Actor Danny Dyer has handed a petition to Number 10 Downing Street demanding that the Government brings the water industry back into public ownership.
The 49-year-old actor, best known for his roles in EastEnders and Rivals, made the submission on Wednesday alongside Labour MP Kevin McKenna.
Gathering more than 345,000 signatures online, the document criticises privatised water utilities and claims the sector is "no longer fit for purpose".
Dyer, who has been running a caravan park on the Isle of Sheppey with his daughter, reality TV star Dani Dyer, for the Sky series The Dyers’ Caravan Park, attended a demonstration in Kent last month calling for water companies to be nationalised.
The e-petition asserts that water firms are "exploiting" an "essential natural resource" and failing to reinvest profits to upgrade infrastructure to "modern standards".
The text states: "We call on the Government to return the water industry to public ownership."
It adds: "This crisis has spiralled out of control, causing severe environmental damage, harming tourism and coastal economies and putting public health at risk.
"Enough is enough."
Speaking to the Press Association, Mr McKenna, the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, said: "Danny’s been great. He’s picked this up and run with it.
"There’s a lot of other things he’s been doing on the island and things he could have campaigned on. He’s doing it because it matters to him, and so I’m really grateful that actually he’s making such a big noise about this.
"This is a national movement and I’m glad that Danny’s actually keeping it in the spotlight."
The campaign group SOS Whitstable created the petition.
Mr McKenna added: "It’s really bad that we’ve got to a point in this country where we’re having to do this, with the way that our waterways have gone and the pollution in the waterways.
"But I’m really glad that actually we’ve been able to show how much concern there is about this in my constituency and more widely than that. So I think it’s a really good step and it’s really important. I think ultimately public ownership is the right thing and certainly what we have to do."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Water UK have been approached for comment.
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