Windermere was flooded with 8,787 hours of raw sewage last year. One man is fighting back

Matt Staniek cannot stop thinking about sewage. 

The director of the Save Windermere campaign has been working for three years to prevent waste flooding into England’s largest lake. 

In July 2023, the company with responsibility for managing the water quality in the lake, United Utilities, set up an information centre in the town of Windermere. 

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter

To Staniek, that was a red flag. For the last year he has been holding a Greta Thunberg-style sewage strike, spending an hour every Monday camped out outside the centre. 

Big Issue joined him for week 39.  

Just moments into the strike, a local man comes up to Staniek and greets him with a fist bump. He talks about how he remembers growing up 40 years ago and “you could see everything in the lake”. Now? It’s like “pea soup”, he says, and calls the water company responsible for managing the lake “United Futilities”. 

It’s a sign of the anger at the pollution of a popular and much-loved icon. That anger flows through other bodies of water in and around the UK too. 

Staniek takes his stand every Monday to keep the issue in local consciousness and to peacefully make a point that the vast majority of people can agree with: large amounts of sewage should not be pumped into bodies of water, treated or otherwise. 

“I think what’s funny is: if you came the summer that I started in 2021, I would have told you by the end of the summer I would have had this finished. So it’s been much longer than I anticipated,” says Staniek. 

“But I think we’ve achieved more than I would have ever hoped. We are front and centre nationally. Windermere now is about sewage. People know what’s happening here. People want an end to this. It’s on the political agenda.” 

The privatised ownership model in England’s water industry has come in for severe criticism in recent years. 

Rising water bills and declining water quality has sparked fury. Regulator Ofwat recently fined Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water a combined £168 million for failing to manage wastewater treatment works and networks. 

While United Utilities in the north-west of England was not among the punished polluters, Save Windermere has been keeping the company in the spotlight. The firm caused anger in February when a reported 10 million litres of untreated sewage was illegally discharged into the lake on a single night. A United Utilities spokesperson said this was due to “an unexpected fault on the third-party telecoms cable network in the area” which the company had “not been informed about”. 

Staniek and co have also taken issue with the money paid to shareholders in dividends – £320m last year according to United Utilities. The company also reported profits of £517.8m in the year to 31 March 2024. 

That comes against the backdrop of what Staniek calls years of underinvestment in Windermere. 

• Meet the woman with a ‘radical’ solution to water pollution
• Here’s why sewage is being dumped into seas and rivers – and what you can do about it
• ‘The grubby tentacles are everywhere’: This UK sewage discharge map shows where waste is being pumped into nature reserves

A United Utilities spokesperson told the Big Issue: “The factors impacting the water quality of Windermere are complex, with more than 1,800 septic tanks in the catchment and 89 discharge points belonging to others. Over the last two decades, we have invested £75 million upgrading wastewater treatment sites, pumping stations and sewers around Windermere, with £45 million of that work completed in 2020. Total phosphorus in Windermere has reduced by 30% as a direct result of that investment and all four bathing waters at Windermere are classified by the Environment Agency as Excellent. 

“We are making further investment in the Windermere catchment between now and 2030 to reduce storm overflow operation at Elterwater, Hawkshead, Ambleside and Near Sawrey by 50% on 2022 figures. This is expected to reduce total phosphorus by a further 4% and 8% in the two basins of Windermere. 

“As a member of the Love Windermere Partnership we continue to work with all organisations that impact water quality in the lake including farmers, septic tank owners, hotels, campsites, highways authorities and landowners to deliver the step change that we all want to see.” 

Staniek’s campaign group has developed a 10-point plan to clean up the lake. It includes better regulation, investment reporting, monitoring and tightening discharge limits in the short-term. 

In the next 10 years, it calls for the complete removal of sewage from Windermere and private treatment work reforms for the lake to achieve high ecological status under the Water Framework Directive. Ultimately, Staniek says it’s time to put people and planet before profit. 

“We’re saying to people: “Look, this isn’t just happening here. If it’s happening to Windermere, it’s happening everywhere,” he says. “It’s the same concept over and over again. This is about the water industry, prioritising dividend return over environmental protection.  

“This is about the fact that shareholders have essentially not invested into this. This is all customer bills that are not being diverted into what people are paying for. They’re paying not to have sewage dumped into our waterways.” 

A conservationist with a zoology degree, 28-year-old Staniek was mobilised to take action on sewage in Windermere after breaking his neck in a car accident. That recovery and a few lockdown walks led to him discovering the state of the water. 

“In the neck brace I was immobilised, so it was like: ‘I’ve got to go somewhere that’s flat so I’m not tripping up but it’s got to be somewhere that I know’, so I started going to where my grandma used to take me as a kid, which is at the top of the lake,” he says. “It’s basically where the two main rivers merge before they go into Windermere. 

“After I came out of my neck brace I continued to go there because I was seeing phenomenal stuff like otters, kingfishers and herons and it was really a mental health reprieve as well.  

“Then I noticed it was after the lockdown and people returned to the national park – I just saw the water quality decline and, all of a sudden, I really noticed slime on the riverbed. It was the transparency of the water, the clarity of the water, it was just something that changed.” 

Once Staniek investigated, he knew he had stumbled on a bigger issue. 

Save Windermere was born. 

“I still didn’t really know the connection between the sewage and the ecology but I just thought that that was wrong,” says Staniek. 

“As a conservationist, you become very aware of all the global threats that we’re facing: plastic pollution, deforestation of the rainforest, and things like that. But this was, all of a sudden, something that I felt was on my doorstep. I could have a tangible impact if I just took it upon myself to start it. For the first two years I ran out all my savings. I dropped everything to run this campaign and to put everything that I had into it. It’s consumed every waking second of my life since
I started.” 

