Following success in watersports such as sailing, canoeing, windsurfing and swimming at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, The Clean Water Sports Alliance is stepping up its action on water pollution to safeguard future successes.

The Clean Water Sports Alliance (CWSA) was founded in April to tackle the water quality in the UK and put pressure on water companies to clean up their act. The UK has continued to score near the bottom of the European bathing water quality index, with insufficient action being taken.

Biodiversity is also being put under pressure by both pollution and invasive species which alter our ecosystems, introducing new pathogens and costing the UK £4 billion a year, according to recent research.

The founding CWSA members were Swim England, Angling Trust, British Rowing, British Triathlon, GB Outrigger, Paddle UK and Royal Yachting Association. They have just been joined by Surfing England, British Kitesport, British Sub-Aqua Club and the British Dragon Boat Racing Association.

Swim England chief executive officer, Andy Salmon, said: “We're delighted that four more sports have joined the Alliance and are committed to tackling poor water quality in the UK. The Olympics and Paralympics again underlined how successful we are as a nation in water-based sports but the alarming health of our waterways is a genuine threat to future generations enjoying similar success.

“As an Alliance we're working hard to force government, water companies and polluters to take action to improve our waterways for the benefit of swimmers, all water users, wildlife and the environment.”

The CWSA wants to see regulators adequately funded to monitor, investigate and hold polluters to account; enable accurate access to real-time water quality information all year round, including the compulsory monitoring of all sewage outlets; recognition of open source science relating to water quality and the creation of a centralised information hub for all water sports users.

The UK government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill has also been welcomed. It will make water company executives criminally liable for severe failure and give the water regulator the power to ban bonuses if environmental standards are not met, install real-time monitors at every sewage outlet and introduce new powers to bring automatic and severe fines.

Secretary of State for the environment, food and rural affairs, Steve Reed, has met with water companies to make it clear that they must be answerable for their performance. The government will put failing companies under tough special measures to clean up waterways, to make sure infrastructure funding is ring-fenced and anything not spent is refunded to customers and will also double the amount of compensation to customers when standards are not met.