WAVE 6

Everyfin you need to take part

• Community Assemblies for Water
• Cancel Your Direct Debit or Boycott Your Water Bill?
• Catch of The Day
• Fishy Business
• Digital Do-It-At-Home Actions

Community Assemblies for Water

Build on Dirty Water actions and ceremonies to invite your neighbours into a Community Assembly on the water issue that most affects you all. Investigate, discuss together and recommend the actions you want to see taken. Form or build on local alliances and collaborations to follow up your recommendations. Whether local authorities' responses are available and forthcoming or not, feed your community's energy and ideas into the campaign for the UK's Citizens' Assembly on Water. Let's #UpgradeDemocracy

• More info: Community Assemblies book on the Rebel Toolkit.

• Support: Community Assemblies Sharing Telegram group.

• Example: People's Water Assembly Shrewsbury 2025.

Cancel Your Direct Debit or Boycott Your Water Bill?

We all want the polluters to pay for how they've neglected our waterways and breached their licensing obligations, while siphoning off profits that could have repaired some of the damage to our aging infrastructure.

In 2024, as captive consumers of our water companies, we are footing the bill for investment in our water supply. Many of us now face significant hikes in our bills to pay for their poor performance and shoddy profiteering. So it's not enough they are risking lives, public health and preservation of wildlife, we are paying for their corrupt practices.

You can register your displeasure with the water company and cause them inconvenience by cancelling your direct debit and paying by bank transfer or sending an old-fashioned cheque.

Take action with Cancel for Clean Water.

Many people are boycotting the sewerage part of their water bill. If you want to find out more and take action - the Don't Pay for Dirty Water campaign started last year which is now swimming along nicely.

Catch of The Day

From an original idea by Hubbub and their For Fish's Sake, Don't Drop Litter campaign.

Where to Take Action

You can take this action to any door including regulators, the Environment Agency or your water company. And include more spicy elements as and when you want to.

What You Need

• Gazebo or tarp- striped if possible!
• Table(s)
• Plastic trays
• Fake ice
• Today’s 'catch' – nappies, tampons, wet wipes, fake poos, old shopping trolley etc
• Signs for the stall
• Blackboard with today’s menu (or is it possible to have a brownboard?)
• Dirty Water Banner
• Placards
• Brown Smoke
• Leaflets
• Branded T-shirts for those handing out vouchers
• “Free Catch of the Day” vouchers
• Climate Crime scene tape

'Catch of the Day' stand

• Create a fake market fish stand with a gazebo and some tables.
• Selling today’s catch – dirty nappies, used condoms, soiled wet wipes, and anything and everything we find polluting our rivers.
• Rebels dress as fish market traders and shout for people to buy today’s “Catch of the Day”.
• This is a visual and humorous way of highlighting the issue, which from afar will look like an ordinary market stand (albeit in an unusual location).
• Shouting - catch of the day - in a market trader manner will highlight the action to those further away, increasing the reach.
• This is not designed as a spicy action however you could incorporate spicy elements if you desire to do so.

Other things you could include

• Utilise revolving doors, e.g. signs on one saying '[Name of authority] staff in', sign on the other saying 'Water Company staff out'.
• Use 'Climate Crime Scene' tape around the building.
• Take a box of today’s catch inside to offer to staff.

Hand a demand to the authority

• Write a letter to their CEO and deliver it on the day of the action.
• The exact contents of the letter are up to you but it could include one, or all of the following:
  • A brief overview of their lack of action to date.
  • What we think they should do in the immediate short term to stop the water companies from continuing as they are:
    • Ban dividend and bonus payments until water companies stop the illegal dumping of sewage).
    • Tighten up the current regulations that allow the water companies to lawfully rate beaches and swimming spots as “excellent” despite sewage being dumped there.
    • Increase the punishments for illegal activity and increase fines.
  • Include your thoughts on the too-cosy relationship between them and the water companies.

An extension to the design

• Have rebels dress in 'Catch of the Day' branded t-shirts.
• Give free lunch vouchers out to commuters getting off the train in the morning – act as though it’s a normal new start-up that’s opening and giving away free lunches as part of the launch. This should help bring more people to the action and enable us to engage with them on the issue.

Messaging

The messaging needs to be carefully considered. There are several issues you could focus on, trying to cover them all is likely to dilute any individual message, so choosing one or two may be a better option.

• Issue of bonuses and dividends being paid without the investment in infrastructure.
• Extremely weak punishments for those who dump sewage illegally and ineffectual fines.
• Water companies being allowed to rate beaches and swimming spots as ‘excellent’ despite the sewage being dumped – poor testing procedures.
• Revolving door between the water companies and the regulator.

Roles

• Action coordinator
• Fish stall staff – some to be behind the stall and some to be shouting from the front
• People carrying trays of today’s 'catch' – 3-5 people
• Banner holders
• Protest Liaison
• Photographer
• Spokesperson
• Live streamer / Videographer
• Action Wellbeing
• Outreach (handing out leaflets / sign-ups)
• XR Rhythms (optional)
• Police Station Support [if spicy elements included]
• Media & Messaging support

Possible future uses

The 'Catch of the Day' stall can be easily replicated elsewhere by other groups. You could even consider taking it to actual markets as a fun way to communicate the issue to the public.

Take the action to OFWAT's [or any] door

Overview

Set up in 1989 to monitor the newly privatised water industry, OFWAT, the water industry watchdog, has been accused by politicians and experts of failing to deliver the financial or management discipline that was promised.

