Hi John - THIS is our moment.

After 30 years of campaigning, protesting and exposing the disgusting damage being done to our waterways, water companies finally have nowhere left to hide.

Sewage is headline news. An election is imminent. 2024 really is our year to turn the tide. That’s why Surfers Against Sewage has a plan to go all out to pile the pressure on all politicians, so they change up these sh*tty policies for good. 

But financially, it's going to take everything we've got and more to make sure our fight is a top priority this election. Bigger stunts. More trips to parliament. More people mobilised through community actions and protests. The cost of a winning campaign is high.

That’s why as a Surfers Against Sewage Co-Founder, I’m here in your inbox, asking for your help. For 7 days only, we have an incredible opportunity to immediately double every single pound donated up to £100,000 by the Big Give.

So John, I have an urgent question for you: will you donate to the Now or Never Appeal and make this the year we turn the tide on sewage pollution?

John, back in 1990 when Surfers Against Sewage started, 400 million gallons of raw sewage was being discharged around the coast of the UK all day, every day. 

We formed as a bunch of outraged surfers with a mission to change that. We started a  campaign using science, engineering, law and politics to ensure the water companies had nowhere to hide! 

By the time the 1997 election rolled around, the issue of sewage on our beaches was high up the political agenda. We seized that opportunity and helped drive a £5.5 billion clean-up of our coastal waters. The parallels with today are clear.

Along with millions of other people, I have watched in horror and disbelief as the water industry has slipped back to its old ways. Shareholder dividends and fat cat salaries have been allowed to trump delivering clean safe waters. The practices of some of the water companies, their regulators and the government are an international disgrace. 

Like in 1997, our movement now has public support, media attention and the opportunity to influence a new government.  

Will you take 2 minutes to support the Now or Never appeal and help us make huge waves again to win the change we all desperately need to see?

In Autumn 1998, our campaigning saw the new Labour Government pass a landmark ruling to ensure that all sewage should receive at least secondary treatment, with tertiary for 2/3^rd of coastal discharges.

We can’t allow politicians and water companies to undo all our hard work - and we can’t let another election go by without action. 

But given our landmark success in the nineties, I have high hopes for change once more. 

In giving today, you’ll help equip outraged communities with the tools they need to spread the word among neighbours, friends and local leaders. You’ll help make noise in headlines and in public spaces. And you’ll be as unignorable among parliamentarians as we were in the 1990s.

This year will be as pivotal as 1997/1998 – collectively we must force a systemic change.

John, we have to make sure we don’t miss this moment for action. 

If everybody reading this email chipped in just £20, together we’ll make sure that our fight for rivers and seas we can all enjoy is louder and stronger than ever before.

My belief in the SAS mission is so strong that I am going to kick the appeal off by putting in £250 myself, which will be doubled to £500 by the Big Give – just like any donation you make.

I consider it to be a worthy amount for the joy and wellbeing I get from the oceans.

Thank you so much for everything you’ve done to bring us to this game-changing moment. If you donate now to help claim every last penny of this matched funding, we can invest in our biggest campaign yet for a thriving ocean.

Chris Hines MBE (Moaning Bloody Environmentalist). 
Co-Founder and lead at SAS through the 1990s.

P.S. There is just one week to hit this target, so SAS will be emailing you more than normal in the next few days. Why not make your donation right away and give the appeal a strong start?