Staniek’s passion, campaigning spirit and quirky messaging has rallied local people to join him every Monday. The initial video he posted on social media to announce his strike saw him sitting on a toilet outside the information centre. When Big Issue visits, the toilet is nowhere to be seen – it turns out that lugging a toilet in the boot of your car all year round isn’t ideal. 

But the playful approach to a complex topic and the unifying cause has inspired people like Claire to join Staniek on his crusade today, while wearing a poo emoji as a hat. 

“It’s just beautiful. It’s Windermere. And we need to look after it,” says Claire, flanked by a fellow protester wearing a cape of poo emojis. 

“Matt’s evidence about the sewage outflows – the films he makes – are shocking and appalling. And once you’ve seen them, you can’t unsee that evidence 

“Matt’s a fantastic guy – he’s just so motivated and he has the scientific knowledge to back it up, which I’m very impressed by.” 

Big names such as Lee Mack, Joe Lycett, Steve Coogan and Feargal Sharkey have also backed Staniek’s cause. 

Coogan joined a 24-hour protest in Windermere back in April, accusing the water company of a “smokescreen” to distract from sewage discharges.  

“I had a conversation with Feargal Sharkey yesterday on the phone and I do have these moments when I think like: “Shit, I have these people in my phone book. I can just call them and talk to them,” says Staniek. 

“But, for me, it really does just emphasise the key message which is: Windermere really touches people. 

“The reason Lee Mack wants to come and add his voice is because he loves Windermere, because he spends time in Windermere, because he wants to protect Windermere. He sees that sewage going in is a bad thing. That’s what these really recognisable people are starting to see. It emphasises to me that our messaging is working. And emphasises the fact that, actually, this is really important.” 

Even in the year that Save Windermere has been holding its sewage strike, the face of protesting has changed. The previous government announced a crackdown on protests, handing police powers to impose serious disruption prevention orders on activists. 

The crackdown has seen several Just Stop Oil protesters being jailed in recent times; co-founder Roger Hallam was locked up for five years for disrupting the M25 in London in November 2022 for more than four days. 

It’s a sentence Staniek says is “nuts”, even if JSO’s disruptive tactics are not to his taste. 

“This is about public pressure and we don’t look to be divisive. We’re sitting here talking about what should be a common cause: that putting sewage into the lake is a bad thing,” says Staniek. 

“We’ve sat down with the chief executive of United Utilities, we’ve sat down with the chief executive of the Environment Agency, we will talk to anyone about this, because we’ve got an argument that can’t be argued. We have a friendly relationship because this has never been driven by hate. It’s not about attacking the individuals, it’s about attacking the system. You’ve got the engineering skill, you’ve got the technology, you’ve got the funding to stop putting sewage in the lake. Do it.” 

That call to action is also aimed squarely at Labour. The new government proposed the Water (Special Measures Bill) at the King’s Speech, promising to strengthen legislation that could see water bosses face personal criminal liability for illegal discharges as well as new monitoring requirements and automatic fines. 

Following the news that the number of serious pollution incidents in waterways increased from 44 to 47 between 2022 and 2023, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “These findings are shocking. For too long, water companies have pumped record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. 

“This government will never let this happen again.” 

Reed admitted that changes would take time, but Staniek is yet to be convinced. 

“What we’re seeing is they are putting sticking plasters over a leaking pipe,” he says. “I’m not seeing anything so far, which is really actually getting on top of this issue. I know Labour is talking about a water bill, which is very promising, but it depends on what’s in it as to whether it’s going to address the core issue here. 

“The core issue is that the water industry is prioritising dividend return over environmental protection. You want to unlock funding? Remove the shareholders and you will release funding into this system that’s needed to get on top of this issue.” 

Until that happens, expect to see Staniek and his supporters on the sewage strike every Monday. And, unlike most of us, Staniek does like his Mondays. 

“Even the small amount of people who come regularly on Mondays, it’s about community,” he says. 

“You’re so wrapped up in the detail that you don’t necessarily see that you’re touching local people to the point where they want to come and stand with you in the pissing rain on a Monday morning. 

“You don’t see how the local community is backing you. It’s been every single second of my existence for the last three years and all I want to do is talk about it – my girlfriend’s not so happy about that!” 

Windermere and beyond: The state of the UK’s water

Rising water bills and poor performance from water companies has provoked anger not just in Windermere but across England and Wales. Water bills are set to rise by an average of £94 in the next five years as part of a planned increase to trigger investment in leaky pipes and prop up struggling companies. 

Environment Agency data showed the number of sewage spills increased by 54% in 2023, up from 301,091 in 2022 to 464,056 a year later. The total duration of monitored spills was more than 3.6 million hours, rising 105% from 1.75 million hours in 2022. 

Some of these spills are legal – and the caveats to these figures are that monitoring has improved and it will take time for investment in the system to show up in stats. But there is still great distrust about whether there will be a trickle-down effect from higher bills to improved services. 

Professor David Hall from the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) at the University of Greenwich said the evidence of more than 30 years of privatisation shows companies “invested less than nothing of their own money in the companies”. 

His research, published in March, found shareholders at 10 English and Welsh water sewerage companies had withdrawn a net total of £85.2 billion since privatisation. Prof Hall added that shareholders had taken dividends worth 10 times the value of earnings retained on company balance sheets. 

Regulator Ofwat said it “strongly refuted” the figures and added there has been “huge investment in the sector of over £200bn”. 

Prof Hall said: “After 33 years when the private owners have been allowed to take so much money out of the system, it is not plausible to argue that there can be some ‘better’ regulation that will transform this situation. A rapid transition to public ownership is needed to end the large-scale extraction of money.”  

Find out more about the Save Windermere campaign here

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.