OFWAT are guilty of regulatory capture (dominated by the interests they regulate and not by the public interest) and is in thrall to the very companies and people it is expected to oversee.

Lord Andrew Tyrie, Tory peer and former chair of the Competition and Markets Authority, has called for a thorough review of regulation in the UK, saying some regulators had been “captured by vested interests”.

A regular churn of staff between Ofwat and water companies has added to a sense that the watchdog is overly cosy with investors and water companies at the expense of consumers.

Ofwat consistently fail to properly regulate the market and consistently approves water company’s financial models; which allow those water companies to take out massive loans to pay dividends and bonuses whilst failing to invest in the vital infrastructure we need.

They fail to take action against the illegal dumping of raw sewage and the fines they levy are so pitiful the water companies would rather pay them than pay to upgrade the infrastructure and fix the problems.

Fishy Business

Watch how to make and use the Fish Stencil

So don't be Koi ~ let's get fishy with it!

We have a nifty set of instructions and stencil files can be found in this folder.

What you'll need:

• A4 printer
• Tracing paper
• Rubber/eraser
• Cutting mat
• Scalpel and blades
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Masking tape
• 275gm paper
• Spray paint or foam roller
• Paint tray if using rollers
• For consistency use Warm Yellow or a colour close to it
• Mask
• Gloves
• Protective clothing

Chalk sprays are available. Prices vary but check out Graff-City and Montana:

• Graff-City
• Suspect Package (cheapest)

Nifty Instructions

There are three formats of files in this folder:

1. Printing - use these files to print out the stencil and then cut out by hand.
2. Laser Cutting - use this file with a laser cutter which will do the cutting for you.
3. For Document - these are image files to show the stencil in Rebel Toolkit or other documents. Don’t use these to make a stencil.

• Use the attached files to print out your stencil at the size you want. These can either be cut out of the printer paper and used directly (likely to be a one-off use) or used as a template to cut out of thicker paper or card - old wallpaper is a good material for durability, although it is hard to lay it flat. Try to leave a border around the stencil to prevent creating a shadow around where the stencil is placed.

• If you have access to a laser cutter the design is provided as an .svg file from which you can use to cut the stencils, saving you a lot of time.

• If you want a durable stencil, mylar film (PET - plastic) can be used, which can be cleaned and re-used many times. If using this you can cut just one stencil, cut the full stencil and then mask off unwanted areas like the rod or 'source' with masking tape before spraying.

• Hold the can about 6′′ – 8′′ from the stencil and start spraying outside the stencil. Make a sweeping continuous motion across the stencil to the other side.

• Don't spray too closely as the paint will pool and dribble under the stencil. Do some test sprays on a bit of scrap cardboard to make sure the can is spraying correctly and to get the feel of the can and the distance required to spray from.

• When you have finished using the spray paint, to clear the nozzle, hold the can upside down and spray until only clear gas is released.

• Wear a mask and gloves and read the hazards on the chalk paint can

Legal

• Rebels are asked to be mindful about where they paint the streets.
• Please do not damage private property or small and independent businesses as this can be seen as vandalism and might impact relationships within the community.
• Try and use materials which cause minimal damage to the environment.
• Some actions potentially seen as “vandalism” may have a high risk of arrest if private sector buildings are targeted. It is unclear what police reaction will be to some of these actions, so read the legal advice and take precautions.

What about spraying over existing artwork?

As a golden rule don’t not tag over other posters and spray tags as this could cause conflict. Organised fly-posters and graffiti groups can be territorial and could get violent.

LAW - Paint the Streets info

• You are unlikely to get stopped in the UK.
• The police are usually uninterested in chalking and flyposting unless you force them to take action by doing it under their noses.
• NOTE: Avoid taking or posting photos of anyone doing the work if they are potentially identifiable as it can be used as evidence against them.

What if I’m stopped?

• If you are stopped it’s more likely to be a member of the public, private security, or a police community support officer (who doesn’t have any more power than the others).
• The best response is normally to simply walk away. If this is not possible and you are ‘detained’ you aren’t obliged to say anything to anyone. This technically includes the police, though not confirming your details can increase the possibility of arrest.

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Further Info

Will chalk spraying get me arrested?

The Symbolism Of Fish: Exploring Different Cultures And Meanings ~ Erika Stephens

Digital Do-It-At-Home Actions

Digitally Rebel with Dirty Water

Let’s work together doing what we can, where we can, when we can, to put an end to the UK water pollution and corruption scandals.

Take part in Dirty Water Digital Do-It-At Home Actions on the Digital Rebellion website.

Google Review Swarm

Let’s come together to create a swarm of negative 1-star Google reviews for the head offices of our toxic water companies in the UK.

Take part in this action here.

The recent State of Our Rivers Report from the Rivers Trust shows that our rivers are in crisis and facing toxic cocktails of pollution. The Environment Agency reported sewage spills into England's rivers and seas by water companies more than doubled last year (from 1.75 million hours in 2022 to 3.6 million hours in 2023). In English rivers, storm overflows contributed to at least 11% of total ecological health standard failures.

Social Media Hashtags

Here are some good hashtags you might want to use in your posts:

#DirtyWater

#WorldWaterWedding

#TellTheTruth

#EndSewagePollution

#StopWaterPollution

#CutTheCrap

#ActNow

#CleanUpYourAct

#SaveOurRivers

#CleanWaterNOW

#UpgradeDemocracy

#HealOurWaters

#HealUKWaters

#HealthyWaterUK

#WaterCleanupUK

#HealthyWatersNow