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The WI joins 15,000 at March for Clean Water in London

The WI, with over 70 members had a great time walking in the March for Clean Water on Sunday 4 November! With over 15,000 people and 141 organisations attending in blue, we sent a powerful message to the government and to polluters to:

  • Reform Regulation - Conduct an immediate root and branch review of Ofwat & the Environment Agency and put a complete stop to any industry knowingly and wantonly polluting our waters for profit and greed.
  • Enforce the law – we already have the laws and regulations in place to end water pollution. All we need now is this new government to uphold and enforce them.
  • Stop pollution for profit – making sure ALL polluting industries invest here and now for the long term, upgrading infrastructure, reducing water wastage and leakage, helping farmers restore habitats, and increasing efficient water use everywhere

Photo: Anne-Marie Bickerton

The WI's Chief Executive, Melissa Green, addressed the marchers at Parliament Square, alongside speakers such as broadcaster Chris Packham and Olympic rower Imogen Grant, and explained how the WI first raised the alarm of this issue in the 1930s and that the WI will continue to campaign to ensure we tackle the pollution of our waters once and for all.

Photo: Anne-Marie Bickerton

Before joining the march, WI members heard from Dr Sasha Woods at Earthwatch Europe about the findings of the Great UK Waterblitz, a large scale citizen science initiative, supported by WI members across the country.

  • 4,531 participants braved the weather to collect 2,338 datasets.
  • 61% of data points across the UK showed poor water quality with significant regional variation.
  • Anglian and Thames river basin districts have the worst water quality in the UK: over 80% of surveys showed unacceptable nutrient concentrations.
  • Of the samples tested for additional chemicals, 100% had further contamination; with 80% of samples presenting some level of risk from analysed compounds to aquatic life.

You can read the full report here.

You can read more about the Great UK WaterBlitz and sign up to join the next one in April 25, here.

The WI's Clean Rivers campaign was launched in June 2023 and since then WIs have been instrumental in raising awareness in their communities and among politicians, calling for:

  • More bathing water designations and easier ways to achieve these. Bathing waters are the only inland waters which are continuously monitored for pollutants (during the bathing season) and there are legal obligations to clean these up. Since May, we have also campaigned for bathing water applications to be urgently reopened in England.
  • Stronger regulators to enforce the laws that exist. This includes more funding and stronger powers, and a full and urgent review of the water system. We are very pleased to see that the government has promised this and started the work. Last month a Water Commission was announced to undertake this work.

We also joined Surfers against Sewage in the End Sewage Pollution Coalition, to support their manifesto to end sewage pollution, as well River Action’s Charter for Rivers. These policy documents set out what needs to be done to end river pollution once and for all. We have brought these demands to MPs in Parliament and written to the current and previous government to make this a reality.

In September 2023, and again in 2024, we arranged the WI Week of River Action,  a week focused on making noise about river pollution locally and nationally. All members/WIs are encouraged to take part, hosting community initiatives, stunts or taking part in crafting activities.

The WI will continue working with the End Sewage Pollution Coalition to achieve the goals of the manifesto. Last month, we heard that the government is setting up a Water Commission to review the water system. We have already supported calls to this commission to urge them to keep nature in mind when it takes up its work and we will continue to explore how we can engage with this work to share members’ concerns.

For further information on the campaign and to get involved visit the campaign page or contact us at publicaffairs@nfwi.org.uk.