2025 Free

2024 End of Year Impact Report

Surfers Against Sewage's 2024 End of Year Impact Report documents a landmark year in which water quality became a top-line UK political issue, driven by the charity's March for Clean Water mobilisation, a new real-time sewage map for Scotland, and tens of thousands of campaign actions sent to MPs and water companies via its Safer Seas & Rivers Service app.

Report snapshot
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About

Community beach and river clean-ups, real-time sewage pollution alerts (Safer Seas & Rivers Service app), citizen science water quality data collection, campaigning and policy advocacy, Regional Reps volunteer network

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 Over 1,000 media hits secured for the March for Clean Water campaign, including Sky News, ITV News, BBC Breakfast, The Guardian and The Independent
Key Metric 2 45,000+ emails sent to MPs and water company CEOs via the free Safer Seas & Rivers Service app
Key Metric 3 3.6 million hours of sewage discharge into UK waterways recorded and publicised in the last year

Key Outcomes

  • Helped secure a real-time sewage discharge map for Scotland, after years of campaigning for transparency
  • Water quality became a headline general election issue in 2024, with the incoming Environment Secretary naming river, lake and sea clean-up as a top priority
  • Organised the March for Clean Water alongside partner organisations, mobilising thousands of Ocean Activists and high-profile supporters including Dame Kelly Holmes and Fergal Sharkey

Geography

UK-Wide

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
5,999 active volunteers contributed 776,242 hours in 2025/26
Key Metric 2
137 winter maintenance projects across 45 canals; 109 lock gates replaced
Key Metric 3
101,640 children participated in Explorers/STEM outdoor learning, including 67,896 water-safety participants
Over 80% of the network kept fully open despite drought.
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
The Eco-Schools programme reached over 1.4 million pupils, with 2,162 schools awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
326,000 volunteers pledged to the Great British Spring Clean, picking up 425,626 bags of rubbish, supported by 288 local authorities and parish councils
Key Metric 3
2,227 Green Flag Awards given to parks and green spaces in the UK; 151 beaches given a Blue Flag and/or Seaside Award
98.3% of educators felt the Eco-Schools programme significantly supports young people's development of 'green skills'
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
First known breeding success of spoonbills in the Norfolk Broads in around 400 years, recorded at Hickling Broads and Marshes
Key Metric 2
Over 60 nature reserves managed across Norfolk, with land owned or managed for wildlife exceeding 5,000 hectares
Key Metric 3
1,500 volunteers helped protect wildlife across the county during the year
New urban nature reserve co-designed with the local community, expanding accessible green space in Norfolk
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
61,819 native oysters deployed across UK restoration projects in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
15,064 people participated in the Beachwatch beach clean programme, submitting 1,256 litter surveys — the highest in the programme's 31-year history
Key Metric 3
17,613 young people engaged through in-person or online youth programme sessions
£11.5 billion Ofwat investment package secured for storm overflow cuts in England and Wales following sustained MCS advocacy