last year after pleading guilty to thousands of illegal sewage dumps. 

It is not yet known whether the sewage that caused Georgia's illness was legal.

A spokesperson from Southern Water said: 'Two separate releases were made on the evening of July 31 via our Swalecliffe and Gainsborough Drive outfalls. They were heavily diluted with rainwater.

'These events followed a period of heavy rainfall, over a short period of time, in a small geographical area. This resulted in a significant increase in flows from our combined surface and sewer network to our treatment works.

'They were reported on our online Beachbuoy app within an hour of them taking place.

'The resultant releases were within our Environment Agency permit, and necessary to protect homes and businesses which otherwise would have been at risk of internal flooding.

'We are working hard to reduce our use of storm overflows at Southern Water, and have a number of ground-breaking pathfinder projects working with local communities to tackle this.'

Southern Water was fined £90 million for dumping sewage  

Southern Water was fined a record £90 million in July 2021 after bosses admitted deliberately dumping billions of litres of raw sewage illegally thousands of times over a five-year period into the sea.

The company pleaded guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges from 17 places - the equivalent of one pipe leaking continuously for seven years.

Tonnes of sewage polluted rivers and coastal waters in Kent, Hampshire and Sussex between 2010 and 2015, a court was told.

The Environment Agency brought a criminal investigation after shellfish conservations were found to be contaminated with E. coli 

Passing sentence, the Honourable Mr Justice Johnson said, of the formal 51 guilty pleas, that the Southern Water's behaviour had been 'shocking' and the offences had been 'committed deliberately' by the company's board of directors at the time.

He said: 'Each of the 51 offences seen in isolation shows a shocking and wholesale disregard for the environment, for the precious and delicate ecosytems along the North Kent and Solent coastlines, for human health, and for the fisheries and other legitimate businesses that depend on the vitality of the coastal waters.

'Each offence does not stand in isolation. It is necessary to sentence the company for the totality of the offences to which it has pleaded guilty. But even that does not reflect the defendant's criminality.

'That is because the offences are aggravated by its previous persistent pollution of the environment over very many years.'

Bosses deliberately painted a misleading picture of compliance to the Environment Agency, which brought the criminal prosecution, Canterbury Crown Court heard last year.

Between 2010 and 2015, raw sewage was diverted away from treatment works and instead into rivers and coastal waters so as to allow the company to avoid the costs of upkeep and financial penalties, the court heard.

The total amount of untreated sewage discharged into the environment was somewhere between 16 billion and 21 billion litres.

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