Dirty Water

Dive in! Take direct action to demand clean water: - Climate change and nature loss should inform planning nationally and locally - To treat water as a precious natural life-source - The creation of legal Rights of Nature for all natural entities - The end of raw sewage discharge into our waterways and an end to leaks by 2030 - A Citizens’ Assembly on Water

Lost at Sea? Start Here ⬅️
Blue Plaques for Nature
WAVE 6

WATER PRESSURE ~ a Citizens' Assembly on Water
Community Assemblies for Water
Cancel Your Direct Debit or Boycott Your Water Bill?
Ceremony | Water is Life
Catch of The Day
Fishy Business
Digital Do-It-At-Home Actions

Assets

General Dirty Water Logos
Social Media Resources
Dirty Water Posters
Dirty Water Flyers
Dirty Water Stickers
Flags and Banners
Puppets, Masks, Costumes
Blue Plaques

All Porpoise Actions

Songsheet
Poo Themed actions!
Dirty Water Scrubbers
Make a mock Newspaper
Make a Fishhead or Fish Mask
Dirty Water Coolers and Mock Sewage Pipes
Face-in-the-Hole boards
Dirty Water Crime Scene
Making Art with Withy

Knowledge is Powerful

Data Updates 📊
Sources of Water Pollution 💩
Social Justice ⚖️
Fin-ancialisation 🦈
Ecology 🐬🦋🦭
Talks & Presentations 🗣️

Data Stream

Data and Facts - Wading Through Murk
Data and Facts - Gaps
Data & Facts - Gaps: The Law, Makers & Breakers
Data & Facts - Gaps: Corporate Scum
Data & Facts - Gaps: War on Water
Data & Facts - Gaps: Our Anthropocene
Data & Facts - Gaps: Seeking Nature Based Solutions?
Data & Facts: Where's The Nearest Lighthouse (What Can We Do?)
Information Resources | Reports, Maps, Data & More

Don't Pay for Dirty Water Campaign
Dirty Water | Waves
Drop Us a Line
News & Updates

Does a Citizen's Assembly on Water Make Sense?
Call for a Citizens' Assembly Reaches National Television
Suddenly, some activity - Dirty Water’s view

Lost at Sea? Start Here ⬅️

How to navigate the Dirty Water book

Wave 6 is focused on building communities around water to take action on raising awareness, engaging the public, growing local groups, building allies, increasing knowledge and understanding. Demonstrating agency - peoples’ voices can and will be heard.

We thought of a SEQUENCE OF ACTION IDEAS, where each one builds on the previous:

Blue Plaques for Nature print pre-made templates, or edit to produce your own and use a QR code to point to your group's sign-up or your event or info about your local waterway
Fishy Business is our new idea for 'painting the streets style' actions.
Cancel your Direct Debit for Clean Water is an easy way to create more work.
Digital Do-it-at-home Actions can be started at any time.
Invite your neighbours to a Community Assembly for Water
The ultimate goal of Dirty Water Wave 6 is to arrive at a Citizens' Assembly on Water to address water management and pollution

CONTENTS OF THIS DIRTY WATER BOOK is structured into the following chapters:

WAVE 6 contains the new action ideas of Wave 6.
Assets is a chapter full of creative templates, flyers, stickers and more relating to Dirty Water.
All Porpoise Actions has a load of ideas and instructions to support your actions.
Knowledge is Powerful contains several pages with more in depth information and links to other information sources.
Data Stream dives even deeper into numbers and facts around Dirty Water

Throughout the Wave 6 chapter you'll find WATER LEVEL SYMBOLS, an easy-to-understand guide to visually explain how much effort an action takes and/or how 'spicy' it is. The Water Levels are:

Dip your toe

These are fun and easy actions that won't take too long to prepare. A good example for a toe-dip is the Cancel for Clean Water action. Most digital actions are also part of this level, but some more time-consuming actions would be found be at the Swim level.

Have a paddle

These are easy actions with a minimal amount of risk and no lengthy preparation time. Fishy Business is one of these used to pre-promote an action or for outreach.

Have a swim

These actions involve a longer commitment or carry a small amount of risk. A good example is the Don’t Pay for Dirty Water campaign, where people refuse to pay their sewage bill over many month and risk their credit rating to take a knock.

Deep dive

These actions take a considerable amount of effort and resources to prepare and do, so local groups might want to take this on as a key project for a season. Organising an assembly is one of those projects.

Blue Plaques for Nature

What are Blue Plaques?

The iconic English Heritage blue plaques commemorate a notable person who once lived in a particular place. This action mimics these historical plaques to honour nature... one species at a time.

These plaques can be edited and tailored to:

Outreach and grow your local group by substituting the text and QR code with your information.
Promote your events.
Raise awareness about species lost or under threat and your local waterway.

Example plaques

When the Blue Plaques should go up

This action can carried out at any time however look out for emails and posts for UK-wide events where Dirty Water can create a mass blue plaque action.

Create your blue plaque

Templates can be printed on a standard domestic A4 printer. You can glue the plaque onto cardboard to strengthen it, or laminate it to make it waterproof. You can either:

Ready-made templates

Download and print a ready-made plaque from a suite of templates on the Dirty Water Google Drive:

Blue Plaques Templates - the current QR code on the templates points to the Restore Nature Now page on the XRUK website - you can create your own QR code here and swap it out using the edit option.

Editable templates

Here is a step-by-step 'How to Edit a Blue Plaque' video and in the folders above you can find editable templates to copy and edit yourself and written instructions are how to copy and edit the templates.

Buy a blue plaque

Or you can order a commercially made Personalised Heritage Blue Plaque for £14.99

How to place a Blue Plaque

How permanent you wish to make the fixing is up to you. You need to balance the permanency against any possible damage you may cause and whether you have permission to place a Blue Plaque. Easy to remove, no-damage options, which are much less long-lasting, would include using blue-tac, double-sided sticky tape, string or wire twists around railings.

Where to place a Blue Plaque

Almost anywhere! The power of the Blue Plaques for Nature rests on them staying in place to get passers-by talking and thinking and on their wider impact via an image on social media. So think carefully about where you choose.

You could place a Blue Plaque for Nature on a fence post by your local playground, or by the stile on a favourite woodland walk. Perhaps a café, corner shop, community centre or church hall in your neighbourhood would like to put one in their window. And lastly, of course – how about your own house? Have you always secretly wished you lived in a blue plaque house? This is your chance!

Remember - always take a photo of whichever location you choose and upload it to social media wherever possible. Then like and repost others' posts to amplify!

Amplify your action

Photos
You can also upload photos to Dirty Water's Google Drive. We can all share them with others and use them for other actions. Upload photos here for XR groups or here for RNN groups.

Further information and reading

More than 100,000 known wildlife species depend on the freshwater ecosystem. And that's not counting the seas/oceans!

Red list of threatened species in Great Britian
UK Biodiversity Action Plan
List of United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan species

WAVE 6

Everyfin you need to take part

WAVE 6

WATER PRESSURE ~ a Citizens' Assembly on Water

The ultimate goal of Dirty Water Wave 6 is 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 XR'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 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, and recycling. 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.

The Proposal for the Citizens' Assembly on Water
nb - details here will change as we organise the Water Assembly coalition

See an Assembly at work - America in One Room

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.

WAVE 6

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

Everything Community Assembly

Community Assemblies book on the Rebel Toolkit

Dirty Water Communities Support

Telegram group: Community Assemblies Sharing
Drop in for a chat - Fridays from 15:00

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:

First, read the Guide on the READ ME sheet [find this at the bottom of the spreadsheet]
Add your contacts to the ADD YOURS HERE sheet [find this at the bottom of the spreadsheet]
This info will be moved to the relevant Region or Nation sheet
Share the link to the Dirty Water Campaign Contacts Database and ask others to add their contacts to create a powerful resource for everyone to use.
Dirty Water Campaign Contacts Database

WAVE 6

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.

WAVE 6

Ceremony | Water is Life

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. Ceremonies have a more sacred element and gentle nature, they can include performance and express a sense of mourning or appreciation.

What Can a Water Ceremony Bring?

Create an emotional connection with your local water bodies.
Continuous outreach - engage your community in devising the ceremony, publicise your ceremony and finally invite the wider public into your event.
Develop and strengthen relationships with other groups.
Build a common community purpose.
Influence local authorities and regulatory organisations.
Bring people to your Community Assembly.
Raise awareness and promote a Citizens' Assembly on Water.

Ideas and Assets to Create Your Ceremony

We have 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

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

We are 60% water, our brains 80%
In mineral composition, the water in our cells is comparable to seawater
Our need for, use of and accommodations with water defines us
Water dominates our perception of our planet and ourselves

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:

Cultivate a sense of curiosity/care/communication/collaboration through creative interactions with the river (song, music, poetry, art).
Explore: physically get to know your local waters (the source, wells and tributaries) to engage with and care for your local waterway.
Research: look at wider connections, the history of the local waters and collect local stories and images.
Consider the catchment area, sewage treatment works, landfills and other sources of pollution.

Some Inspiration & Ideas

Engage other river/water users to build a community of custodians
Lead walks, clear litter/blockages
Consider joining a water testing group
Offer Science Street Talk to other groups, share research
Post on social media highlighting local pollution issues
Make mandalas, chant/sing to rivers/make music, use Sound Bowls

Collect stories
Create artwork, write poetry, read poetry
Create an impactful ceremony to demonstrate our anger, grief and sadness at the state of our waterways and our love for all life.
Share the ceremony with local authorities, politicians, other water users and engage schools & colleges
Song of the Thames (YouTube 29min) by Sam Lee - singer and song collector
Traditional Native Storytelling - Salmon Boy (YouTube 12min) with Roger Fernandes
The Lost Words Blessing - (YouTube 4min) a song created from Robert Macfarlane's book The Lost Words
Welcoming the River Wye Ceremony [YouTube 5min] at Herefordshire Council featuring Wye River Goddess puppet
- Running order [Dropbox 1 min] for the Ceremony for the River Wye

Incorporate Blue Plaques for Nature

See the freshwater species affected - more than 100,000 known wildlife species depend on freshwater ecosystem. And that's not counting the seas/oceans
A QR code on the plaque could point to the history of the river/waterway.
Find more details on the Blue Plaques for Nature page

Puppets, Masks and Costumes

Make a ‘big splash’ in your local media with colourful puppets, masks and costumes

WAVE 6

Catch of The Day

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

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.

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

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.

WAVE 6

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 [such as Montana] are available. Prices vary but check out GraffCity and Montana [cheapest at Suspect Package].

Nifty Instructions

There are three formats of files in this folder.:

Printing - use these files to print out the stencil and then cut out by hand
Laser Cutting - use this file with a laser cutter which will do the cutting for you
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.

Legal [for more info]

Will chalk spraying get me arrested?

Symbolism of Fish

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

WAVE 6

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.

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

#DirtyWater

#TellTheTruth

#EndSewagePollution

#StopWaterPollution

#CutTheCrap

#ActNow

#CleanUpYourAct

#SaveOurRivers

#CleanWaterNOW

#UpgradeDemocracy

#HealOurWaters

#HealUKWaters

#HealthyWaterUK

#WaterCleanupUK

#HealthyWatersNow

Assets

Ex-squid-it leaflets, posters, stickers, masks, puppets & more

Assets

General Dirty Water Logos

Pipe Logo

Get the Dirty Water Pipe Logo in a range of colours here.

Round Logo

Get the Round Logo in a range of colours here.

Not found what you're looking for? Download a range of other Dirty Water logo designs here.

Assets

Social Media Resources

Profile and Header images

Design Assets are available here for:

Assets

Dirty Water Posters

Ceremony | Water is Life Posters

Download or send to a professional printers here:

A4 Poster | A3 Poster

SEA POSTER and RIVER POSTER

Fill-in-the-blanks Posters

Flypost your polluted waterway or coastline with this handy poster, just fill in the blanks. Do your research to be sure the text you're adding is accurate!

Example
This water is polluted with: RAW SEWAGE

The responsible party is: WESSEX WATER

Contact them here to register your complaint: info@wessexwater.co.uk

If you are unsure about flyposting another option is to paste the poster onto cardboard and attach with string.

