Southern Water says it will pay for the clean up after millions of plastic pellets were washed up on Camber Sands. An investigation is underway to work out how they were released from the company’s Eastbourne Wastewater Treatment site.
Margot Dixon is one of the volunteers who helped gather up some of the spilt beads and wrote this poem after returning from the beach.
Ode to Southern Water
Do not send me a bill – I will send you mine.
Bio-bead spill? Surely a crime.
We harvest the crop
That you sowed on our shore
Sieving and raking
For three hours or more.
Do not send me a bill – I will send you mine.
Bio-bead spill? Surely a crime.
A mornings hard labour
Crouched on our knees
Sifting and washing
Your spilt bio-beads.
Do not send me a bill – I will send you mine.
Bio-bead spill? Surely a crime.
Water hauled from the ocean
To rinse sand away
From the toxic pellets
Polluting the bay.
Do not send me a bill – I will send you mine.
Bio-bead spill? Surely a crime.
Despite how we toil
We harvest in vain
Needles in haystacks
Was our refrain.
Do not send me a bill – I will send you mine.
Bio-bead spill? Surely a crime.
Your beads poison wildlife
Fouling our shores
Shareholders happy?
They are, of course!
Do not send me a bill – I will send you mine.
Three hours of labour
Sunday, double time.
Image Credits: Stu Cooper – Clear Air Flyting .
Very good Margot, that is my mantra, do not increase our bills, as SW John said they would invest millions, suddenly having money?
It will no doubt be us in the end who pay for it.
Heidi
Excellent poem by Margot and hope it finds its way to the hands of Southern Water.