On the 26th October 2021 Leeds live released an article stating: “Leeds city is one of the worst places in the UK for raw sewage and human waste in rivers.”
Kirsty Tucker, a member of the ‘Plastic Free Northwest Leeds’ campaign says: “After the high tides and heavy rainfall all you can see on trees is raw sewage pollution.” One of the features this campaign is trying to fix is this problem as it is affecting the wildlife and the landscape of Leeds.
Tips that she gives the public to reduce the issue is to only flush body fluids down the toilet, anything else should be put in the bin. A member of the public ‘hopes it gets resolved’ as the environment around them doesn’t look clean or tidy anymore.
In July a press release was released stating that the Yorkshire water has been fined over £1.6million for polluting Bradford watercourse in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency. They then were taken to court on Monday 18th July where they pleaded guilty to unauthorised sewage discharges at the Magistrates Court.
Kirsty Tucker says: “Yorkshire Water is one of the second worst water companies in the UK for the volume of raw sewage spills” as she goes onto saying that the problem is only getting worse. Her advice to the public to do is to put pressure on the government and write to local MPs about the problem.
There are different groups you can join to keep updated with what is being done and ways you can also join in and help awareness rise as some of the public have ‘no idea’ that this is happening in their city.
https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreenwleeds/
