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A protest march against Warwickshire water supplier Severn Trent will take place in Coventry today.

One hundred protesters from five different groups will gather at the Godiva Statue in Broadgate at noon to demand an end to dumping raw sewage into rivers.

The march will end at Severn Trent’s Headquarters in St John Street, where there will be a theatrical crowning of Severn Trent as ‘Richard the Turd, King of the Turds’, and protesters will return a bucket of mock sewage to the company.

In 2021 ITV reported that, in the previous year, Severn Trent dumped raw sewage into rivers for more than 500,000 hours.

Also in 2021, Severn Trent was fined £1.5million for illegal sewage discharges which took place in 2018.

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Professor Elizabeth Wellington, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick said: “This is more serious than the threat of Covid.

"If you’re a fisherman, dog walker, wild swimmer, or a child paddling in the shallows, or a canoeist, or you’re just unlucky enough to fall in the water, you are in danger of getting an infection, which could be caused by an antibiotic resistant bacterium and be more difficult to treat.”

Protesters are demanding Severn Trent invests in modern treatment of the sewage, expands holding tanks to stop river dumping and stop leaks in the system.

Those who would like more information about the Coventry Dirty Water campaign can visit https://www.facebook.com/XRCoventry/

Protest against Warwickshire water supplier Severn Trent to take place in Coventry today