To print in colour: Download yellow and black 'Fill in the blanks' WARNING poster - jpeg (scroll to the bottom of the folder).

To print on yellow paper: Download black & white 'Fill in the blanks' Warning poster - jpeg.

Sewage Ahead Road Sign

Hi-res versions of the 'Sewage Ahead' Road Sign can be found here. There are several different designs to choose from. A good size to print the sign is A2.

Sun, Sea, Sand and Sewage (for Flyposting)

Download a hi-res version for printing here.

Vote Clean Water Posters

Download hi-res versions for printing here.

Assets

Dirty Water Flyers

Water Pressure Flyer

Download a hi-res colour version of this flyer for printing.

Download a hi-res black & white version of this flyer for printing.

Community Assembly Flyer

Download a hi-res version of this flyer for printing.

With text or without text

Sun, Sea, Sand and Sewage Flyer

Download a hi-res version of this flyer for printing. (also available as a postcard from the same link!)

Pollution Hazard Flyer

If your local group would like this flyer personalising with information relevant to your local area or water company, please contact @lucielc on Mattermost.

Download a hi-res version of this flyer for printing.

Pollution Hazard Flyer

Public Warning Flyer

Download a hi-res version of this flyer for printing.

Assets

Dirty Water Stickers

Ceremony Sticker

Download a hi-res version for printing.

Ceremony sticker

Hazard Stickers

Download a hi-res version for printing.

dw stickers

Don't Pay for Dirty Water Stickers

Download a hi-res version for printing.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18XsgoQb1iqUHdumdiokwpkgvP4btIAk9?usp=drive_link

Assets

Flags and Banners

Brown Flags

XR flags are normally colourful, but for Dirty Water we've branched out! You could consider making these brown flags, mirroring the awful state of our waterways.

Brown Flags

https://rebeltoolkit.extinctionrebellion.uk/books/art-blockers/page/banners

https://rebeltoolkit.extinctionrebellion.uk/books/art-blockers/chapter/flag-templates

Assets

Puppets, Masks, Costumes

Make a ‘big splash’ in your local media with colourful puppets, masks and costumes

These resources can be used to create art. [Useful for the Restore Nature Now march in London on 22nd June 2024.]

Make your own water Goddess Rebels Masterclass [1hr 19m but jump to 39m for the teaching section].
68 Ways to Make Really Big Puppets
Make Fishheads

Making an Animal Mask (from Wiveliscombe XR)
- Part 1: Making a Animal Mask (Youtube 4:18 minutes)
- Part 2: Using Paint (Youtube 2:25 minutes)

This page will soon link to the Creative Circle RT. (LINK NEEDED)

Assets

Blue Plaques

Link to the Blue Plaques information page

All Porpoise Actions

Find action designs in the Waves however there are more beautiful actions to showcase!

All Porpoise Actions

Songsheet

PDF version for downloading and printing here.

With thanks to Suffolk, whose MP is Therese Coffey, but you can insert your own/relevant MP surname/water authority/organisation…

To the tune of ‘My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean’

(soundcloud link here)

The sewage flows into the river,
The sewage flows into the sea
The sewage flows into the [Deben] [insert own river name here, or just use word 'ocean']
And the blame lies with Therese Covey

Bring back, bring back, oh bring back clean rivers and seas and seas,
Bring back, bring back, oh bring back clean rivers and seas.

The runoffs as bad as the sewage,
With pesticides killing off bees.
They kill off aquatic invertebrates,
And the blame lies with Therese Coffey.

Bring back, bring back, oh bring back clean rivers and seas and seas,
Bring back, bring back, oh bring back clean rivers and seas.

To the tune of ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’

(soundcloud link here)

By the rivers all around the country
You should hold your breath
If you ever dare try to swim there
You are risking death
In the streams that feed the rivers
You can count the turds
As our sewage is no longer filtered
While MPs ignore our words

Chorus:
And at high tide I feel like crying
As all around our coast
We see aquatic life is dead & dying
And so we make this fuss
Because it’s obvious

The Tories voted for pollution
In a solid block
But come the next election
They could get a shock
Coffey, Hunt & Poulter,
Churchill, Aldous too (Insert own MPs here)
Suffolks Conservative MPs,
All voted for more poo!

Chorus:
And at high tide I feel like crying
As all around our coast
We see the scummy crud & crap a-rising
And so we make this fuss
Because it’s obvious

Repeat 1st Chorus

Chords for guitars/ukes:
Intro: G G
Verses:G G C C F C G D x 2
Chorus: G G7 C D G G7 C DC G G

For more climate related songs check out the Music and Performance pages here.

All Porpoise Actions

Poo Themed actions!

Poo Pouring

A short video of a poo-pouring action from Wave 1.

Rogers Poo Recipe!

Make some porridge, as you would for breakfast but thinner and more watery.
Then thickened it up by adding white flour (in cold water) and boiling again till the right consistency achieved. Needs to run slowly down a vertical surface.
Then add torn bits of kitchen paper and stir in some water-based brown paint.
There is plenty of scope for variations!!

This action idea could also be a centerpiece for a larger event.

Recce and rehearsal

Practice your pouring ceremony beforehand to be sure it goes right. Most targets will be vertical so practice pouring onto a vertical surface. Use a receptacle such as a squishy plastic bottle to pour from.

Survey the Pouring target beforehand to plan your theatrics, and also to be sure it will cause no lasting damage.

Important Warning - be aware that Poo Pouring on a permeable surface, such as stone, could cause long lasting stains, impossible to clean off on the day. Avoid permeable surfaces due to the possibility of inadvertently causing ‘criminal damage’!

Clean up!

It is vital to clean up after your point has been made if you want to avoid any charge of criminal damage!
Bring water and cloths to clean up, and place a piece of carpet beneath the target to catch drippage.

Poo Party

River Creatures Party by Taunton's River Tone but Raw Sewage in the Water turns it into a Poo Party

(Youtube 3 mins)

Brief Action Plan for Sharing

Location - busy park, Saturday morning, polluted River Tone in background.

Props and Costumes - long table so we can all sit behind, in shot. Tablecloth smeared in sewage with banner "Stop the Poo-lution" and "crockery" which is bits of old plastic taken from the river plus "Crisis, What Crisis?" tea-pot.

Guests are wearing animal heads and human colourful clothing to match their creature.

Also at the party are citizen scientists in hazmat suits (under a fiver at builders merchants) with clip boards, testing the river water in jugs on table, which animals are drinking.

Soundtrack

Swimming In It by Beans on Toast

(Youtube 5 mins) - perfect length and really added something.
Whilst it's playing - creatures dance around table, drink lots of river water, eat turd and poo cakes and gradually all die. Citizen scientists express angst and grief. Final scene is a tableau of dead creatures, debris and banners.

All Porpoise Actions

Dirty Water Scrubbers

This style theatrical action idea was developed for dirty banks.

Your local issue around water pollution may have a target suitable for a visit from Dirty Water Scrubbers, maybe with the addition of water pollution themed props.

Here's the basics

Dirty Scrubbers outfit. (All genders):

Plain leggings and tops, headscarf, curlers, heavy makeup, rubber gloves, filter tipped cigarettes!

Props: cleaning equipment, ideally colourful- if there’s a choice then green gold or leopard print!

If you want the full monty with scripts and useful links for resources

How to be a Dirty Scrubber

All Porpoise Actions

Make a mock Newspaper

Here are some design ideas for newspapers for an action, we printed them off and glued them to large folded white card to look like a broadsheet.

Examples from the Dirty Water Campaign

Note these images have been generated from the PDF files and reduced in quality to display in Rebel Toolkit

All Porpoise Actions

Make a Fishhead or Fish Mask

From quick and easy to more complex, make a Fishhead or Fish Mask!

cardboard fish on a person's head

How to make a Fishhead

You will need:

Cardboard [boxes - pizza boxes will do - not too thick]
String or something to measure around your head
Scissors or a craft knife / scalpel [and cutting board if using a knife]
Pencil and marker pen
Stapler [long one if possible]
Masking tape
Pliers [not essential]
Newspaper or something to cover the table / floor as protection
Chalk spray paint
Chalk paint markers

You can buy chalk spray paint from Suspectpackage and at the time of buying they were cheaper than Graff. Chalk paint markers can be bought from a variety of places including both outlets above.

How to make a Fish Mask

cardboard fish

This mask can be built by simply taping the edges together or using the tabs to glue the edges together.

All Porpoise Actions

Dirty Water Coolers and Mock Sewage Pipes

More creative ideas for marches or vigils against polluting water companies. Fairly simple to assemble and great props for a wider street theatre idea.

Dirty Water Cooler

Look for a second hand water dispenser on eBay or Gumtree. Fill it with a murky non-toxic liquid and add a very visible company logo. Then offer employees and onlookers a taste of the finest sewage-laced beverage, courtesy of the target water company.

Dirty Water Cooler

Mock Sewage Pipe

This may require a trip to your local arts & crafts store (or re-cycle one of those hand-chain-tubes). Create some paper & fabric effluent, add a company logo and a shut-off valve for some more effect. Ideally a 'company executive' joins the installation for regular spewing of creative sewage.

Mock sewage pipe

All Porpoise Actions

Face-in-the-Hole boards

These have been super popular at actions based around beaches and leisure swimming spots.

Lots of people are worried about swimming in the sea and rivers now (and with very good reason)! This light hearted addition to the action will catch people's attention and get them primed for a conversation with you.

All Porpoise Actions

Dirty Water Crime Scene

Find instructions for creating your own Dirty Water Crime Scene here.

All Porpoise Actions

Making Art with Withy

Knowledge is Powerful

We've spent months researching the perilous state of our waterways and brought sources of information to help you, so that you don't have to waste any more energy than necessary. We continually update these resources, but there is always more to learn in a changing water-scape, so please get in touch if you need more.

Knowledge is Powerful

Data Updates 📊

In this section, you will find everything you need to know to inform your Wave 6 actions.

Follow this link to the Data Stream

Knowledge is Powerful

Sources of Water Pollution 💩

Sewage Pollution

Latest figures show that raw sewage discharge into rivers and seas accounted for more than 3.6 million hours last year, an increase of 105% on the previous 12 months. Raw sewage contains a plethora of bacteria and toxins from human households. Fecal indicator bacteria like E. Coli and Entererococci are used in water tests to determine how sewage-puluted a lake, river or coastline is. Measuring these bacteria has to be done by sending a water sample to a lab.

Check out Naturalist and Broadcaster, Steve Backshall talking about samples processed by Bangor Uni wastewater research.

Most sewage pollutions in the UK happen when the sewage treatment system becomes overwhelmed with rain water which then triggers storm overflows to simply spill the sewage and rainwater directly into rivers and beaches. All storm overflows (also know as Combined Sewer Overflows - CSOs) in England are now fitted with monitoring devices generating data about the numberf spills and the duration of each spill. Data coverage in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is much more patchy. The data is then provided by the water companies to the Environment Agency and published once a year in spring.

There are several web sites which summarise this data in maps and graphs:

There is also a free app which sends out real-time alerts whenever sewage pollution impacts bathing sites:

Safer Seas and Rivers Service by Surfers Against Sewage

Agricultural Pollution

Fecal bacteria pollution doesn't just originate from human waste, but also originates from animal waste when it leaks into rivers or is washed off farming fields where slury is used as fertiliser. High intensity poultry factories and other livestock units excarcerbate this situation due to the large amount of animal waste they create.

Fertilisers of any kind, either animal waste or commerical fertiliser, are often washed off the fields into nearby rivers, creating a nutrient overload which significtly harms the rivers and connected eco systems. The River Wye for example has now reached a state of emergency. It is being killed by pollution, a cocktail of excessive agricultural nutrients (over 70%), sewage (22-24%), microplastics and superbugs. Find out more here.

The widespread use of herbicides and insecticides as well as antibiotics given to animals in farming today creates further unmeasured damage when it runs off into water-based eco systems.

Microplastic Pollution

Fishing nets and lines dumped in water, degraded plastic containers resulting in polluting microplastic beads on coasts and on land.

