Save our waterways

Author

Perspective Media
November 05, 2024


Save our waterways
BY ROWAN PELLING AND PETER PHELPS

On Sunday, Perspective’s editor Rowan Pelling and publisher Peter Phelps joined the “March for Clean Water” on London’s Albert Embankment, the biggest water protest in British history. The state of our waterways is too dire and the impact too catastrophic – for both humans and wildlife – to let the issue fall down the political agenda. 

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. Our sewage-filled, depleted waterways feel increasingly like the stagnant, becalmed sea in Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a taunting expanse of H2O that can’t sustain human life or joy.

On Sunday, Peter Phelps and I joined a gang of friends on the "March for Clean Water” along London’s Albert Embankment, a mass protest instigated by River Action. The group was swelled by just about every environmental charity in the UK, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Surfers Against Sewage, the National Trust, RSPB, the Outdoor Swimming Society and the doughty Women’s Institute. Thousands wore blue and many managed wonderfully elaborate costumes. I spotted Mr and Mrs Poseidon in cloaks, some weed-wrapped naiads, and songwriter Mike Batt with a couple of Wombles. 

The chanting was insistent: “What do we want? Clean water. When do we want it? Now.” As we surged across Westminster bridge towards Parliament Square in a torrent of blue, the call for Keir Starmer and his government to respond was clear – not that any of them attended or appeared to give a flying feck. Protestors had travelled from every corner of the kingdom, often involved in action groups to save their local river, beach or lake. The group from Windermere has probably notched up the most headlines, but others don’t lag far behind, such as SOS Whitstable. We particularly enjoyed a group of boisterous women swimmers from Dorset: the Bluetits Chill Swimmers. My friend Lucy, who lives in Hastings, pledged to set up a sister club: the Chilly Clits Swimmers, devoted to descending to the beach in “fur coat and no knickers” before skinny-dipping.

Of all the causes we champion in Perspective, the fight to improve the UK’s waterways feels the most personal, persistent and urgent. I don’t know anyone who’s not affected by the issues. We are an island nation, where sailing, rowing, fishing and outdoor swimming are embedded in our DNA. Peter lives on a narrowboat and for 25 years I was a stalwart member of the Newnham Riverbank Swimming Club, until the Cam became a vessel for E. coli. It’s impossible to ignore the effluent, scum and waste floating on our once-glorious rivers, canals, lakes and oceans, nor the dwindling fish stocks and ravaged chalk streams. 

Worst of all, UK householders pay ever-steeper water bills for dire service from water companies that have racked up vast profits and paid huge sums in corporate salaries and share dividends. Our crumbling water infrastructure means swathes of the country, including London, will soon have a supply crisis that will see people living under drought conditions.

This issue should be at the top of Labour’s “to do” list. The Department of the Environment and Ofwat (the water services regulation authority) should be unleashing hell on the water companies. And yet we’ve heard nothing. It’s time to pile on the pressure and show that a mandate to rule won't last if ministers don't listen to furious voters.

THIS WEEK’S DEEP DIVE
Interview with Feargal Sharkey
BY ROWAN PELLING AND PETER PHELPS

Rowan Pelling and Peter Phelps talk to Feargal Sharkey, who has transformed from punk rock frontman to Britain's most effective water campaigner. Through his meticulous knowledge of environmental regulations and corporate malpractice, Sharkey exposes how water companies' pursuit of profit has left the UK facing a crisis of polluted rivers and potential water shortages.

READ THE FULL STORY

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