England’s waterways are under serious
England’s waterways are under serious threat.
This is coming from various sources including:
discharge from manufacturing and industrial plants
agricultural, animal rearing and urban surface runoff
seepage landfill sites
discharge from sewage treatment plants
Over the last ten years government has cut funding to protect our waters by two thirds. As a result, we have seen our aquatic environments changing beyond recognition before our eyes.
I love the water. I have spent years advocating and campaigning for people across the UK to use them more recreationally. I have written a guidebook to my favourite watery escapes across the UK and I spend my life picking up litter from them. And now, for the first time, I find myself cautious of our waters. At. Planet Patrol, the non profit I founded, we’ve had to cancel paddle boarding litter picks because water toxicity levels have been so dangerously high.
No one should not have to fight for access to safe water.
Here’s a few things you can do to help bring more awareness to this issue:
Sign up to my updates on ways to take action as a citizen scientist.
Sign this petition by Surfers Against Sewage calling for government to provide better protections for coastlines.
Find details for your local MP here and write to them asking to support an environmental bill that protects our aquatic environments.
Do your own research. Start conversations in real life and on social media. Get awareness out there.
Want to get out on the water but not sure whether it’s safe?
Accounts to follow on Instagram that are tackling this issue in England:
@onplanetpatrol
@TheRiversTrust
@SurfersAgainstSewage
But this isn’t an issue affecting the UK alone.
Donate: You can support international organisations fighting threats to waterways around the world too.
From Amazon to the Mekong, from the great rivers of China to Africa’s Congo River, a wave of big dams threatens some of our last iconic rivers. International Rivers is an organisation working hard to protect dam builds being approved across the global south.
Native American Rights Fund provide legal assistance to Indian tribes, organisations, and individuals who might otherwise go without adequate representation and they work across issues around land and water preservation as well as civil rights.
Watch:
Ted Talk from Kelsey Leonard who is water scholar and protector seeking to establish Indigenous traditions of water conservation as the foundation for international water policy-making.
Read:
The River Is in Us: Fighting Toxics in a Mohawk Community by Elizabeth Hoover
Indigenous Water Justice by Jason Robinson et al
Learn more about the water crisis in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India here