Chemical Pollution

Toxic chemical waste dumped on land which gets into waterways. Waste from industry and house building. Road run-off from tyres and petro chemicals. Human antibiotics and hormonal contraceptives.

Radioactive Pollution

All nuclear reactors for civilian or military use need water to cool excess heat away from the reactor plant. When smaller radiactive accidents happen it is often water reciving contamination from radiactive material, which then leaks into rivers and seas. But even in day-to-day operations, some radioactive elemtents cannot be filtered out of water and are legally dumped into water eco-systems.

Landfill Leachate

If you have concerns about a local historic landfill site where there seem to be a concentration of people suffering from a range of health conditions, such as cancers, it could be that there is a leachate issue, where water courses and local aquifers are being contaminated by forever chemicals.

It is only fairly recently that waste companies depositing toxic chemicals have become obliged to report the contents of their waste. There is extensive mapping ongoing of sites around Europe and UK, which you can see here.

Beware of allotment sites, or new build areas where there have been historic landfills. If you want to talk to experts about your local area, the Dirty Water team can connect you, so please email us.

Knowledge is Powerful

Social Justice ⚖️

Global South bares the brunt

Global Justice and climate justice are inherently linked as climate change devastates countries around the world but particularly in the global south. These countries have fewer resources for dealing with climate catastrophe and often have much more harsh punishments for climate activism.

The water pollution crisis fuels injustice, where poorer communities, especially in the Global South, are tasked with the polluting production of consumer goods destined for richer communities like the UK.

Marginalised groups and people already struggling with poverty and inequality will be the first to feel the effects of the climate and ecological emergency.

The climate crisis is at least in part due to the current and historic oppression and exploitation of those most impoverished and vulnerable in our communities and around the world.

As the effects of the climate and ecological emergency worsen, resources such as water, but also money, food, healthcareand housing will become scarce. This will affect everybody but none more so than vulnerable groups such as: Low-income countries & households, people of colour, indigenous people, women, trans people, young people and disabled people. It is important that we stand together in solidarity against all injustice if we hope to tackle this crisis.

Global sustainable water management is a key concern of the UK Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO). More comprehensive information can be found here.

There is a whole book dedicated to Global Justice in our Rebel Toolkit, and also a separate Social Justice Action Pack with more resources.

We also invite you to take action specifically in August 2024 for a month of solidarity and direct action as part of the 2024 Actions Strategy. Though the battle doesn’t end there, these actions can be taken at any point by anyone.

Closer to home

Our lives depend on water and so does the world around us. Water is so fundamental to our daily lives that it is considered a basic human right, with the provision of safe, sufficient and affordable water directly linked to the health, dignity and prosperity of communities across the world.

Due to poorly designed wastewater infrastructure, the UK has struggled for decades with sewage pollution to rivers and seas including many bathing sites.

$Plymouth Paddle Out Protest May 2024$

Although the scourge of sewage pollution is spread evenly across the UK, one in 16 households here live in water poverty, where the cost of water makes up more than 5% of their income (data source). We all rely on water, but not all of us can afford to pay for it.

In England, wastewater services are run by nine privately owned water companies. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, these services are publicly owned (but unfortunately have an equally terrible environmental record).

The failure of privatised water in England allowed so-called 'investors' to borrow money against the value of their infrastucture and to use that money to pay themselves excessive dividends. Over the last 30 years this process 'hollowed out' all privatised water companies, where they owe 65-80% of what they are worth to banks and other companies, a process called 'gearing'.

As a consequence of 'gearing' in England now approximately 20% of every water bill is used to pay dividends and interest on loans. This social injustice burdens every person in England to pay for the stolen billions extracted through 'gearing' over the last 30 years, paying dividends to shareholders, while leaving their water infrastructure to rot.

From 2025 all water companies have announced they will further increase water bills by 30-50% to pay for badly needed improvements to cope with the rising amount of sewage and increasing rainfal due to the climate crisis.

If the cost to fix our crumbling water infrastructure is carried by the public (as it will be), rather than by their private owners, then we deman that water companies must be forced to stop paying out dividends.

Dirty Water - other examples of Social Injustice

7-year-old Zane died from flood waters poisend by landfill site

In 2014 Zane Gbangbola, a 7-year-old child was killed and his father permanently paralysed when hydrogen cyanide emanated from a flooded toxic waste site in Surrey. Local authorities and the courts did nothing but obstruct and cover up the truth about Zane’s death. How many more toxic landfill time bombs are waiting to be flooded?

Read more about Zane's story here: truthaboutzane.com

When Thames Water collapses, pensioners will pay the price

Two thirds of Thames Water, the largest water company in Europe, is owned by pension funds. The privatised financialised system is pitching pensioners from the UK and Canada with their retirement investments against our natural habitat and the safe use of our rivers and seas for people all across the UK.

The following diagram shows the complex ownership structure of Thames Water with its ultimate owners and where they are based shown at the top:

Knowledge is Powerful

Fin-ancialisation 🦈

England's water is highly financialised. How did we get here and what does it mean?

A brief history of ownership of water companies in the UK

From the late nineteenth century onwards, water services in England and Wales followed a pattern similar to most European countries. Water services were owned by a mixed bag of local authorities, with some individual authorities running water companies, some large inter-municipal operators, and a surviving handful of private water-supply only companies, which were strictly regulated by a simple cap on their profits at a maximum rate of return of 5%.

In 1974 the service was reorganised. 10 unitary regional water authorities (RWAs) were created, each covering a river basin area, each responsible for water quality, water supply and sewage treatment. These authorities were appointed by the government, not by municipalities, and so were not accountable to local government any more. The RWAs reduced the number of employees from 80,000 to 50,000 between 1974 and 1989.

The Thatcher government originally proposed water privatisation in England and Wales in 1984, but due to strong public opposition the proposals were abandoned before the issue could influence the 1987 election. Once this was won, the privatisation plan was resurrected and implemented rapidly.

Under the Water Act 1988, the newly formed water companies became owners of the entire water system and all assets of the RWAs in England and Wales. The RWAs were sold by issuing shares on the stock market. In Scotland and Northern Ireland however water remains controlled and operated by public authorities.

Privatisation did not create any competition. The companies were given monopolies in their regions for 25 years, without having to compete even once for the business. The government was desperate to mark the sale of common assets to private owners a success. It wrote off all the debts of the water companies before privatisation, worth over £5 billion pounds and gave the companies an additional ‘green dowry’ of £1.6 billion from the public purse.

The initial water pricing regime, set by the government, resulted in pre-tax profits of the ten water companies to rise by 147% between 1990/91 to 1997/98 with sewerage and water prices rising respectively by 42% and 36%. The companies were also given special exemption from paying profits taxes.

OFWAT, the financial regulator for private water companies is statutorily responsible for ensuring that the companies were profitable, a task which it performed very well, and for encouraging efficiency. As there is no competition, OFWAT compares the companies performance with each other.

The water companies were protected from takeover for 5 years by the government’s ‘golden share’. Once the 5 year period was up, many were bought off the stock market by giant multinationals, restructured, stripped and mortgaged and then resold for huge profit, a process commonly known as 'financialisation'. A process in which making profits from financial constructs, becomes more profitable than trading real products and services.

The increasing financial engineering for shareholder profits leads to more and more complex ownership structures. Here is a Guardian graphic showing the structures for English water companies:

The result of financialisaton is best demonstrated by looking at a specific example:
Thames Water Ltd - Europe's largest Water and Sewerage company.

Thames Water

1974 - The Thames Water Authority was formed as the largest regional water authority in the UK.
1989 - Thatcher's privatisation handed all water system and assets of the region to Thames Water Ltd, free of debt and a 'green dowry' gift of more than £100 million.
2001 - RWE, a German energy giant bought Thames Water off the stock market and burdens the company with a £3.4 billion 'mortgage' debt
2006 - Macquarie Group, an Australian global financial services group buys Thames Water for £8 billion
In the next eleven years Macquarie Group adds another £7.1 billion 'mortgage' debt to the company while paying themselves £2.8 billion in dividends. Over this time Macquarie sells off Thames Water in chunks to the highest bidder
2017 - Macquarie successfully sold all Thames Water shares at healthy profit for themselves. Two thirds of Thames water is now owned by pension funds in different parts of the world.
Over the last 35 years in private ownership Thames Water has paid out over £7 billion in dividends to shareholders and accumulated a debt of over £15 billion. Every month Thames Water customers pay approx. 20% of their water bill just to pay the interest on this debt.
2024 - Thames Water is now in existential crisis and may soon collapse under its burden of debt
The company has asked to be allowed to rise bills by 50% and begged OFWAT to be lenient with future fines for illegal behaviour
Thames water demonstrates how privatisation turned water, the essence of life, into cash machines for globally capitalised cooperations
Thames Water's ruin is but one example of the terrible consequences of the financialisaton of water while underinvesting in real and badly needed infrastructure.
The resulting broken sewage systems are intolerable for all life in our land and coastal waters.
We must correct this mess now. Different models and ways of funding are available. It’s time for the people to have their say.

Sources and further reading:

To search for a financial term or acronym with explanation from Investopedia

Knowledge is Powerful

Ecology 🐬🦋🦭

dragonfly over water

“Everything that we do, from the water we drink, air we breathe and food we eat is all dependent on the natural world. The processes that keep our reservoirs clean and the food in the fields growing are all underpinned by the wildlife - or biodiversity - that surrounds it, and without any of these, other species simply would not be able to survive.

nutrient pollution

“It is not, however, the mere presence of these species that matters most but their relationships with each other and how they interact to create a complex network of life. As individual species are then pulled from this web, the ecosystem in which they live eventually collapses.” - Natural History Museum report

This is a look at some aquatic and semi-aquatic species, showing their roles in the healthy ecosystem. Losing any of them threatens them all.

River-water crowfoot (Ranunculus fluitans)

river water crowfoot

There are several common species of ranunculus found in the rivers and lakes of Britain and Ireland . Above the surface, the leaves of Ranunculus fluitans are very similar to those of other members of the buttercup family, while the submerged leaves are finely divided: characteristic of a truly amphibious plant. The flowers are at their best from mid-May until the end of June.

Slow to moderate paced lowland river reaches of shallow depth, especially where the river bed contains limestone, are places where this lovely water plant is most plentiful. In the wild, Ranunculus fluitans is an important food source for many species of fish and waterfowl. The plant's leaves and stems are eaten by ducks, geese, and other birds, and its seeds provide a source of food for fish and insects. It is also an important part of the aquatic food chain, as it provides essential in-stream habitat for freshwater shrimps, snails, insect larvae and nymphs.

Caddisflies (or sedges - trichoptera)

river water crowfoot

Insects in the order Trichoptera are commonly known as caddisflies or sedges. There are 199 species of caddisfly in the UK. Caddisfly larvae live underwater, where they make cases by spinning together stones, sand, leaves and twigs with a silk they secrete from glands around the mouth. Most larvae live in these shelters, which can either be fixed or transportable, though a few species are free-swimming and only construct shelters when they’re ready to pupate.

river water crowfoot

Adult caddisflies are moth-like insects which generally fly at night. They hold their wings above their body in a roof-shape when at rest.

Adults are often attracted to moth traps, or can be found during the day on vegetation near to the water's edge, or flying in swarms over the water. Caddisflies are an important food source for all kinds of predators, including Atlantic Salmon and Brown Trout, and birds such as the Dipper.

Common Barbel (Barbus barbus)

barbel

One of England’s native fish species, believed to have been present in at least some English rivers for more than 10,000 years. They are thought to be native to eastern English rivers between Yorkshire and the Thames but have been widely stocked in many others, such as the Severn and Wye, and in parts of Scotland.

Barbel are cyprinids and there are several species from the genus Barbus that all share similar anatomical features. These include adaptations to living in faster flowing water, such as a streamlined body with large, almost mini-wing like, pectoral fins and powerful tails. Barbel species also have downward-facing mouths and two pairs (four in total) of barbules (sometimes referred to as barbels or whiskers) on their upper lips, which hint at their preferred benthic feeding habits.

