News / water
Campaigners call on government to show rivers some love
Activists gathered outside the Bristol offices of key agencies on Friday morning with Valentine’s cards in hand.
The card’s handwritten messages included: “Roses are red, violets are blue, water bills are rising, and our rivers are full of poo!” and a fish proclaiming: “I used to swim so wild and free, now sewage spills around me”.
Members of climate justice group Green New Deal Rising addressed the cards to key representatives of the Environment Agency, the government’s department for environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) and OfWat – the water services regulation authority – and hand delivered them to the agency offices at Horizon House on Deanery Road.
is needed now More than ever
The group, comprising young people that are campaigning to implement a transition to a green economy in the UK, is calling for water to be brought back into public ownership.
With the Avon named England’s third most polluted river in 2023, and Wessex Water and South West Water discharging over 943,000 hours of raw sewage into the region’s waterways, the campaigners have called water privatisation a ‘clearly unjust and failing model’.
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Tanith, a PhD Researcher at the University of Bristol and a volunteer for Green New Deal Rising, said: “The pollution of our waterways is an issue that harms all of us, but only a few profit from it. We must bring water back into public ownership.”
The group cites the prediction that water bills will rise by 36 per cent in the next five years while, since privatisation in 1989, UK water and sewage company investors have collectively made £85.2bn.
Another group member, Manu, said: “We delivered the cards today because our water companies are failing us; our rivers are full of sewage and bills are increasing by £123 per household this year.
“We demand that the government shows our rivers some love this Valentine’s Day and commits to public ownership for water.”
The campaign action that took place on Valentine’s Day was part of a wider campaign calling on government to bring water back into public ownership
The group is proposing a ten year plan for a just transition to tackle the climate crisis which is backed by 12 cross-party MPs. The plan centres on rapid decarbonisation that protects and restores nature while creating green jobs to transform the economy.
Ending the privatisation of the water industry is a part of this plan. Clive Lewis MP, a Green New Deal Rising supporter, will present a Bill to parliament on the issue next month – including a call for citizen’s assembly on water company ownership.
Images: Will Airey
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