So I’m not usually one for marching to Parliament, but I made an exception this weekend.
On Sunday Kenzo (my dog) and I joined over 100 groups of protesters to “March for Clean Water”. Since childhood I’ve always been attached to nature in one way or another and from 2019 my core focus at Ateliers Verts has been eco-consciousness. As water is one of the basic requirements for life on our planet, I feel it should be protected at all costs, so wanted to lend my voice to that cause.
Several years ago I attended an event where George Monbiot and Feargal Sharkey, a keen fly-fisherman like me, were speaking. George had just released his excellent Rivercide live documentary. This was a pivotal moment in raising the public consciousness as to how bad the state of our rivers had become.
But it’s not just our rivers that are affected, it’s our shorelines too. Our Ateliers Verts office is in London’s Hammersmith, so we walk by the River Thames every single day. When it’s been raining consistently, the Thames Water Sewage Treatment works in Chancellors Road, pumps wastewater with sewage directly into the Thames – you can see it in the water and hear it on the towpath through the drain vents. It takes approximately 4 dry days before birds come back to the shoreline after the sewage release.
A few Summers ago I was walking Kenzo on a beach in Christchurch, Dorset – it absolutely stank and there were flies everywhere. Further up the beach there were signs saying the beach was closed for environmental reasons – It turns out Southern Water had released sewage into the River Stour which had washed down to the beaches. The River Stour was polluted by sewage 893 times in 2023 lasting 9,634 hours!! I pulled Kenzo off the beach, but it was too late- he was violently ill that night, but luckily recovered late the next day. Bournemouth council denied the beach was closed that day, even though it was. I was motivated to fight.
Investigations led me to find that Southern Water was effectively owned by a Malaysian investment trust and the CEO had received his maximum bonus that year, part of which was for keeping sewage emissions to a ‘minimum’. It was clear that over the years Southern Water should have invested in storage and cleaning solutions that did not cause pollution, but lacking any real incentive to do so, with the occasional fine here and there, paid dividends to their shareholders and investors.
The water companies effectively hold a monopoly over us, It’s not like you can decide to get water from another company, like you can we media or electricity. So we are subservient to their actions. Successive governments have not addressed this issue, neither have they addressed the issue of agricultural pollution into our rivers (e.g. fertiliser/ nitrate run-off or chicken factories by rivers etc see-Rivercide!)
Hence why I felt it necessary to march- I‘ve fly fished on rivers, I’ve swum in rivers, I’ve rowed and water-skied in local rivers, lakes and sea – I get water from my taps at home- surely it must be a governmental priority for the health our nation to hold the water providers to account and force them legally, to protect the environment.
I believe in capitalism, but this is capitalism causing death and destruction – literally. This must stop - The time for action is NOW.
Andrew Levy, Founder Ateliers Verts
(Header Image: Collage from the event)
#MinimiseOurHumanFootprint
©Ateliers Verts Ltd. 2024
Back to: Ateliers Verts® The Magazine