Their underslung mouths make them especially well adapted for feeding on benthic organisms, including crustaceans, insect larvae and molluscs, which they root out from the gravel and stones of the riverbed. Barbel diets change as the fish develop from fry to juveniles and then to adults. Diatoms that cover rocks and the larvae of non-biting midges (Chironomidae) are particularly important foods for young fish. Barbel also like to seek refuge and forage amongst aquatic plants (especially Ranunculus) or underneath overhanging trees or submerged tree roots and branches.

Barbel can live for 20 years and mature relatively slowly, with males taking 3–4 years and females up to 8 years to become sexually mature. This leaves them susceptible to a range of pressures over a prolonged period, which can affect their ability to reproduce successfully and thrive in rivers. Some of the issues facing barbel include poor water quality and predation, at all life stages, from a range of predators, including human poaching, piscivorous birds (e.g., herons, goosanders and cormorants), fishes (e.g., pike and perch) and mammals such as mink and otters. They also suffer with destruction and modification of habitats, which can create bottlenecks for different life stages – barbel require different habitats throughout their lives and the juxtaposition of these is important for maintaining viable populations.

Common frog or grass frog (Rana temporaria)

The Common Frog is easily our most recognisable amphibian. They’re found throughout Britain and Ireland, in almost any habitat where suitable breeding ponds are near by. Common Frogs have smooth skin and long legs for jumping away quickly. Garden ponds are extremely important for common frogs, particularly in urban areas.

common frog larva

They breed in shallow water bodies such as puddles, ponds, lakes, and canals. They deposit ‘rafts’ of spawn, often containing up to 2000 eggs. Each small black egg is surrounded by a clear jelly capsule around 1 cm across. Frogspawn is a remarkable material. It is 99.7% water and dissipates heat very slowly, which means that the egg mass is maintained at a higher temperature than the surrounding water. In addition, the egg mass is permeable to water currents, ensuring that all eggs within the mass receive adequate supplies of oxygen. The temperature at which the eggs and emergent tadpoles develop influences the speed of development. Common Frog tadpoles are black when they hatch but develop light bronze speckles as they mature.

Mating and spawning is usual over by the beginning of May (though may be later in more northerly latitudes) and most adults move away from the breeding pond within a few days of mating. By the beginning of August, most of the resulting froglets will have left the breeding pond.

'Mature' tadpoles are faintly speckled with a gold/brown colouration which distinguishes them from the black tadpoles of the common toad. They tend to feed on algae and decomposed plants. They are eaten by a range of aquatic animals, including dragonfly larvae and newts.

common frog froglet

Tadpoles generally take up to sixteen weeks to grow back legs, then front legs before they metamorphose into tiny froglets, ready to leave the water in early summer (often June, but in some ponds this may be as late as September). They become carnivorous once the back legs are grown, taking small prey like mites, ticks and small fly larvae.

Adult males grow up to 9 cm in length and females up to 13 cm in length. They are usually a shade of olive-green or brown (although can be yellow, pink, red, lime-green, cream or black). They have dark patches on the back, stripes on the hind legs, and a dark ‘mask’ behind the eye. They have an oval, horizontal pupil. They call with a soft repetitive croak.

common frog

The Common Frog is native to the UK. They are found throughout Britain and Ireland. They are also widespread across Europe but numbers are thought to be declining.

They tend to be most active at night, they are carnivores so feed on a variety of invertebrate prey including slugs and snails which makes them especially popular with gardeners.

Despite their wide mouths, frogs drink by absorbing water through their skin and swallow using their eyes – they retract them into the head to help push food down their throats. When they moult, they usually eat the skin as it is a valuable source of nutrition! During winter they hibernate under rocks, in compost heaps, or underwater, buried in mud and vegetation.

Frogs make attractive meals for a vast array of wildlife, so they are vulnerable to predators on the ground, underwater and from above. Their predators include small mammals, lizards and snakes, water shrews, otters and birds such as herons.

Commom frogs are also threatened by degradation of habitats (the loss of ponds, even garden ponds, as well as lakes), threats to many food sources from declining water quality, and the introduction of disease.

Otter (Lutra lutra)

Otters inhabit rivers and wetland, coastal waters & marshland. They have brown fur, often pale on the underside, a long slender body, small ears on a broad head, long thick tail, and webbed feet. An otter swims very low in the water, the head and back barely showing. They are usually 60-80cm, the tail is about 32-56cm. Their weight is on average 8.2kg for males, 6.0kg for females. They live up to 10 years, though few survive more than five.

adult otter on Isle of Mull

The otter is a secretive semi-aquatic species which was once widespread in Britain. By the 1970s, otters were restricted mainly to Scotland, especially the islands and the north-west coast, western Wales, parts of East Anglia and the West Country (though they remained common and widespread also in Ireland). This decline was caused by organo-chlorine pesticides. Since these were withdrawn from use, otters have been spreading back into many areas, especially in northern and western England.

Otter feeding

Otters eat fish, especially eels and salmonids, and crayfish at certain times of the year. Coastal otters in Shetland eat bottom-living species such as eelpout, rockling, butterfish, as well as crabs and shellfish. Otters occasionally take water birds such as coots, moorhens and ducks. In the spring, frogs are an important food item.

They are an apex predator in Britain and Ireland, even taking mink, and are themselves only at risk in the wild when young, from eagles, or when venturing outside their coastal range and encountering much larger marine predators. Their biggest threat is still from humans, though. Commercial fisherman resent otters taking their catches, while poor river water quality sends otters into stillwater lakes, where they come into conflict with anglers. Road traffic, habitat destruction and fishing nets all take their toll.

Otters can travel over large areas. Some are known to use 20 kilometres or more of river habitat. Otters deposit faeces (known as spraints, with a characteristic sweet musky odour) in prominent places around their ranges. These serve to mark an otter’s range, defending its territory but also helping neighbours keep in social contact with one another. Females with cubs reduce sprainting to avoid detection.

Otter family resting in seaweed

In England and Wales, otter cubs, usually in litters of two or three, can be born at any time of the year. In Shetland and North-west Scotland most births occur in summer. Cubs are normally born in dens, called holts, which can be in a tree root system, a hole in a bank or under a pile of rocks. About 10 weeks elapse before cubs venture out of the holt with their mother, who raises the cubs without help from the male.

Otters are strictly protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and cannot be killed, kept or sold (even stuffed specimens) except under licence. In the late 1950s and early 1960s otters underwent a sudden and catastrophic decline throughout much of Britain and Europe. The cause was probably the combined effects of pollution and habitat destruction, particularly the drainage of wetlands. Otters require clean rivers with an abundant, varied supply of food and plenty of bank-side vegetation offering secluded sites for their holts. Riversides often lack the appropriate cover for otters to lie up during the day. Such areas can be made more attractive to otters by establishing “otter havens,” where river banks are planted-up and kept free from human disturbance. Marshes may also be very important habitat for raising young and as a source of frogs.

While otters completely disappeared from the rivers of most of central and southern England 50 years ago, their future now looks much brighter. There is evidence that in certain parts of the UK the otter is extending its range and may be increasing locally. However, otter populations in England are very fragmented and the animals breed slowly. Attempts have been made to reintroduce otters to their former haunts by releasing captive bred and rehabilitated animals, with some attempts proving very successful.

Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Cormorant in flight

There are two subspecies of cormorant in the UK. There's the mostly coastal nesting Phalacrocorax carbo carbo, and there's Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, which arrived from continental Europe and has led the increase of inland cormorant nesting colonies. This has accounted for a 53 per cent range expansion in Britain since the first nesting by sinensis in 1981 (at Abberton Reservoir, Essex).

By 2005 there were an estimated 2,100 pairs of sinensis nesting in Britain. However, since the establishment of inland tree nesting by sinensis Great Cormorants, coastal birds have also started to breed inland, particularly in those sinensis colonies that are older and well established.

cormorant on the nest

Great cormorants build large conspicuous nests with coastal colonies normally situated on stacks, rocky islets, cliffs or rocky promontories. Many colonies persist at the same location for long periods, but others come and go or suddenly shift location – the presence of a colony in one year is no guarantee that there will be one there the following year. Inland colonies will nest in trees.

The cormorant lays a clutch of three to five eggs that measure 63 by 41 millimetres on average. The eggs are a pale blue or green, sometimes with a white chalky layer covering them. These eggs are incubated for a period of about four weeks.

In marine environments cormorants are found in sheltered coastal areas on estuaries, coastal lagoons and coastal bays, requiring rocky shores, cliffs and islets for nesting, but generally avoiding deep water and rarely extending far offshore. They also inhabit fresh, brackish or saline inland wetlands, including lakes, reservoirs, wide rivers, flood waters, deep marshes with open water, swamps and oxbow lakes. They require trees, bushes, reedbeds or bare ground for nesting and will avoid overgrown, small, very shallow or very deep waters.

cormorant eating eel

Cormorants forage by diving and capturing prey in their beaks. The duration of dives is around 28 seconds, with the bird diving to depths of about 6 metres. About 60% of dives are to the benthic zone and about 10% are to the pelagic zone, with the rest of the dives being to zones in between the two. Studies suggest that their hearing has evolved for underwater usage, possibly aiding their detection of fish. Cormorants' diet consists predominantly of fish, including flatfish, as well as crustaceans, amphibians, molluscs and nestling birds. At sea the species preys mostly on bottom-dwelling fish, occasionally also taking shoaling fish in deeper water. It is a generalist, having been shown to feed on at least 22 different fish species. They hunt by swimming.

Cormorants are large birds, up to 100cm long. Their wingspan can be 160cm, and they weigh from 2 - 2.5kg. They live on aerage 11 years. Their long necks and hooked bills give them a primitive, almost reptilian, appearance. This is enhanced by the fact that they are commonly seen standing on top of rocks, posts or trees with their wings out-stretched.

The cormorants' oily plumage is only partially waterproof and after diving for fish, they effectively have to hang out their wings to dry.

Cormorant drying off

Many fishermen see in the great cormorant a competitor for fish, which meant it was hunted nearly to extinction in the past. Due to conservation efforts, its numbers increased. At the moment, there are about 65,000 birds in the UK (1.2 million in Europe). Increasing populations have once again brought the cormorant into conflict with fisheries. For example, in Britain, where inland breeding was once uncommon, there are now increasing numbers of birds breeding inland, and many inland fish farms and fisheries now claim to be suffering high losses due to these birds. In the UK each year, some licences are issued to cull specified numbers of cormorants in order to help reduce predation. It might well be that the birds, like the otters, are raiding fishing lakes because of a decline in wild prey in polluted waters.

At sea, due to the species' foraging behaviour (shallow diving) and habit of hunting within purse-seine and gill-nets, the species is particularly susceptible to bycatch.

Sources and further reading:

River-water crowfoot

http://www.wildflowerweb.co.uk/plant/4053/river-water-crowfoot
https://first-nature.com/flowers/ranunculus-fluitans.php

And habitat loss:
https://www.wyevalley-nl.org.uk/caring-for-wye-valley-aonb/our-projects/priority-species-project/water-crowfoot/

And an appreciation of ecological value from EA:
https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2022/11/30/water-crowfoot-or-how-we-learned-to-love-ranunculus/

Caddis fly

Common barbel

The Common Frog

Otters

Cormorants

Knowledge is Powerful

Talks & Presentations 🗣️

Previous talks with resources. You can use these to increase awareness and use the resources to deliver your own talks.

Talk at XR Wandsworth 15 May 2024.

Talk for Odiham U3A group 24 May 2024

Slides

Data Stream

Oppor-tuna-ties to make your actions effective

Data Stream

Data and Facts - Wading Through Murk

The deeper you go, the murkier the waters, the easier it is to lose your way. Information is your antidote and YOUR lighthouse in the dark.

If your local group wants to dive deeper into local water issues but is drowning in overwhelm, grab the Dirty Water lifeboat to help you navigate the information dead zones and the high tide of bureaucratic BS.

As we all know, the scale of water horror stories and data is massive. We cannot possibly cover everything, but this information will help launch your metaphorical Pink Boat to reach the Tell the Truth and Act Now island.

For instance, Freedom of Information (FoI) requests are a useful tool to obtain information of any kind from those in power, be they regulatory authorities, government departments, local and unitary authorities, or private companies. However, these requests are not always effectively responded to, particularly if you miss any tricks on how to exercise your rights.

