Red kites swoop above Fawley Meadows as Dave Wallace dips a sampling beaker into the deep green water of the River Thames on a late spring day. A sharp wind blows droplets upstream towards the arches of Henley Bridge, while the might of the river, its path here straight and wide, pulls downstream towards Windsor, on its 215-mile odyssey to the North Sea.
Wallace is not alone. All along the course of the river – turning north, meandering south, passing through locks, historic landmarks, Richmond and Kew, swelling beneath the House of Commons with the turning tide, and on to Docklands and beyond – concern for the health of the Thames has led many other ordinary people, who live, work or play on the water, to take up the fight for the health of the river.The last 15 years of decline in rivers suggests they have much to do.
As the river’s springs wind down from their source 110 metres above sea level, and the chalk stream headwaters, such as the Coln, Kennet, Evenlode and Windrush, feed its flow, the murky truth of the modern treatment of the Thames begins. “I used to come and fish here as a boy; it was pristine, clear then, you could see streams of ranunculus weeds and the gravel bottom.” Decades later when he retired, Smith moved to live on the Windrush near Witney, drawn by memories of a magnificent pristine river.“The first thing to strike me, that first spring by the river, was one lonely looking clump of flowering ranunculus streamer weed where there should have been many,” he says.
“The treatment of sewage is fairly basic in the UK,” says James Wallace, the chief executive of River Action, a charity formed amid growing concerns about the state of UK rivers. “There is no requirement to remove pathogens , phosphates or microplastics, from the final treated effluent pouring into the river from sewage treatment works. We are told that it is clean water, but that is absolutely not true.
The debate on private ownership continues, but the evidence on pollution seems stark. Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, is now warning that minimising human faecal organisms entering rivers as a result of water company actions is “Older members, who are in their 60s and 70s, say they have never seen it so bad. I travel to Europe a lot to row and what I find shocking is the state of rivers here in comparison. In Europe the rivers are clean and safe for people to row.”
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