Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is a charity founded in 1990 by surfers to protect UK beaches and seas. They campaign on issues like marine litter, water quality, and climate change through volunteer beach cleans, research, and lobbying. Some of their impacts include extending sewage treatment on parts of the east coast. They hope to continue educating the public and sustainably managing the marine environment.

1. Name: Shania Carter
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2. The client: Surfers Against Sewage
Overview of the client.
Surfers Against Sewage or SAS are a charity funded organisation helping to protect the UK’s beaches and seas. This is
achieved by mostly volunteering and scientific research although campaigning is another factor in the organization. There
are key objectives that the organization set out to achieve, they are an organization that target costal environment issues
regarding pollution and litter. The two main objectives are to promote the benefit and educate the public and therefore
engaging in working with the community. The organization was founded in 1990 by a group of surfers, one of the many
reasons for why they started is because the time came to drastically change the quality of bathing water come 1989, this
has been a foundation for the SAS early campaigns, in the early 1990’s SAS were a catalyst for change and campaigning
collating health evidence and relying on the legislation of the EU Bathing Water Directive and the Urban Waste Water
Directive both in 1991. What the organization do now is to still sustain the objective of cleaner beaches ocean’s and seas
for everyone to enjoy, there are many policies the organization is campaigning for on their own terms for example the
environmental policy – within this policy there is a number of set points the campaign must follow to ensure they are living
up to their standards and what they do reflects what they say to the public. There is quite a big team that run this
organization the roles include; chief executive, campaigns director, merchandise coordinator, campaigns and education
manager, fundraising manager, finance assistant, regional reps and volunteer officer, membership manager and campaign
photographer. All of these roles are volunteers although each role is quite high maintenance. Most of the people that work
there have a passion for the beaches and or are passionate surfers, others also have been campaigning for other charities
for a long time. The funding options for the organization are mostly through the memberships, community events and other
campaigns, other donations can be individual or through a project sponsorship, profits are also made from the sale of
merchandise. SAS have had to turn down lucrative sponsorship deals as it goes against it’s project remit.
Who are they, when did they start, why did they start, what do they do, how are
they funded?

3. The issues:
Your client advocates on a number of different yet related issues.
What issues your client campaign on?
The bigger issues SAS are campaigning against are marine litter, protecting the waves, water quality, climate change and
education and education and reports, these bigger issues break down into smaller campaigns with six or seven individual
articles which relate to the big issue. The smaller articles are listing the objectives the campaign want to see happen from
the government and the public and how us as the public can change these things and how we can get involved with the
separate campaigns.
What are some of the impacts they have managed to achieve?
The most recent impact they have managed to achieve is that UV sewage treatment has been extended in the east coast
area to protect recreational water users and the marine environment. The Environment Agency has requested that Anglian
Water maintains the UV treatment from March through to September, this is good news for the east coast and the SAS as it
doubles the current duration of sewage treatment and safeguarding local surfers. There has also been an added 19 weeks
which will come into force April 2016. Despite physical impacts on the beaches, they have also won awards for having their
own impact; non profit category winner – Surfers Against Sewage website at the Lovie awards, winner of the the sustainable
best award for the the SAS killing waves documentary at the Portuguese Surf Film Festival, winner of the environmental
award for the SAS Killing Waves documentary at the Surf At Lisbon Film Festival, shortlisted for best charity at Cornwall
Today Awards 2013, 3rd place in the protect our waves petition photography at Sony World Photography Awards all in 2013.
Possible costs of the money raised goes into travel to the beaches, purchasing goods and services to make that impact.
Corporate sponsorship agreements are ploughed back into the campaigns although many are turned down as they are too
lucrative into keeping sustainable and minimal costs.
What are they still hoping to achieve?
There are still some objectives that will take some time for the charity to achieve, these are long term goals that include
and promote the public. The two big objectives are; to undertake and promote for the benefit of the public, the
conservation, protection, improvement and ecologically sustainable management of the marine environment including
associated land, shoreline and structures. The second objective is to advance the education of the the public in the
conservation, protection, improvement and ecologically sustainable management of the the marine environment including
associated land, shoreline and structures (http://www.sas.org.uk/about/)

