The Friends of the Dart (FRD) charity has launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at ending sewage pollution in the River Dart.

The grassroots group has set a target of £30,000 to cover testing and produce regular water quality reports as part of its ‘Let’s Stop Sewage in the Dart’ campaign (at tinyurl.com/589fv7wx).

Additional funds will be used for creating an app that will share test results as well as pollution and sickness reports.

FRD said the increase in funding will also enable it to hold South West Water to account in an effort to force it to make infrastructure upgrades and eradicate sewage spills.

The Devon Environment Project will also be matching all donations made before the closing date on September 20.

The charity says its previous campaign led to four locations on the Dart – in Waterfleet, Dittisham, Stoke Gabriel and Steamer Quay in Totnes - being designated as bathing water sites.

A designated bathing water site is not however a guarantee that it is fit to swim in.

Currently, the water is tested by the Environment Agency (EA) only from May to September to coincide with the bathing season.

The charity said it also wants to raise the funds to add a further three test sites to its existing year-round pilot programme.

The launch of the campaign comes after high levels of pollution were recently recorded at Steamer Quay, where hundreds of people are due to take part in an annual 10km swim on September 7-8.

The EA reported that E. coli pollution was more than 20 times minimum standards, adding that water quality this year was poor in nine out of the first 10 tests.

In an unrelated development reported in this paper in June, a British consortium of marine tech firms announced that it will be deploying a remotely-operated drone boat in the River Dart from next month as part of a year-long pilot scheme to monitor water pollution.