Our Data and Fact - Gaps MAKES SURE NO TRICK GOES UNTICKED.

Email dirtywatercampaign@proton.me with any information you feel is useful and requests for support
Add your suggestions to this resource DOES THIS NEED A LINK TO THE SPREADSHEET?

Data Stream

Data and Facts - Gaps

Not Just Sewage Infrastructure Holes To Act On!

Knowing what we don’t or cannot know is just as important as the data that is available to us. There are limits to what government departments or private industry are willing to be transparent about. Knowing these limits means that anyone campaigning in these areas will be able to inform others of the limits of their ability to help Tell the Truth. Knowing what we need to know more about can provide opportunities to campaign to get the responsible bodies to do the right thing.

We cannot Act Now on what we do not or cannot know. Understanding our limitations as active and concerned citizens is important because this can point the way to building connections between those organisations that have pieces of the jigsaw. Where there are data and knkowledge gaps, it is important for NGOs, reporters, legal professionals, whistleblowers, influencers and other conscientious protectors to collaborate to help us act on the environmental destruction happening.

Surprise, surprise, there are lots of gaps in data; information can be inaccessible due to how laws protect the powerful, or finding information you need means wading through bureaucratic systems, or persisting against stonewalling, obfuscation and resource short-comings.

Here's just a few of the darker sink holes and eddy pools to watch out for and begin to think about who else might help... (Or skirt the dark pools for now and head straight for the Lighthouse section to plan your campaign route a little more clearly). Show me the Lighthouse route

All Hands on Deck

We would love for you to contact the Dirty Water crew on your local issue to share knowledge and experience!

You can contact us via our Telegram or Mattermost channels or by email dirtywatercampaign@proton.me

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: The Law, Makers & Breakers

This is a start in terms of learning where the power lies and where laws are being broken by those who have power to help us improve a key element of our quality of life: healthy and safe places to thrive.

Environmental Protection Act (EPA)

The EPA obliges local authorities (LA's) to identify contaminated sites, but there is a fear of peering under rocks here by LA's, because of potential costs of remediation and public outcry of health implications for communities, to say nothing of identifying responsible bodies involved, when sites are legacy landfills, for instance. This legislation also points to methodologies for dealing with contamination. In terms of short-comings, the Chester case study is useful for anyone concerned about sites near their communities flagged for development.
Environmental Protection Act Part II is almost unenforceable and unfit for conservation and restoration purposes; this explains some of the campaigns now happening to strengthen regulatory powers against the polluters.
For instance, the Environment Agency (England) can downgrade pollution events from Category 2 or 3 to Cat. 4’s, which involve no enforcement actions. Minimising the significance of a pollution incident is a disturbingly commonplace practice and often happens without the public understanding how the benchmarking process works (or, more accurately, doesn't).
Land classified as contaminated land legally triggers some level of remediation by a local authority, so do not take a 'nothing to see here' at face value if your local authority claims that land you suspect has been contaminated is not within the parameters. There are experts around who can navigate you through digging deeper to see if there is potential negligence. Whilst tricky, freedom of information (foI) requests can be a good lever here (see FoI section below).
Industrial legacy. Furthermore, don't be deceived if at the site of a previous gasworks, paint factory, or other toxic manufacturing industry, legacy topsoil pollution under investigation is superficially investigated and subsequent recommended remediations are inadequate as a result. Some communities, living in 'new-build' properties in particular, have been advised not to grow food in their gardens due to deeper levels of contamination, which can be drawn up through plant tissue; such notified risks are purely because of what that land was used for before redevelopment.
Some residents have had to find out the hard way, where public information on previous land use has been scant, due to commercial or national security sensitivities.
Even where industrial history is well-known, local knowledge of risk may still be minimal. Southall gasworks is a case in point.
Similarly, residents around Porton Down are advised not to eat any fruit or food they grow. In the 1950's the War office (now Dept. of Defence) agreed to the spraying of toxic chemical agents from airplanes flying over the area to observe impacts on human health. What legacy has this left on the land and the health of those subjected to this horror show? This story only recently came to light in recent years after the expiry of a 'D' Notice, preventing the public from finding some information out. (These are now called 'Defence Advisory Notices')
If the local authority have informed housing developers that the topsoil isn’t 'clean' or safe and recommended its removal, and a building contractor then just spreads e.g. 60cm of clean soil onto that site for topsoil, what happens when a keen gardener grows fruit trees, which root deeper and unwittingly start drawing up contaminants through their vascular systems into their fruit?
What do you know about the history and natural landscape of where you live?
Local geology can also be significant. Contamination can remain either within soils, or aquifers. Some foundation rock types will pose greater risks than others. For example, porosity / permeability of Triassic sandstone may mean that site investigations miss key chemical contaminants from former process residues. Compare this with eg granite, where permeability is less of a risk.
Which of these scenarios is then considered as a pathway for e.g. EPA Part 2A purposes? It's important to know which sections of the EPA trigger obligatory remedial action; Part 2A obliges remedial action on the part of a local authority.
Then, assuming you have achieved recognition of land being contaminated, where are the nearby watercourses potentially at risk of leachate? Are there any local geology maps of acquifers? If your local authority is obliged to undertake works, be ready for deliberate obfuscation, given their increasingly constrained finances. Your group may need to really be persistent to bridge any gaps of officer expertise lost over time. It has been estimated that on average a UK citizen lives no further than 2km from a landfill. It has also been shown that increasing precipitation with our climate crisis will exacerbate problems. These are the complex dilemmas communities now face in protecting their family and neighbourhood well-being.
Digging deeper into detail can get complicated in terms of local history, chemistry, biology and engineering. We recommend you come together as a community and build allies where you can, wherever you can. Make connections with relevant academics, scientists, technicians, especially those who are retired, having no remaining constraints on their expert oppenness!

Water Resources Act

The Water Resources Act, 1991 may mean that your local river has been designated as a Water Protection Zone. It is worth checking this out with your local authority, because this legislation obliges companies in the locality to apply for consent where certain substances are used or stored at specific sites anywhere within the designated area, such as local industrial estates. Water regulators will also have responsibilities here. However, sadly, such protective designations do not guarantee business best practices in pollution prevention. It is down to the public knowing these protections exist, being the eyes and nose on the ground and knowing where to take their concerns.
Is it enough for people to have to go online when they witness potentially serious pollution incidents, or to form river watch groups? Do you have any idea about any legal protections for your local watercourses? Chances are that you don't, because the regulators do not see it as their role to pro-actively engage the very people who are likely to blow the whistle when businesses systems fail, resulting in catastrophes. In the words of one regulatory officer, Elizabeth Felton, NRW Environment Team Leader for Wrexham: “Pollution incidents from industrial estates can happen every day because of spills, accidents, negligence, or vandalism....Such incidents can then put human health at risk and devastate wildlife habitats on rivers..."

Freedom of Information Act (FoI)

In terms of the Freedom of Information Act, letters from the public, seeking information from local authorities responsible for remediation of pollution sources can result in only partial information sharing, buck passing, legal loopholes or downright misrepresentation. Being aware of what the organisational pitfalls you might face can all feel demotivating, but it's helpful to know what holes in the system you are navigating to keep records for any subsequent legal proceedings your campaign group might take up. Forewarned is forearmed.
Here are some of the common FoI pitfalls:
- Lack of funding for thorough investigation by NGOs, local authorities or regulators.
- Deprioritisation of environmental obligations.
- Limits to Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR - see below).
- Poor oversight of engineering contractors.
- Lack of adequate staff training and incompetence.
- Scientific illiteracy.
- Lost records.
- Historical memory loss as staff retire and leave.
- Deliberate obfuscation due to fear of repercussions and fall out of disclosure (also: more than my jobsworth / arse covering).
- Misuse of Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations (see section below).
- Appealing to the Information Commissioner's Office by campaign groups to obtain information from institutions may or may not bear fruit. See the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution campaign's downloadable report.

For a great example of how to avoid obfuscation and avoidance by the recipient of an FoI request, take a look here.

If this intrigues you, whet's your appetite, do check out more of the Reverend's FoI requests, by searching his name on this website. Chances are he will have tested water somewhere not too far from where you are.

Environmental Information Regulations (EIR)

Water companies are subject to legislation requiring them to disclose pollution data, one key example being the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“EIR”). However, water companies frequently seek to avoid their legal obligations. A case in point is United Utilities, which was issued with a practice recommendation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”). The ICO found that the company had repeatedly failed to categorise information as “environmental” in order to avoid disclosing it under the EIR; the ICO suggested that the company leadership needed to “review its culture around proactive disclosure”. United Utilities is not the only company using such underhand and corrupt practices, so is worth looking into where you are and checking Regulation 16.
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) contain exemptions to the public's rights to access information held by some public bodies, including local authorities. For example: [1]Exception 12(5)(d) states: “Confidentiality of proceedings where confidentiality is provided by law”. One particular FoI rejection case involving Spelthorne Council to be aware of is as follows: 12(5)(d) states:

"(5) a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect –

(d) "the confidentiality of the proceedings of that or any other public authority where such confidentiality is provided by law;" This legalese was deployed by Spelthorne Council in response to a 2024 FoI request. Here, the confidentiality obligation cited refers to outcomes of a Coroner's Court, which by law can impose confidentiality instructions on a local authority impacted by their proceedings.

Thus we are in a situation where Environmental Information Request responses by water companies border on the criminal. "Academics and campaign groups wanting to understand the frequency, severity and risks posed by sewage discharges in England have routinely had environmental information requests (EIRs) denied or incomplete datasets provided after prolonged delay." Deflect, Distract, Delay, Deny tactics are commonplace, according to this 'Nature' Journal article.

Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations

A further constraint imposed by local authorities on sharing information with the public comes under Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations. Shocking as it may seem, a local authority may say that information shared with you under your FoI request is solely "for your personal use". It is important, therefore when asking for information from a local authority that you also seek permission to share with interested parties; name them if you can. Alternately, use the WhatDoTheyKnow.com website for FoI requests; this limits institutional divide and rule tactics.
The following response has been made to someone making a FoI request: "Any re-use of this information will be subject to the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations (2015) and authorisation from the Council will be required. In the event of any re-use, the information must be reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading manner." This is a difficult pill to swallow if someone becomes seriously ill or dies through water contamination. If anyone can share effective rebuttals the Dirty Water team would love to hear from you.

Bathing Water Regulations 2013

Defra's designated 'bathing water' status is an opaque application process. While the designation does require closer monitoring by the authorities when achieved, the idea is deeply flawed. See:
- 'The Great Washout: The Futility of Bathing Water Status'
- Public applications generally result in a rejection.
- You cannot trust a Blue Flag bathing beach safety categorisation, even those beaches with apparent 'excellent' rating. Raw sewage contamination is still a risk, especially after heavy rain.
- The government refused to provide the Guardian newspaper with a list of the rivers and coastal areas where bathing water status had been turned down since January 2022. Campaigners have attacked the lack of transparency around this process. Freedom of Information requests to find out why an application for a local river has been turned down have been refused by DEFRA.
- The bathing water application process also minimises the number of local people who may use local waters, because the application asks for number of bathers using the water, but does not include boaters such as paddleboarders & kayakers, let alone dog walkers and paddlers.
- Signs on-site, warning bathers of hazards can be risible at best, and virtually invisible at worst! Be sure to share the worst 'box-ticking' examples on our Dirty Water Live Content Telegram chat.

Water Framework Directive

Despite Brexit, this remains in place in terms of regulatory frameworks. It has been described as a "demanding and timely ‘identification and rectification’... requirement" by the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP) campaign, "but has been inexplicably ignored". Instead, lobbying by the water industry has led to this being sidelined in favour of weaker implementation measures, such as the Storm Overflow Assessment Framework (SOAF). SOAF has been referred to at an OFWAT consultation meeting, as "the mechanism relied on as the means for the rectification of failing storm overflows", according to page 4 of a WASP report linked to elsewhere on this page. (Use: CTRL,F / COMMAND F to search on their name).

