Matt Staniek

You might recognise Matt – he’s worked hard this year to make the water quality of Windermere and surrounding watercourses into national news. He aims to hold water companies to account for discharging sewage into our waterways and harming biodiversity. Here's more from Matt: 

'I began my journey towards campaigning to protect Windermere after breaking my neck in a car accident. I was in a neck brace for 10 weeks, so I started frequenting the head of Lake Windermere for wildlife photography, as I was limited in terms of what I could do.

After visiting the same place day in and day out over a three-year period, I watched as biodiversity plummeted and water quality worsened. I had to find out what was causing it. That's when I discovered just how much untreated sewage was being released into Windermere's catchment. We are talking about thousands of hours of discharges, year after year.

I couldn't sit back and watch this happen, so I dropped everything and began a campaign to try and save the lake from sewage. So far, I've run two petitions about this issue, both of which have surpassed 100,000 signatures.

We've all felt the impact that climate change has had on our country this year, and things are going to get worse. Our lakes and rivers will not be able to adapt to this threat, due to a severe lack of investment to improve antiquated and inadequate infrastructure that is destroying our environment.

We are at the point of no return and we must come together to stand up and save Windermere, to stand up to save this nation's freshwater, to stand up to ensure our survival as a species. 

Please add your voice and sign the petition to save Windermere. You can also donate to fund data collection, campaign films and the expansion of the Save Windermere campaign.'

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