WAVE 6

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WATER PRESSURE ~ a Citizens' Assembly on Water

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Let's step forward as stewards of our water commons

The ultimate goal of the WATER PRESSURE campaign - Dirty Water's call for a Citizens' Assembly on Water, is for us all to arrive together at this point.

In the face of government inertia, the Citizens’ Assembly is the ideal mechanism to deliver a reset for water provision. It cuts across all social divisions to bring a representative group of citizens together to make informed decisions that are proven to mirror wider public opinion. The people can take ownership of the solution. It sets a precedent for returning agency in swathes of public life, currently controlled by unaccountable quangos or local monopolies. And it will build public support for Extinction Rebellion's Central Demand, the Citizens' Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice.

The focus of the Citizens' Assembly on Water will be on the implementation of effective governance structures and regulatory mechanisms, beyond the remit of the water companies, to work in alignment with the needs of people and nature.

Citizens will choose between water being used as a profit making commodity, as the current management prefers, and the other possible means of delivering quality supply, conservation, management, recycling and a reinvigorated ecology. It is a natural resource and belongs to us all.

We must achieve the continuous publication and free access to all water quality and pollution data. These are our right.

Read The Proposal and Proposed Scope, for the Citizens' Assembly on Water

NB - details will change as we organise the Water Assembly coalition

Leaflet

Download and print the Water Pressure leaflet

Don't take "no" for an answer!

There are many obstacles to frustrate the Citizens' Assembly or to compromise its recommendations. Let's look at a major one, the complaint that there's no money to do what needs to be done.

Cost ("who pays?") could forestall the deliberations of the Assembly, appearing to be a baked-in constraint to thinking freely about how to resolve our water issues. The Citizens' Assembly must be free to say what it recommends without anticipating cost implications, or there is no effective statement of the proper standard - the Assembly is hamstrung. And the full statement of what is needed is not given.

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!

That amount of money?!

There are two counters to the costs-oh-dear do-nothing resisters. Or governments.

The first is, everything that we want as a national community will fail if we don't provide a working national infrastructure. Even the politicians' own fantasy of Growth doesn't flicker into view if nothing works. Capitalism was built on energy, water, transport systems and regulation which are provided by the state with public funds.

The second is, the money is available. If assets are taxed as enthusiastically as wages. For instance, a Land Value Tax constructed to drive out economically useless rentiers will see land use returns/rents going into public funds, making the necessary sums available for national renewal projects - starting with the water infrastructure! Taxes on investment properties, second homes, and other assets would yield still more, plus a levy of a few pence on share transactions much more still. Such measures address the gross inequalities in our society at the same time.

Never be told there's no money.

We did that ... we had to.

IT WAS INEVITABLE.

See an Assembly at work - America in One Room

Community Assemblies for Water

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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

Everything Community Assembly

Dirty Water Communities Support
Let's Pool What We Learn: our campaign contacts database

IMPORTANT Please DO NOT add personal information to this contact database - it's publicly available and will be shared widely. Respect each other's data in the same way you'd like yours respected and ensure we're GDPR compliant. Read about GDPR and Personal Data and learn why it's important to be compliant.

To add to the database:

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.

Ceremony | Water is Life

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Word Cloud created from The Symbolism Of Fish: Exploring Different Cultures And Meanings

Create a Water Ceremony

Throughout history, we have always held ceremonies and rituals. They are our means of celebrating, marking moments, or making sense of the world we experience. For example, events such as naming ceremonies, funerals and unions (marriages), or more frequently, a football match or gig, are all a form of ritual where we share our feelings. They can include performance and express a sense of mourning or appreciation. Ceremonies are sacred. They are powerful.

Water is sacred in many cultures. Water is fundamental to life. Wherever clean water flows, life grows. Water represents emotions, renewal and life, which all ebb and flow. Constantly evolving, ebbing and flowing, it reminds us that we can too.

How can you connect with your emotions to truly embody water in this ceremony?

What Can a Water Ceremony Bring?

Ceremony brings people into a deeper connection with water, which can be moving and uplifting. It can bring a deeper dimension to an action, so you can better:

Fresh water is precious and finite | All life depends on it

Our waterways are the arteries and veins of the earth. If we pollute those waterways, life will die.

“Nothing on this planet had so forcefully hammered into her the ultimate value of water. Not the water-sellers, nor the dried skins of the natives ... Here there was a substance more precious than all others - it was life itself and entwined all around with symbolism and ritual.” - Frank Herbert, Dune

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” W H Auden, First Things First

Although issues are faced in multiple facets of water, some communities may prioritise different areas, such as flooding or pollution.

The Power of Celebrating Water

Connection through water, with nature and each other, fosters well-being, through a regenerative and healing relationship, encouraging the flow and exchange of energy and knowledge. Consider making more of an impact by following some of these suggestions:

Ceremony Ideas | Water is Life

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Ideas and Assets to Create Your Ceremony

On this page you will find many ideas for your water ceremony. We have also created outreach materials for you to promote your ceremony. You can use the editable versions of the leaflets to add your text, QR codes and date/place of your ceremony and also use the printer-ready versions to send to a professional printer.

Download Stickers | posters | flyers

ceremony water is life sticker ceremony water is life poster ceremony water is life poster

Some Inspiration & Ideas

Community


Art & Creativity


Music & Storytelling

Promote

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Puppets/Masks/Costumes

Catch of The Day

Catch of the Day.jpg

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 Ofwat's. And include more spicy elements as and when you want to.

What You Need
'Catch of the Day' stand
Other things you could include
Hand a demand to the authority
An extension to the design
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.

Roles
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

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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:

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

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.

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

What if I’m stopped?


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

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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