More recently, The UK government and EU parliament, under Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU, have put forward plans to prevent greenwashing by the commercial sector. Let's watch that space and share updates on our Telegram chat.

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS)

This convention is one of a number of international regulatory tools. The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife, and have harmful impacts on human health or on the environment. You will find other international conventions on the above website.

Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) - Best Available Techniques (BAT)

Note- this is copied verbatim from the government web page: The EU’s Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) takes an integrated approach to controlling pollution to air, water and land, and sets challenging industry standards for the most polluting industries. The IED aims to prevent and reduce harmful industrial emissions, while promoting the use of techniques that reduce pollutant emissions and that are energy and resource efficient.

Larger industrial facilities undertaking specific types of activity are required to use BAT to reduce emissions to air, water and land.

BAT means the available techniques which are the best for preventing or minimising emissions and impacts on the environment. ‘Techniques’ include both the technology used and the way the installation is designed, built, maintained, operated and decommissioned.

BAT reference documents (BREFs) include BAT Conclusions that contain emission limits associated with BAT, which must not be exceeded unless agreed by the relevant competent authority.

2024 Water (Special Measures) Bill

Government web page on new bill "To clean up the Water Sector"

This Bill has attracted critics, who maintain it contains loopholes. One firm of environmental solicitors provide a good analysis of the current overall situation in relation to this, the wider legal landscape and other litigation actions. (XR do not endorse the company posting this article, but welcome the discussion): Strategic Litigation and the Water Crisis

Steve Reed, MP's Water (Special Measures) Bill is, according to commentators inadequate, focusing pretty much entirely on sewage, while saying nothing on landfill/chemicals and leachate.

There will be amendments brought forward to try to improve its environmental aspects (e.g. addressing issues such as the River Wye, where 70% of pollution is from farms). There is also the question of whether fines imposed on companies will merely be viewed as a cost of doing business and ultimately be passed onto customers.

Dirty Water and other groups claim the Bill needs to promote the cessation of water pollution, but not stop there; we need a Citizens' Assembly on Water, given the widespread concerns of the public and failures of existing business models.

Lack of Regulatory Powers

Regulatory bodies can be toothless. For example, data suggests the Environment Agency is failing to monitor water firms in England. Similar criticisms are made of Natural Resources Wales and other regulatory bodies and departments of government.
Scotland's water is not privatised, but pollution management, accountability and transparency still persist. Find out more at Scotland Sewage Dumps 2023.

The point here is that power to withhold information or limit its uses means that pollution of our waterways continues. Fragmentation of responsibilities between faceless bureaucrats and boardroom members make our push for clear waters an upstream struggle... Those very agencies we rely on or water companies we pay to endanger our lives seem to be getting away with ... well... even murder... If you don't know how bad abuse of the law by those who hold it can get, just read Zane Gbangbola's story.

Fighting Back

The tide of abuse of power may be turning. More communities are tackling our current corrupt systems of water management. Dirty Water Campaign will be steadily adding cases to this list as time goes on. Please share any you become aware of with us on our Telegram Chat.

Leigh Day class action in Wales against agricultural and water industries.
River Action take government departments on.
The Gbangbola family's fight for justice for the preventable death of their little boy - the UK's first climate crisis victim.

2025's Legal and Statutory Outlook: Multiple investigations into the water industry and its regulators are ongoing. The environmental regulator, the EA of England, and the financial regulator, Ofwat, are investigating the WaSCs17. The UK House of Lords is also investigating Ofwat18. The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), which was formed in 2021, is investigating the performance of the EA, Ofwat and DEFRA.

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: Corporate Scum

Corporate Scum

Water companies currently have too much power, and are unwilling to act responsibly. One example of this is selective water testing by water companies, local and national authorities, which means water samples are only taken from mid-depth of rivers, excluding silt deposits, where most toxic industrial legacy cocktails lie.
Water companies can selectively dispense with water testing results, which can suit their purposes. In sewage overflow incidents, they may fail to provide representative data to regulators on licence breaches. More recently, most water companies now have monitoring devices at combined sewage overflow outlets, but the efficacy of the technology and the interpretation of the data flowing from these needs scrutiny.
Water companies can also stop sewage outflow at treatment plants to avoid Environment Agency monitoring effectively during site checks. Having advance notice of checks, rather than spot checks allows this. You may want to ask your water company if this is a practice they use.
Water company improvement plans may be completely unfit for purpose and lack public input. Inviting water companies to a Water Assembly, a water-management themed community assembly to increase accountability and transparency can be a useful way for your local community to ensure they stay on track.
- A recent community assembly in Wrexham was hailed by local rebels as really useful and the beginning of good connections made with the local water company and the regulatory body. Keep an eye on this section of Community Assemblies case studies for examples of local groups addressing water issues!
Sewage overflow incident data from water companies may not be real-time. For instance, water companies share information with the Rivers Trust, who produce a sewage map of overflow event numbers and volume. Valuable as that resource is, it isn't yet ideal until real-time monitoring data is available there.
One option is writing a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to water companies to get exact data. Wording needs to be well-crafted, to prevent your responder from side-stepping a question. See Lighthouse (What can we actually do?) for FoI letter template help,
The above are only a few of the more well-known issues, but if you really want to get to get to work with your water industry microscope, or to come up with some stinking questions to rattle the PR person at your local water company, here are a couple of good analyses of the issues:
- Windrush Against Sewage Pollution response to a government consultation (Scroll to download link)
- Written evidence submission to a Government commission by Professor Peter Hammond BA MSc PhD MSc
Let's just be clear, though, it isn't just sewage we need to be mindful of, there is also licensed industrial effluent. For local information on incidents in England, email pollution.inventory@environment-agency.gov.uk . This automated reporting inventory (pollution inventory electronic data capture / PIEDC) "provides information about releases and transfers of substances from regulated industrial activities." Cautionary note: read with a sceptical frame of mind; there may be gaps and ommissions. (HINT: Keeping up with Dirty Water campaign chat will help you fill in the gaps!)
- For Scotland, Ireland and Wales, you will need to check with your regulatory authority. (More info coming)
The questions your community or local group might want to ask include many of the issues covered in the two submissions to government above, but here are some starter questions:
- What are the thresholds that trigger reporting?
- Reporting obligations for which chemicals?
- How do those thresholds compare with permitted levels in other parts of the world?
- Are the licensing laws adequate, or do they need updating?
- Are safety assessments purely about human health, for which an adult male is the standard and which downplays impacts on children, pregnant women and unborn foetuses?
- What are the ecological implications of licensing where you are?
- Are water extraction licenses adequate to reflect changing weather and ecology patterns?
- Can we trust profiteers or the Environment Agency and other authorities to tell the whole truth, or is it another case of lies, damn lies and statistics?

The Public is overwhelmingly behind us

A YouGov survey conducted in 2023 found that 69% of the 5,930 adults surveyed want water companies to be nationalised.

YouGov Survey

This support for nationalisation is ubiquitous across age, gender, political leaning and social grade.

The Corporate's Playbook

Research into disinformation tactics of English Water and Sewerage Companies (WaSCs)

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: War on Water

The War on Water

Where there is contaminated land, there are unmapped aquifers and vectors for pollution transmission through soils, ineffective landfill solutions, wildlife and wind. Given the long legacy of military usage of toxins for a variety of purposes, there is evidence to suggest that as with other branches of government, human failure, legislative shortcomings and mistakes will also be endemic to military practice.

When it comes to land owned or previously owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), bear in mind that these are areas where technical and chemical 'innovations' will be initially tested. To be clear, it is the MoD that will tend to be on the 'cutting edge', trying out new tools and toxic chemical compounds to undermine the 'enemy'. The public are not permitted to enter MoD designated zones, so external oversight of practices is minimal. Only if concerns reach a government committee, whose discussions are behind closed doors, might there be any accountability for mistakes made.

Given the lack of technical and scientific expertise among ministers scrutinising this government department, achieving any level of balance in 'public interest' versus 'strategic imperative' seems unlikely. Do we trust our leaders to always act in the best interests of people and planet, despite whatever best efforts? What little evidence we share here is no doubt the tip of the iceberg. Look at the track record (That is on those pages that did not get deleted off the internet during the production of this page..!)

Ministry of Defence sites formerly used for weapons testing are subject to secrecy laws and confidentiality practices (e.g. 'D Notices', which forbid public access on the basis of ‘national security’). Find out more about the legacy of our military on our environment here:
- Radioactivity
- Site History
- MoD Land Contamination History Stalls Forthside Land Transfer
- WWII MoD Legacy
- Note that limits to the Freedom of Information legislation apply when asking about toxic pollution on ex military sites, specifically: Sections 24 and 26 are exemptions in the FoI process; the Ministry of Defence may argue that the Public Interest Case is not met weighed against national security and the safeguarding of defence capabilities.
- There is an interesting 'Declassified' report that offers some insight into the scale of military pollution in the UK. While the Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) and Declassified UK (DUK) have mostly reported on Greenhouse Gas Emissions being hugely underreported, they do raise concerns also the MoD's performance on environmental damage from pollution, particularly radioactive waste management. They also say the following: "The MOD also seems to ignore the latest scientific research showing the catastrophic global environmental impacts which would result if it launched its nuclear weapons."

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: Our Anthropocene

Our Anthropocene

Plastic pollution is one of the reasons that archeologists now argue that we are no longer in the Holocene, as our plastic footprint means that our earth's surface is now littered with long term plastic pollution (together with human created climate change escalation). Now we need to call our current phase of history the 'Anthropocene'.
So much to say and so many organisations are already operating in the plastic pollution space, for now, check out our sources of pollution page for links.
If you are looking to build plastic pollution campaigns at the local level and feel bewildered at the amount of possible allies, Dirty Water crew are currently creating digital armbands to keep you afloat. An interactive spreadsheet of contacts is on our list of resources!
Meantime, if the circular economy and reduced consumption rather than recycling is your swim style, the Ellen McArthur Foundation is a good start.

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: Seeking Nature Based Solutions?

Across the UK local planning regimes still leave much to be desired. For instance:
- Does your local authority have a flood risk mitigation strategy? If so, does it include recommendations for tree planting? If your local authority has that documented, are financial constraints hindering implementing and meeting targets? Is this a potential community assembly in the making to bring local people together behind such projects?
What provision is made for:
- Rewilding areas including grouse moors, common land, or parkland. Water catchment areas are key habitats, not only in terms of the wildlife populations they sustain, but also in terms of downriver impacts during heavy rainfall. Upstream land works to let straightened river stretches go back to historic natural paths - otherwise known as 're-wiggling' - using landscape engineering species, such as beavers can enhance water filtration systems, mitigating pollution impacts. They can also alleviate flooding and attract biodiverse species.
- Is there scope for beaver population releases to achieve natural landscape engineering affordably and at scale?
- Does your local nature partnership (LNP), or other national network which involves local communities and lay experts recommend other habitat management plans to mitigate impacts? You may already have connections with local NGO's, but also check out:

You have a chance to make waves if your local authority has declared a Climate Emergency.
- If they have, wherever local landfill sites have a toxic legacy, you can reasonably ask what remediation and mitigation provision is made for leachate risks following heavy rainfall. Is that part of that climate emergency planning process? For example, are there buffer mechanisms between buried toxic waste and water courses? Some plants reabsorb toxic elements in soils. Are these possible options for your local community to request? Worms have been found to offer some natural remediation in areas of contamination; has your local authority looked at such nature solutions?
So many questions still arise around natural solutions fortoxic landfill. It may be that some issues will never be resolved, but being able to make choices to keep you and yours safe from local risks is essential. Be sure to check out our Dirty Water Social Justice page if you have concerns about legacy landfill sites and local watercourse pollution. Follow in the footsteps of other campaigners referred to around Dirty Water resource pages.
Be sure to contact the Dirty Water team to share information on those you are already aware of too... Dirty Water Chat and Live Content

Water Restoration Projects - Nature Based

Data Stream

Data & Facts: Where's The Nearest Lighthouse (What Can We Do?)

