'It's a lifeline' - St Austell swimmers call for action on sewage pollution
Ange Collins says the pollution threatens health and mental well-being.
A sea swimming group in St Austell is calling for urgent action to tackle sewage pollution in Cornish waters.
Ange Collins, who runs Salty Swims - a group that helps people struggling with their mental health - says repeated pollution warnings have kept swimmers out of the sea for months at a time.
She wants water companies held to account so people can enjoy safe swimming all year round.
Ms Collins said she regularly checks pollution warnings and the overflow map from South West Water before each swim to make sure its safe.
However she is concerned about the health risks posed by sewage pollution, noting the impact on swimmers with compromised immune systems.
"If there's been a pollution warning and you've got in the sea because you hadn't noticed it or you haven't checked, then the chances are that you're going to pick something up from it," she said.
"It's raw sewage being pumped directly into our swimming water, so it's never going to be a great outcome if you are actually swimming."
She said the conditions have forced the group to go elsewhere.
"From January to about April, we had so many pollution alerts that we had to go elsewhere for our swims," she said.
"We had to seek out different avenues and beaches that had no pollution warnings on them."
She added: "We had no real contingency fund last year for the pollution and so we spent a lot of money paying for our swimmers to get into Jubilee Pool when we couldn't get into the sea."
She emphasised the importance of clean water, not only for physical safety but also for the mental health benefits it provides to those struggling with their mental wellbeing.
"We have swimmers come to us that say, you have literally saved my life," Ms Collins said.
"Just that one session I came to opened my life up again for me and stopped me killing myself. It is literally that serious."
"It's a lifeline"
She added: "What these companies are doing is they're not allowing those people to experience that huge boost in their mental health and wellbeing
"They're actually not only putting people's health at risk through the sewage pollution, but really putting people's mental health at risk as well.
"We've had people that have been through counselling being on antidepressants and the only thing that has helped them is getting into a body of cold water.
"It's so important that companies like South West Water sort this out because it is literally a lifeline."
Ms Collins criticised water companies for failing to manage water resources efficiently, calling for investment in infrastructure to prevent pollution and ensure reliable water purification processes.
She highlighted the flow of executives between government environmental agencies and water companies, raising concerns about accountability in managing water systems.
Ms Collins wants companies to face penalties and urges for reforms that address both drought management in summer and pollution prevention in winter.
"I'd like to see companies that go into massive profits, who pay their leading executives massive bonuses, actually penalised if they're not providing a safe and reliable source of water and a safe and reliable way of saving excess water," she said.
"It makes no sense because all summer we have a drought and then all winter they haven't got the capacity to store water, they haven't got the capacity to clean water properly and so they're dumping it back out again.
"Put some money into the infrastructure of these companies and make them accountable for what they're actually doing."