Camber Sands seesfall in water quality

The Society’s Good Beach Guide 2013 sees Camber slip from the top ‘Recommended’ category to meeting the minimum water quality requirements in a ‘Mandatory’ rating.

Categories are decided by how water quality checks for E.coli bacteria.

Water quality at Winchelsea Beach remains unchanged from its 2012 Mandatory rating but St Leonards, like Camber, has also slipped from Recommended to Mandatory.

Camber’s lower rating is consistent with an overall national decline in the quality of British bathing water, largely caused, says the Marine Conservation Society, by last year being one of the wettest summers on record, leading to more sewage in the sea.

The Society has recommended only 403 of the 754 UK bathing beaches tested in 2012 as having excellent water quality - just over half, and 113 fewer beaches than were recommended last year.

Even more concerning is that 42 beaches (5.6%) failed to meet even a minimum European standard, or equivalent, for bathing water quality – 17 more than in last year’s Guide.

Pollution can originate from a variety of sources such as agricultural and urban run-off, storm waters, misconnected plumbing, septic tanks and dog faeces.

Sewage and animal waste is full of viruses and bacteria and most water users won’t be aware that this type of pollution can increase the chance of them going home with an ear, nose or throat infection, or even gastroenteritis.

MCS Coastal Pollution Officer, Rachel Wyatt, said: “There is no simple solution to sewage and animal waste reaching our seas.

However, if the water industry, communities and local authorities recognise that there is a problem and begin to work together to find answers then that would be a significant start.”

She also called for improved monitoring and action to reduce pollution from farms.