4. The issues:
One of the bigger issues that also the Marine Conservation talk about is marine litter. The sources of marine litter from the
MCS beach watch survey include: 40.4% from the public, 4.5% sewage related debris, 13.9% fishing litter, 0.7% fly tipping,
3.9% shipping, 0.2% medical waste, 36.3% non – sourced. The main threat for beach users is injury from broken glass or
discarded metal and other objects. The beach is also likely to suffer from sewage related problems such as human cotton
buds or sanitary waste. Continued with waste, one of the other issues is water quality, there seem to be no blue seas
around Britain or hardly any sometimes due to combined sewer overflows, the threat of water quality can be reduced by
diffuse pollution which is generated from multiple unidentified sources, examples include leakage from septic tanks
collectively all these chemicals can reduce water quality. Poor water quality can lead to sewage related illnesses during
bathing season (May 15th – September 30th) the most common complaints range from ear nose and throat infections to
stomach illnesses including diarrhoea, which can be un – pleasant for most surfers as it can keep them out of the water for
a long time. Some of the different risks of sewage polluted waters include; stomach upsets - swallowing water
contaminated with bacteria or viruses can cause gastroenteritis, symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea, the second risk
is skin infections if damaged skin comes into contact with sewage contaminated water a painful and itchy rash can develop,
ear infections are also a common risk the longer seawater stays in your ear the more chance you have of developing an
outer ear infection, eye infections are related to sewage contamination where the eye becomes red and swollen with a lot
of discomfort, sore throats and chest infections are also part of the risks, the illness of the sore throat normally clears after
a few days, it has been known that surfers who have surfed in sewage contaminated waters have become very unwell.
Hepatitis A is a serious virus and is frequently found in sewage, even sewage workers are vaccinated against the virus, it can
lead to serious complications in the liver and different parts of your body including the brain, surfers are also extremely
advised to have a vaccination and also a booster vaccination to reduce the chances of potentially catching the virus.
(issue continued)

5. Facts and figures:
Use this space to highlight key facts and figures related to this project. These
could be very useful later on in your project as you try to raise awareness.
• Mermaid’s tears are the second most common litter item found on UK beaches.
• 37% of marine litter comes directly form the public.
• More than £80m is spent cleaning up from sewage blockages.
• 94% of Fulmars in the North Sea have ingested plastic.
• 70% of marine litter sinks.
• The amount of marine litter found on UK beaches has doubled in the last 15 years.
• 6.4 million tonnes of litter are estimated to enter the sea yearly.
• A plastic bottle may persist in the marine environment for more than 450 years if left on the beach.
• In 2014 9,715 community volunteers took part in 335 SAS beach cleans, removing 59,727 kilograms of marine litter.
• 123 beaches were cleaned by SAS volunteers in the autumn last year.
• £1 of donations will pay for a butt bin to keep cigarette butts off the beaches.
• £5 will pay for a family to attend a beach clean.
• £50 will pay for the education officer to deliver a school talk.
• £250 could help train a regional representative to give education talks, monitor pollution incidents and organise local
beach cleans.
• £500 could pay to alert water users throughout the UK when raw sewage is discharged after heavy rainfall.
• £5000 could help pay for SAS to expand the network of regional representatives across the UK to combat community
environmental issues.
• £10,000 could pay for the SAS campaign team to organise campaign actions throughout the year and lobby government
and industry.
• £25,000 could help pay for educational projects for the year and inspire the next generation of environmental activists.
• 84% of donations and fees goes on work protecting the UK’s coastline, beach cleans, education and campaigns.
• 6% of donations and fees goes on administration.
• 10% of the money spent goes on fundraising activities.
• Hepatitis A, a sewage related pathogen can survive for more than 90 days in sea water.