MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2023) UK athletes preparing for the World Triathlon Championships are forced to forgo open water swim training off the coast of northwest England due to sewage pollution, The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The report added that athletes would train in an indoor pool, which would affect the preparation of athletes for competitions.
"You need to replicate what you will experience in the competition, you need to get muscle memory, you need to understand the dynamics of open water swimming. It's a different sort of swimming so you've got to have a different technique, you've got to train differently. It is going to impact on us massively," UK triathlete Adam Diver was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Diver added that during training in open water, the athletes can smell sewage, especially on hot days, the report said.
The problems with sewage in the United Kingdom are largely due to the fact that treatment facilities can not cope with heavy rainfall, the newspaper noted, adding that when rainfall reaches a certain level, water companies are allowed to discharge wastewater into rivers and seas.
Earlier in the week, the newspaper reported that almost a quarter of UK residents would refuse to travel to the sea this year due to the discharge of sewage into the sea.
In May, Water UK, an association representing the country's water companies, said that UK residents would face rising water bills as water companies were ready to invest 10 billion Pounds ($12.7 billion) in a new scheme to modernize sewage systems. Later, The Times reported that water bills in the UK could rise by 40% by 2030 as water companies seek to offset the costs of fighting the sewage pollution crisis in the country.
