Photo: Twitter
Nothing gets your message across quite like a bit of star power. Ecological campaigners have been handed a boost this week, as an array of British TV heavyweights join forces to tackle sewage pollution at Lake Windemere.
The Lake District is one of the most outstanding areas of natural beauty in the United Kingdom. However, even this site of cultural significance has not been spared from mass sewage dumps, orchestrated by water companies and enabled by the government.
Untreated sewage is being discharged from storm overflows into Lake Windermere. Locals in Cumbria are beyond livid, and protest action is very much in full flow. On Monday morning, Lee Mack and Steve Coogan brought their message to a national audience.
The comics are set to perform as part of the campaign to ‘Save Windemere’ later today. However, Mack ensured that the serious stuff was raised first. The Not Going Out creator admits he only learned about the sheer scale of the pollution recently.
“We felt we had to do something. Steve Coogan and Paul Whitehouse got me involved. I was so naive about this – if you asked me, do they put sewage in our lakes, I would have said no. But they don’t just put some in. They put a lot in.” | Lee Mack
Coogan, perhaps the more politically-active of the two, went in harder. He described the sewage situation as a ‘national scandal’, warning that it could an entire generation for Lake Windemere to fully recover.
“It is a national scandal, what privitised water companies are doing. United Utilities are the biggest waste-water polluter in Windemere. But they’ve paid out £72 billion in investor dividends [over the last few decades] while not maintaining the integrity of the lakes. Pollution here should be ZERO”
“There should be no pollution at Windemere, they are trying to dilute our message. They need to step up, take responsibility, and clean up the lake. It’s a simple message. But even if they cleaned it up tomorrow, the lake would take a generation to recover.” | Steve Coogan
