Recreational Data HQ

Updated by Kirsty Davies

Where do you swim, surf, paddle or play?

Are you a ‘bather’? no, we thought not.


In the legislation that protects human health from pollution, only ‘bathers’ are represented. it’s ridiculous.

help us fight for every water user to be protected.

Join the I’m Not a Bather campaign!

By failing to update the legislation, they’re failing the health of THOUSANDS of water users – possibly even yours. Here are three ways you can get involved:

1️⃣ Tell us where you jump in on the Recreational Water Map opposite. This gives us hard evidence of different water usage. Each time you take a dip in your local lake, have a surf or fish in your river, you can log it.

It doesn’t have to be an ‘official’ spot!

2️⃣Run a micro protest! Get your ‘I’m Not A Bather’ placard ready, snap a pic of how you use the water, and we’ll share it on our socials. Or even better, record a short video telling us how you use the water – and what you think about the current legislation. Then send it to us on socials or to [email protected].

3️⃣Submit sickness reports for you, your kids or your pets, if either of you have ever been sick.

Why it matters

Our waterways are used all year by many recreational water users. But bathing waters are only monitored for up to 20 weeks a year in the bathing season for England and Wales, and up to 15 weeks for Scotland and Northern Ireland. And when the government designate new bathing waters they only consider swimmers and not any other water users.

We know we are a nation of surfers, paddleboarders and kayakers. But these water users are not protected under the current legislation. At Surfers Against Sewage, we’re demanding that the bathing water legislation is reformed. Our bathing waters need to be monitored year-round and all recreational water users considered.

Campaign community and toolkit

If your local waterway isn’t a bathing water, join our Projecting Wild Waters community. We can help you apply for bathing water status, to ensure the water quality is monitored and kickstart improvements to water quality.

Tell us how you jump in:

Add to the map:

Kirsty Davies (she / her)

Community Water Quality Manager

I provide support to communities to apply for bathing water designation alongside Community Water Quality Officer, Lizzie, on our Protecting Wild Waters campaign. Bathing waters are vital in protecting the health of water users and improving the water quality of our well-loved stretches of rivers, lakes and beaches. It’s within my role I also work with communities at policy level to drive the changes required to our legislation to ensure it’s fit for purpose.

I also work on on our Citizen Science programme which provides communities with the guidance, tools and equipment to investigate water quality issues at their rivers, lakes and beaches.