Given a general lack of transparency and availability of information from authorities and companies, one lever for your group to find information you need is to submit a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. FoI requests are a useful tool to obtain information of any kind from those in power, be they regulatory authorities, government departments, local and unitary authorities, or private companies. That said, FoI requests are not always effectively responded to, particularly if you miss any tricks on how to exercise your rights. FoI requests are a skill worth developing as a group.

Fortunately, What Do They Know helps you avoid wipeout, offering existing case studies and template letters. Surf the constant tide of previous cases similar to your local situation. Find your clear horizon via their website, then share your information with others entering those waters after you via Dirty Water's Live Content channel on Telegram.
- A case study on their website, for instance, refers to a resident who has put in a Freedom of Information request to the national regulatory body, Natural Resources Wales. Now, anyone searching the site for "leachate" will bring this request and similar example cases up. This invaluable resource means your local group will not have to be put off by having to reinvent the wheel and can avoid missing essential questions and exactly how to ask them in your Freedom of Information request.
If your FoI request leaves you dissatisfied, you do have the right to take up your dispute with the Information Commissioner.
Commissioning independent scientific analysis or reports from consultants becomes inevitable if you seek redress where the pollution issues your community faces are complex and require specialist expertise, e.g.: biology, chemistry, engineering, or any such combination. In order to hold local authorities, water companies or regulators accountable, your information needs to be credible and as accurate as possible; independent reports provide the weight you need.
- This research and reporting work may either be a discreet project or potentially longer term systematised testing and analysis.
- As such, it's helpful to know how feasible an option this is in terms of analysis and reporting costs. Some NGO and university laboratories will provide free services. (See the contacts spreadsheet, where we will build that list of experts).
- Then potentially if there are legal implications, whether your group want to seek legal counsel is a further consideration and whether pro bono services are on offer, or whether a 'class action' is needed.
- Diving into these currents means knowing what questions to ask your potential contractor. Most importantly, you need to avoid their conflicts of interest such as previous or on-going contract works provided for local authorities or water companies, for instance. Check if they have existing contracts, or have had in the past; this could mean that if you hire them, your data could be compromised by pre-existing confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, limiting your available data and limiting the credibility of any subsequent reports. That risks your group not getting the information you need to hold bodies to account.
- It is helpful if an independent contractor is to be commissioned to provide your local group with any scientific or engineering report, that you ask them in advance if they obtain any more than 10% of their work from authorities or companies you seek to challenge. If they do significant amounts of work for e.g. a water company, a local council, or a water regulator, that could mean they will have a conflict of interest. If they are legally constrained in working for your group because of pre-conditions of contracts previously held with those bodies you want to hold to account, then go elsewhere! Greenpeace labs and some university engineering and chemistry departments have been known to support local groups in their research. We'd love to hear of your experiences here.
Allies Ahoy! Do you trust the information being provided by your identified engineer, environmental auditor, or other contractor? If not, talk to independent allies such as Friends of the Earth, who may have historic documentation or community connections to bring more information to light. If there is a local environmental umbrella group, this is also a good place to start to find any pre-existing, relevant information available.
- More power to your paddleboarding elbow from Surfers Against Sewage here: Surfers Against Sewage 2022-23 Water Quality Report
  - SAS webpage about Water Quality Testing
Fundraising? You will want to check any cost implications out before you fundraise for such an important fact-finding project. Let's not burn out on such an involved deep dive. If you haven't got the funds to source an independent report:
- Might a crowd-funder help?
- Get in touch with our Fundraising Team.

Data Stream

Information Resources | Reports, Maps, Data & More

Maps

Please be aware that data catchment and sharing is still evolving. We have been made aware of specific sites, including some which have resulted in death, from contaminated flood water. If you are aware of sites which are missing from this data, please get in touch with us, so we can pass your story onto whomever is working on that issue.

Comprehensive, Interactive Pollution Map | Watershed Investigations
Evolving PFAS (Forever Chemicals) Pollution Map of Europe | Forever Pollution Project
Safer Rivers and Seas Map | Surfers Against Sewage
2024 Report on the State of UK Rivers | The Rivers Trust
Live sewage pollution data | Surfers Against Sewage (SAS)
Surfers Against Sewage 2023 Water Quality Reports SAS natoin-based reports; check drop down menu for yours.
Raw Sewage in Our Rivers. Monitor sewage in your local area | The Rivers Trust
Real time Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) Map for English Companies.
Same info, National Storm Overflow in England map | Water UK
Developments of National Significance in Wales | Council for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW)
Flood Risks in Wales | Natural Resources Wales (NRW)
Map of Historic Landfills in England | Dr. James H. Brand
Historic Mining Risk Sites, Wales | Coal Authority
Hereford,Shropshire & Powys Intensive Poultry units | Council for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW)
Top of the Poops Easy to view sewage information; impactful imaging
Most sewage polluted rivers in England 2023. Local river info | The Guardian
The Forever Pollution Project | Journalists tracking PFAS across Europe
Sewage Pollution Map of England - Real Time- Dr Lipp, University College London

Generic Resources

Background Sources of Information for Outreach, Community Assemblies, Campaigns:

Water Basin Catchment Areas | Environment Agency
XR's Position on Extreme flooding 2024 January 2024 blog helping rebels Tell the Truth. Further resource links below the article
Support Pollution Watch campaign to register leachate into watercourses
'Dead shellfish littering our beaches tell you a lot about safety and secrecy in Britain’ George Monbiot article in the Guardian
See how water company leakages are only slowly fixed An “urgent and significant reduction of the amount of drinking water wasted every day”
Brown Flag Awards
Guardian article on eradicating forever chemicals in the home

Videos

What Makes Up Flood Water? (Youtube 12 mins)
Rivercide (Youtube 56 mins)
Rivers Trust State of our Rivers (Youtube 2 mins)
There is a link below the video to download for the written report.
Joe Lycett vs Sewage Dark humour, but factsy video (Youtube 50 mins)
The Water Pollution Cover-Up BBC iPlayer Panorama (30 minutes); AVAILABLE UNTIL NOVEMBER 2024 ONLY
Where Does Our Rubbish Go (Youtube 30 mins)
Stop The Stink: Walleys Quarry, Newcastle Under Lyne (Youtube 30 mins)

Podcasts

Impact of Pollution includes impacts on the body 2 part BBC podcast series
Inside Science: Forever Chemicals 30 minute BBC podcast
Buried 10 part podcast. The case of illegal toxic landfill in Ireland.

Government Reports and Information

House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee heard evidence on the Water Quality in Rivers
House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Report on Environmental Sustainability of the Ministry of Defence
Government Report on sewage in water: Prof. Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, Jonson Cox, Ofwat Chair and Emma Howard Boyd, Environment Agency chair. (Published 27 June 2022)
DEFRA 25 Year Plan on Water Use
DEFRA 25 Year Environment Plan. Annual Progress Report 2023
Government Implementation Plan for the Chalkstream Strategy 25/11/22
DEFRA statement Response to Paul Whitehouse's 'Our Troubled Waters' aired on BBC2, 5/3/23
UN Water Conference 2023 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Flooding and Health: an overview, UK Health Security Agency
Hansard: ‘Orphan Sites’ Hazardous waste sites
Hansard: Waste Industry - Criminality & Regulation
The National Archives Official historic records not subject to secrecy ‘D’ Notices
House of Lords Library. Sewage Pollution in England's Waters
Remember too that sewage is only one among other contaminants that pose a risk to your family's health. Check this government guidance on swimming outdoors. Beware, however, this says nothing of chemical pollution, which could be particularly risky if a beach borders a historic landfill or industrial sites.
Exposure and Adverse Effects of Chemicals on Wildlife in the Environment

Organisations and Allies

We will be making a spreadsheet of possible contacts available to view, make a copy of and add your local contacts to, so they can be shared with rebels coming on board and stepping into Dirty Water actions, e.g. outreach events, ceremonies, or assembly organisation. More about this in time, but meantime, here's the current state of play with our Restore Nature Now supporters. Aside from the Restore Nature Now supporting organisations, you will have your own local links, be they allies, or connections with regulatory bodies and their officers, water company employees and board members and more. We want you to bring us your contacts, to help the movement grow our campaigning power for the future. Check in with the Dirty Water Campaign to find out more about building XR's connections with influencers from the grassroots to suited power brokers and corporate players.

Celebrity Connections. Who Are You Following and Engaging With?

Feargal Sharkey on Twitter: For all the latest information about what the water companies and the UK government are doing about our waterways and seas.
Chris Packham on Twitter or Bluesky
Michael Sheen on Twitter
Iolo Williams on Twitter For news and useful information around Cymru Wales from the nation's wildlife and conservation hero

Want to Organise Locally?

Don't Pay for Dirty Water Campaign

Extinction Rebellion UK, BoycottWaterBills.com and the Dirty Water campaign have teamed up to support the UK-wide wastewater bill boycott.

Find out below how to do this quickly and with as little risk as possible – they can never cut off your water supply. You are not alone – we are stronger together. Hundreds are already boycotting – let’s get to 10,000!

All the information you need is on the XRUK website

Promote the campaign by downloading and printing Don't Pay for Dirty Water stickers.

Here's a slide deck created by a boycotter. You might find it useful for information about how to boycott, share the deck with others, or present a talk.

Dirty Water | Waves

Links to all the Waves in one tide-y plaice using the handy Dirty Water Landing Page. Fintastic!

Dirty Water Landing Page

The Dirty Water Landing Page is a Google doc with links to all the Waves of actions and has the information you need to take part in each Wave. Bookmark the Google doc for easy access.

Wave 6

📆 July 2024 - ongoing

Join us in WAVE 6 which is rolling in from July 2024. You can use the options in the Action Pack at any time, but keep an eye out in the Dirty Water Telegram Broadcast and chat or via email, for coordinated days of action.

You can also access Wave 6 actions and assets, information for outreach, talks and raising awareness all in the Dirty Water Book on the Rebel Toolkit.

Order Dirty Water leaflets, posters & stickers
Order current XRUK leaflets, posters & stickers

Wave 5

📆 Nov 2023 - June 2024

Join us in WAVE 5 which is rolling in from Nov 2023 until 2024. You can use the options in the Action Pack (click on Wave 5) at any time, but keep an eye out for coordinated days of action.

Order Dirty Water leaflets, posters & stickers
Order current XRUK leaflets, posters & stickers

Wave 4

📆 Fri 4 – Sun 6 August 2023

This time we took the campaign to local bathing spots! We reinforced outreach with flyers and posters giving pubic health information, warning signs, brown flags and Dirty Water banner drops.

🌊 Wave 4 Action Pack (click on Wave 4)

Wave 3 [in Ripples]

Ripple 1

📆 21st-24th April 2023- part of The Big One

Ripple 2

📆 Early May 2023- focused on the Local Elections.

🌊 Wave 3 Action Pack (click on Wave 3)
🌊#VoteCleanWater Action Pack (including excellent posters on the final slide)

Wave 2

📆 13th -19th March 2023

Wave 2 took the focus to the polluters themselves- water companies, agriculture and industry. It also included a Digital Rebellion action pack so you could take part from home.

🌊 Wave 2 Action Pack (click on Wave 2)
🌊 Digital Rebellion Dirty Water Pack

Wave 1

📆 28th January 2023

Dirty Water was launched with the highly successful Blue Plaque actions, where local groups across the country 'celebrated' the failure of their MPs to vote to protect our rivers and force water companies to reduce sewage discharge.

Blue plaque actions are easy and effective. You can do a blue plaque action any time!

🌊 Wave 1 Action Pack (click on Wave 1)

Drop Us a Line

All the ways to connect with the Dirty Water Campaign

💧 Contact Dirty Water

Dirty Water Campaign Reception on Mattermost
Email: dirtywatercampaign@proton.me

💧 Join our Telegram channels:

Dirty Water Broadcast channel
Dirty Water Live Content and Chat

Deep Water

Deep Water is an XRUK campaign group which focuses on flooding, sea level rise and effects of extreme weather caused by climate disruption.
Water pollution is directly connected to flooding and sea level rise so the two groups - Dirty Water and Deep Water- work closely together. You may want to check out the Deep Water's Campaign page for resources.

