‘I swam in the polluted Channel and now I need hearing aids’

“It’s no exaggeration to say it’s affected every aspect of my life,” said Maggie Alderson, a Hastings resident who blames the polluted English Channel for an infection that caused hearing loss in one ear two years ago.

Hastings has been in the spotlight again this week for an acute problem over water supply, with more than 30,000 homes relying on bottled water because of a burst mains pipe. All the homes are now back on mains supply.

However, the East Sussex town also suffers from a chronic challenge: water pollution. Southern Water’s own “Beachbuoy” monitoring data shows hundreds of thousands of minutes of raw sewage spills into the sea at Hastings and St Leonards between December 2020 and March 2023.

Alex Ford, a professor of biology at the University of Portsmouth who analysed the figures, found that seven storm overflows run by the company at St Leonards spilt for 188,125 minutes over the period. Five at Pelham beach, Hastings’ main tourist beach, spilt for 16,259 minutes.

Alderson took comfort in sea swimming during the Covid lockdowns until she got an ear infection in 2022. When she saw a GP, the doctor’s first question was whether she was a sea swimmer. “She said, ‘you are the seventh I’ve seen this week with an ear infection’,” Alderson said. Her infection progressed to the point where her ear drum was punctured. She now wears hearing aids.

The 64-year-old novelist and journalist blames the infection on swimming in seawater contaminated with faeces. Normally, Alderson checked sewage spill maps run by the charity Surfers Against Sewage. That day she did not.

If an operation to repair her ear drum goes well she hopes to return to swimming, but would never do so without ear plugs. “I feel like one of the great joys of my life has been spoilt for me for ever,” Alderson said.

Privately, some in the water industry are sceptical of how much poor water quality is linked to such illnesses. They point out that “surfer’s ear”, a condition that can lead to infections, is linked to prolonged cold water swimming.

While Alderson’s case is extreme, others have been deterred from swimming at Hastings too. Becca Horn, a resident in the town and campaigner at Clean Water Action, has been taking water samples since 2022 at Pelham beach and Bulverhythe beach to the west, where pipes have burst and leaked sewage.

“It’s full of crap,” she said of the water quality in the sea. Every week during April, Horn and colleagues, who send their samples to a lab to be analysed for harmful bacteria including intestinal Enterococci and E.coli, have found high readings.

Horn said the main problems were water pollution from flooding and the sewage outfalls. On the main tourist beach in town, an outfall spills directly on to the pebbles, though Southern Water has applied to extend it further out to sea.

“I’ve been very much put off by some of the horrendous readings that we’ve been getting. I know of swimmers that’ve been ill, that have now got long-term conditions because of sewage pollution. We are all so much more conscious of whether it’s safe to go in the water,” said Horne, a swimmer who is also a Green Party councillor.

With the bathing season officially starting next week, Environment Agency officers will also be heading to Hastings’ beaches to take their own samples of bacteria. Campaigners are showing no signs of letting up either. The coastal town is one of many nationally that will see paddleboarders, surfers and kayakers stage a mass “paddle out” protest against sewage pollution on May 18.

Tom Gallagher, the open water improvement lead at Southern Water, said: “We play our part in improving the standard of bathing waters through major investments in treatment works along our 700 miles of coast, and we are working hard to extend our efforts and partnerships with other agencies to make an even bigger positive impact. This involves industry-leading efforts to reduce the use of storm overflows, a system designed to protect people’s homes and communities from flooding.

“While we have an important role to play in enhancing and maintaining water quality, there are a wide range of pollutants which have an impact — contaminated rainwater running off roads and agricultural land, wastewater from privately owned treatment works, boats and animals on the beach such as dogs and seabirds, and the overall steep rise in bathing-water users all play a part. That’s why it is so important for all parties to work together.

“We’re working hard to make improvements in Hastings and we’re doing this collaboratively through working closely with the local council and passionate citizen science groups. We have provided them water quality testing equipment and training as part of this. The picture in Hastings is actually one of real improvement as [the] Pelham beach rating has gone from sufficient in 2019 to being good consistently over the past three years. Our goal is for our collaborative approach to enhance this further.”

The Times is demanding faster action to improve the country’s waterways. Find out more about the Clean It Up campaign.