In 60-action packed minutes, the world’s first live investigative documentary will attempt to find out who is polluting our rivers and why we’re not stopping them.
Britain has some of the most beautiful rivers in Europe… like the River Wye – so how do we celebrate this natural beauty? By pouring sewage into them…
Why is this happening? Who is doing it? Why is it being allowed?
Tonight, River Action advisory board member George Monbiot will be exploring these questions in what is believed to be the world’s first live investigative documentary… RIVERCIDE.
The documentary will also feature another of our advisory board members, environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey.
Watch the trailer & tune in at 19.00 via www.rivercide.tv
Since we last wrote to you…
- Southern Water has been fined a record £90m for deliberately dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into the sea. The company admitted 6,971 illegal spills from 17 sites in Hampshire, Kent and West Sussex between 2010 and 2015. According to the BBC, the offences were discovered as part of the Environment Agency's largest ever criminal investigation, which began after shellfish were found to be contaminated with E. coli. This has underlined the importance of properly funding these agencies, so they are better able to monitor these instances of pollution. Read more here.
- River Action has written to Noble Foods again to urge the company to rethink its sustainability strategy as it failed to include river pollution as a key focus area. The crisis in the Wye escalates each day. Phosphate levels have doubled in the past six years alone to the extent that the river has recently been described as a “wildlife death trap” which is reaching a point of no return. The primary cause of this destruction is now widely accepted to be nutrient-rich run-off of chicken excrement from intensive poultry units. As the largest operator (by a wide margin) of egg-producing IPUs in the Wye catchment, the letter asks that Noble foods demonstrates leadership by publishing as a matter of urgency a nutrient management plan to mitigate phosphate run off from your IPUs. Read more here.
- ITV reports on England’s endangered chalk streams which are being pumped with untreated liquid waste. There are only 200 chalk streams in the world and 85% of them are in England – yet water companies are regularly pumping water out of them and putting untreated sewage. Read the full story here.
- The Ferret reveals that sewage spilled directly into Scotland’s rivers, lochs and seas at least 12,000 times in one year. Read the devastating article featuring River Action’s chairman, Charles Watson here.
Our rivers are facing an existential crisis. They remain largely unprotected from threats as governments have slashed environmental protection agency budgets. We are calling for budgets to be doubled before it’s too late. Help make this happen by sharing our petition with your networks…
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