Contact Deep Water

Deep Water Reception on Mattermost
Email: deepwater@extinctionrebellion.uk

News & Updates

Any day-to-day jaws for concern on Dirty Water

News & Updates

Does a Citizen's Assembly on Water Make Sense?

We recently received the following question (shortened for brevity):

The XR advocacy of Citizens’ Assemblies baffles me. There was one on Climate Change in 2019 and others on Adult Social Care, Future of Scotland, National Assembly for Wales, Congestion & Air Quality, and Town Centres. They produced some interesting ideas but had fairly low impact as they are not near the centres of power and money. Ireland had an interesting CA on Abortion and voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment. The Dail took this up in the 36th amendment bill of 2018. This CA was fairly influential, on a topic which is ethically divisive.

Dirty Water is very topical but money is the big issue. We need more plant and rainwater cisterns, The water companies want big price increases, OFWAT is allowing smaller ones, but it’s still “price increase”. Nationalisation has been suggested by the Greens, but full compensation for shareholders would add to the national debt – a mere £2.7 trillion. The creation of a Climate Civil Defence Force with water engineering as its main skill is another possibility. [...]

Here are our thoughts on this:

The advocacy of a Citizens’ Assembly has always been one of the three demands of XR. It is recognised that achieving this with everything lined up is a difficult set of conditions to bring about, in terms of achieving:

mass public support,
mainstream media attention,
government sponsorship (but not interference),
government commitment to respond/act on the citizens’ conclusions.

The UK Assemblies have never had all of these aspects addressed in advance. Their running into the sand was inevitable.

Several people in government (this and the previous one), as well as senior civil servants, understand how Citizens' Assemblies work and are exploring democratised decision making in some departments. However, there isn’t a widespread public appreciation of their power sharing capacity. Hence, XR has expanded its advocacy of deliberative democratic processes to include Community and Peoples’ Assemblies.

Dirty Water is proposing that we don't wait for government action, but take the other elements of a successful Assembly head on. We want to create a campaigning alliance to collectively deliver:

mass public attention,
sustained media interest,
funding and
popular leverage on a powerful governing party.

This government still needs wider public endorsement. It can win a significant part of that by committing to act on the public's request on the issue that attracts almost unanimous concern, i.e. healthy, clean waters. If a Citizens' Assembly on Water works, the precedent will have been set for the Citizens' Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice - to say nothing of potentially wider and complementary democratic campaigns.

Can We Afford To Continue To Ignore the Power of Upgrading Decision Making Systems?

Money is allegedly the stalling issue, or at least a procrastinating government can say so. (A Welsh minister has cited this as the obstacle to a Citizen's Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice in Wales). However, we know that really is a question of political choices. There is money if there is an appetite for taxing land, other assets, even share transactions, in proportion to the existing taxes on income.

If water conservation, supply and treatment are not fixed, our national infrastructure fails, people get sick and we lose even more of our biodiversity. Without healthy water systems, economic growth or any other aspirations of government will not be possible.

It is important that the participants in the Citizens’ Assembly on Water are not constrained in their thinking by having to anticipate limits on spending and thus constrain options from the outset.

It’s not a question of saying we can’t afford to fix our water provision. We can't afford not to any longer.

Dirty Water Campaign for Saving Our Waters

The actions proposed by the Dirty Water team are steps towards engagement with the public in local communities, beginning early in 2025. These actions and events can escalate from simpler initial claims on people’s attention, through to bringing them into participation in co-created ceremony around local water bodies and ultimately invite passionate protectors to press on, to gather in a local or regional Community Assembly on Water.

Those who participate will be left in no doubt that our ultimate demand is the Citizens' Assembly on Water. Participants will be asked to develop recommendations and demands from that process to take to water companies, authorities and other relevant actors. So our approach is no random scattergun, hoping on happenstance. Building on Wave 6, we aspire to a coherent progression towards a complete statement, with maximum public support, of what we want from water provision, our legislators and community partners.

Oh... A last reflection in the scying pool... The Citizens' Asssembly on Water needs to make their recommendations officially.

There really should be no compensation for the bosses of water companies or their shareholders, should there be a transition away from privatised companies operating for profit. Water company boards and their lick-spittles have squeezed every drop from us, the bill-payers, for 35 years. Thieves deserve nothing. If anything, fat cats of the industry should be prosecuted for their failure to meet their contractual obligations (defined or implicit) and be made to return undeserved dividends, bonuses, and inflated loan repayments.

Do you have a question or want to talk about any of these ideas? Drop Us a Line

News & Updates

Call for a Citizens' Assembly Reaches National Television

Caz Dennett on ITV's GMB 21-Aug-2024

In a brief slot, Caz cut through perfectly with the demand for a Citizens' Assembly on Water.

In the midst of the GMB report, her words were electrifying. Or was it just us? Have a look and let us know.

Caz on GMB

Actor and comedian Stephen Fry is warning Sir Keir Starmer that Britain's waterways are on 'life support'. He has joined a group of green activists calling on the government to put a stop to illegal sewage dumping.@CiaraDurkan reports. pic.twitter.com/yX8QBK01oq
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) : August 21, 2024

You can see the GMB X (twitter) posting of the whole piece here

Do you have a question or want to get in touch? Drop Us a Line

News & Updates

Suddenly, some activity - Dirty Water’s view

A response to Water politics manoeuvres Oct - Nov 2024

Clive Lewis Private Member’s Bill

Launched 15th October, 2024.

Clive Lewis MP has posted his Private Member’s Water Bill. It’s on the Parliament website here. You’ll see it’s scheduled for its second reading on 28th March, 2025.

Lewis has given more detail about what he is proposing on his website.

UK & Welsh governments’ Commission: Water sector and its regulation

On 23rd October, 2024, the UK Government (Steve Reed, Environment Secretary) announced its Independent Commission into the water sector and its regulation. It published the Commission’s terms of reference the same day. It is required to report in Q2 2025 - ie. only 3 months after the second hearing of Clive Lewis's Water Bill.

A cynical view?

In the East Anglian Bylines (a Byline Times affiliate) online news, one contributor saw some shady motives in the government's call for the Commission so soon after Lewis’s Bill was announced.

What Dirty Water says

The Lewis Bill

Although the call for a Citizens’ Assembly (CA) was well-received in XR and by other advocates of democracy when the Bill was announced, you can see that Lewis limits its scope to “water ownership”, whereas Dirty Water’s scope and proposal for a Citizens’ Assembly on Water is comprehensive.

It is our view that ownership can only be addressed satisfactorily in the context of an all-issues perspective on water in Britain and Northern Ireland.

A lot of what Lewis has described about his Bill is very welcome. His emphasis on “climate mitigation and adaptation”, in particular. A clear strategy and its implementation, too. His call for an advisory Commission sets out the requirement for the Citizens' Assembly, but as noted, its scope is too narrow.

On his clivelewis.org constituency site, the MP expands upon the parliamentary Bill’s header. He talks about the impact of climate crisis, resilience, sewage pollution and industry mismanagement. He is enthusiastic about having a democratic and open process to resolve the issues affecting water supply and waste treatment. He makes some good points about changing our economic perspective: if Mrs Thatcher could do it 45 years ago, it can be done again, and differently. He also takes issue with the way fiscal rules and fixation on maximising profit are at odds with what’s really needed. And he has called for the Citizens’ Assembly.

Dirty Water’s response to Lewis

Lewis is well on the way to describing something that we could support. Just not blindly. If he were to advocate for the Citizens’ Assembly to look at everything, then have a Commission to look at implementation of the citizens’ recommendations? Now that would be a democratic refresh.

The Environment Secretary’s Commission

If Lewis was, relatively innocently perhaps, limiting the scope of a proposed Citizens’ Assembly, the government was intent on having no such thing!

If they were indeed bent on cutting out Lewis, they jumped all over the idea of the advisory Commission and elbowed the Citizens’ Assembly notion overboard.

And they’ve been really keen to nail down the Commission’s room for manoeuvre too. There is no idea of any change in the nature of the management of water companies – the “private regulated model” continues. The conception that there is any source of funding other than private investment is also firmly shut out. Economics is placed at least equivalent to the environmental interest.

It really shouldn’t be necessary to have to point out the flaws in such a narrow world view but, yet again, we must:

No renationalisation on grounds of cost, so private ownership will continue.
- The existing companies have broken any covenant with us. They’re not entitled to compensation – we should be getting money back.
- There are other alternative models to renationalisation: municipalisation, not-for-profits, cooperatives, direct consumer control, etc.
Investment from markets only
- Hasn’t overseas investment brought us to the present disaster?
- There is no consideration of government bonds.
- There is no consideration of widening the tax take by taxing land and other assets fairly, at the same levels as income tax.
Where is the investment to be spent? On big engineering, reservoir construction in Wales for English consumption, is the inference:
- what about rehydrating soils (while cleaning up farming)?
  - what about weaning farming off its chemicals -
    - insecticides, herbicides, fertiliser, antibiotics?
  - what about restricting construction on floodplains?
  - what about allowing rivers to meander again?
  - what about extending woodland and recovering marshland?
  - what about ending shooting estates’ destruction of peat bog?
  - what about restoring hedgerow and ditches on farmland?
  - what about planning constraints on paving over suburban gardens?
  - what about blue-greening across urban landscapes?
  - what about beavers?
  - what about metering licenced abstractions?
- All the above would help replenish aquifers, out of the reach of evaporation in a heatwave .
- A Citizens’ Assembly would likely pose these questions and more.
Our rivers and seas are polluted, but 40% of this is from agriculture:
- water companies and regulators have no control over agriculture
- or landfill (much of its contents undocumented)
- or industrial users
- or over licenced and unlicenced abstraction

The government talk is of a “vision”, of ticking every box. But they’re boxing us into the same failed model. Only with the hope of better regulation.

Have they seen where the Environment Agency’s own pension funds have invested heavily? Or perhaps they have.

Participation with the Commission?

There is little to encourage Dirty Water to make representations to this Commission. The minister lost us when ignoring the possibility of a Citizens’ Assembly, locking in his own control of the subject and all likely outcomes. And locking out democratic participation. This was then compounded by imposing his own rigid parameters on the whole exercise.

There is no vision here, no democracy, no true recognition of the scale of the problems. That is why, with our allies, we still need to convene our own independent Citizens’ Assembly and oblige the government to take seriously the actual levels of public concern.

Do you have a question or want to get in touch? Drop Us a Line

Dirty Water

Lost at Sea? Start Here ⬅️

How to navigate the Dirty Water book

Dip your toe

Have a paddle

Have a swim

Deep dive

Blue Plaques for Nature

What are Blue Plaques?

These plaques can be edited and tailored to:

Example plaques

When the Blue Plaques should go up

Create your blue plaque

Ready-made templates

Editable templates

Buy a blue plaque

How to place a Blue Plaque

Where to place a Blue Plaque

Amplify your action

Further information and reading

WAVE 6

WATER PRESSURE ~ a Citizens' Assembly on Water

Don't take "no" for an answer!

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!

IT WAS INEVITABLE.

Community Assemblies for Water

Everything Community Assembly

Dirty Water Communities Support

Let's Pool What We Learn: our campaign contacts database

To add to the database:

Cancel Your Direct Debit or Boycott Your Water Bill?

Ceremony | Water is Life

Create a Water Ceremony

What Can a Water Ceremony Bring?

Ideas and Assets to Create Your Ceremony

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

Celebrating Water

Some Inspiration & Ideas

Incorporate Blue Plaques for Nature

Puppets, Masks and Costumes

Catch of The Day

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

Overview

Where to Take Action

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

Roles

Possible future uses

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:

Nifty Instructions

Legal

What about spraying over existing artwork?

LAW - Paint the Streets info

What if I’m stopped?

Legal [for more info]

Symbolism of Fish

Digital Do-It-At-Home Actions

Digitally Rebel with Dirty Water

Google Review Swarm

Social Media Hashtags

Assets

General Dirty Water Logos

Pipe Logo

Round Logo

Social Media Resources

Profile and Header images

Dirty Water Posters

Ceremony | Water is Life Posters

Download or send to a professional printers here:

SEA POSTER and RIVER POSTER

Fill-in-the-blanks Posters

Sewage Ahead Road Sign