Our Troubled Rivers
Not a new topic, but watching Paul Whitehouse’s documentary on BBC2 last night made my blood boil! Every single river in England is polluted and yet the Water Companies post enormous profits whilst illegally dumping sewage into our river and coastal waters. The river bed on a river near Manchester was deemed to have more micro plastics in it than anywhere else on the planet! The CEO’s of said Utilities still enjoy salaries and bonuses in the region of £2-3m. How disgusting are these people? Perhaps a session in a dunking chair, in one of the more polluted rivers? I fear we’d still get the same old company speak of ‘We’re investing and reaching our targets’ Blaa Blaa Blaa
This is serious and affects us all. Next week’s episode on Sunday will show us how agriculture is affecting our rivers and if you live on or near the South coast, you might be in for a stomach churning watch!
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I think the state of our rivers hit us 13 years ago.
Trip to visit our daughter in NZ, staying to explore for 6 months. Bought an older car, sat in traffic on a weekend, they're been an accident, we began to boil. That bought back some early memories! Locals and passers-by offered bottles, suggesting getting water from the river close by. Using such water in this country wouldn't be considered an option. Natives didn't understand our horror.......
Actually didn't need to as someone gave us some bottles. So don't know if it would have been an issue. I suspect not as rivers are widely used for swimming etc.
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I was so incensed by what I saw I wrote (via email) to the PM and duly got a reply via letter, Without divulging its contents (bearing in mind the topic here is Sewage) I would add that if the Prime Minister doesn't care enough about our planet to respond via email, rather than posting a letter, we will continue this downward spiral.
Being a keen salmon angler, I have watched the steady decline in the rivers I fish, for the last 25 years so the problem is not new. Evidence gathering, however, with the aid of modern technology, is and now the bu**ers have been caught redhanded, it's time to act. Don't expect any help from our PM though!
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+1, we’ll said👏🏻. I’ve been on this particular hobby horse for a while. It’s Profits before nature. 77% have failed or failing, the UK has most of these unique resources in the whole world. It needs to be pointed out that saving chalk streams is NOT a political thing it is a wholly ethical & natural thing. There was a guarantee to protect the environment with a 25yr plan. Over half way in-the natural habitat of the British Isles is in a parlous state.
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On the plus side bank activity had to stop round here (volunteers tidying up places etc) due to Salmon coming up river. This was surprise news to us locally that any now got that far upstream so it's not all in a downward spiral but generally the re-stocking of other fish types must be very disheartening for the river authorities. We're also up against invasive species like non native crayfish.
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This is what some rouge farmers/landowners are doing! I hope this stretch of river is rewilded at his cost as the courts have decreed. He has also been sentenced to 12 months in prison for carrying out the destruction despite being given a warning not to proceed!
Thankfully many farmers are doing exactly the opposite. We also need to take the water companies to task for their deliberate polluting activities.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/landowner-sentenced-for-destruction-of-river-lugg-herefordshire
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I think I read the authorities had been battling against this individual for years Micky, there's always one and hopefully not too many others.
We have a big problem with water run off collection we don't conserve it and release far too much into the system and this overwhelms the drains.
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Yes brue, just yesterday we saw huge amounts of rain fall and the canalised becks and rivers around us just couldn’t cope. Huge amounts of top soil are now spread across the adjacent roads and properties. Sadly this run off is polluted and totally wasted. Water remains a much needed and finite commodity for even us Brits and still we see with those regular hose pipe bans. Looks like more rain is on the way this week and this will end up the some way, down the drain and damaging our land and wildlife. When will we learn?
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Visited this lovely chalk stream today. Work has taken place to rewild much of the previous appalling canalisation. Still more in progress but already the wildlife is returning.👍
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/norfolk/restoring-the-river-bure-in-norfolk
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Saw this video today, shameful. Not the video itself but what we are doing to our rivers and the wildlife within. This issue became very apparent when we were recently walking along a stretch of the River Wear near Durham.it’s happening all over the UK, sadly in many places our shared pastime takes us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjqMr5m_vHI&feature=youtu.be
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