Dirty Water

Dive in! Take direct action to demand the following: - Climate change and nature loss should inform planning nationally and locally - Water is to be treated as a precious natural life-source - The creation of legal Rights of Nature for all natural entities - An 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 ⬅️

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 alliances, as well as increasing knowledge and understanding. Demonstrating agency - peoples’ voices can and will be heard. We have to become the stewards of our water commons.

Below is a SEQUENCE OF ACTION IDEAS, where each one builds on the previous:

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

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:

toe dip

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.

paddle

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.

“swim”

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 months and risk their credit rating taking a knock.

deep dive

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

paddle

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:

Example plaques

blueplaquesRNN.png

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:

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

Social Media
Use these hashtags to help spread the message #ExtinctionRebellion #DirtyWater.

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!

WAVE 6

Everyfin you need to take part

WAVE 6

WATER PRESSURE ~ a Citizens' Assembly on Water

deep dive

Water Pressure flyer

Let's step forward as stewards of our water commons

The ultimate goal of Dirty Water Wave 6 is for us all to arrive together at this point.

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

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

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

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

The Proposal for the Citizens' Assembly on Water

The proposed scope 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

deep dive

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

Everything Community Assembly

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

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

To add to the database:
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

dip and deep dive

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

Create a Water Ceremony

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

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

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

What Can a Water Ceremony Bring?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Power of Celebrating Water

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

WAVE 6

Ceremony Ideas | Water is Life

dip and deep dive

Ideas and Assets to Create Your Ceremony

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

Download Stickers | posters | flyers

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

Some Inspiration & Ideas

Community

Art/Creativity


Music/Storytelling

Education

Puppets/Masks/Costumes

WAVE 6

Catch of The Day

Catch of the Day.jpg

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

Where to Take Action

You can take this action to any door including Ofwat's. And include more spicy elements as and when you want to.

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

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

Roles
Possible future uses

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

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

Overview

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

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

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

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

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

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

WAVE 6

Fishy Business

paddle

Watch how to make and use the Fish Stencil


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

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

What you'll need:

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

Nifty Instructions

There are three formats of files in this folder:

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

What about spraying over existing artwork?

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

LAW - Paint the Streets info

What if I’m stopped?

Further Info

Will chalk spraying get me arrested?

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

WAVE 6

Digital Do-It-At-Home Actions

toe dip

Digitally Rebel with Dirty Water

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

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

Google Review Swarm

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

Take part in this action here.

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

Social Media Hashtags

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

#DirtyWater

#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

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

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

Water is Life poster Water is Life poster

Fill-in-the-blanks Posters

Fill in the blanks

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.

vote clean water posters.PNG

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.

Water Pressure Flyer Water Pressure Flyer






















Community Assembly Flyer

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

With text or without text

Community Assembly flyer (with text) Community Assembly flyer (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!

Sun, Sea, Sand and Sewage Flyer Sun, Sea, Sand and Sewage Flyer






















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.

Public Warning Flyer Public Warning Flyer
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.]

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

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’

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’

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

The Climate Choir Movement

The Climate Choir Movement also have some relevant songs that you can use.

Why Wye Wye

Lyrics, Score and All Parts Audio

Dirty Water

Lyrics, Score and All Parts Audio

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

All Porpoise Actions

Poo Themed actions!

Poo Pouring toe dip

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

Rogers Poo Recipe!

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

toe dip 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

cardboard fish on a person's head




How to make a Fishhead

You will need:

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

Designed by Steve Wintercroft

cardboard fish

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

Screenshot 2024-03-05 145429.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 145944.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150551.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150607.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150626.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 151422.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150701.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150721.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150738.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150801.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150818.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150837.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150857.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150912.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150926.png Screenshot 2024-03-05 150948.png

All Porpoise Actions

Dirty Water Coolers and Mock Sewage Pipes

toe dip 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.

Idea for Face-in-the-Hole Board 1

Idea for Face-in-the-Hole Board 2

All Porpoise Actions

Dirty Water Crime Scene

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

crime scene

All Porpoise Actions

Making Art with Withy

SoD-1.jpg

SoD-2.jpg

SoD-2B.jpg

SoD-3.jpg

SoD-4.jpg

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:

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

Zane Gbangbola
7-year-old Zane died from flood waters poisoned 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:

Thames Water Ownership Structure

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:

UK Water Ownership

Read more about transparency and accountability problems with the financialisation of water here.

Thames Water

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

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.

Common 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

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

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.

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.

Water Framework Directive Regulations

In England and Wales, the Water Framework Directive Regulations (WFD) form the overarching statutory framework for our water environment. Despite Brexit, this remains in place in terms of regulatory frameworks. Other regulatory frameworks, such as the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations 1994 and the Bathing Waters Regulations 2013, also impact environments. However, the WFD provides the overarching targets on conditions of our waters and the framework for achieving them.

WFD Regulations oblige the creation of a River Basin Management Plan for each river basin catchment area. This covers environmental objectives, plus a summary of measures required to achieve those objectives. Current River Basin Management Plans were published in December 2022.

The WFD requires governments to ‘aim to achieve’ Good Ecological Status (GES) for all surface water bodies by 2027.

There are currently no published plans (as at April 2025) for these objectives beyond 2027. While the regulations implementing the WFD will still apply then, they do not provide scenarios beyond 2027. The UK and Welsh governments need to decide what, if anything, should follow this objective after 2027.

The Directive 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.

Water Industries Act 1991

Environmental Protection Act (EPA)

Water Resources Act

Freedom of Information Act (FoI)

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)

Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations

Bathing Water Regulations 2013

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

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.

Citizens Turning the Legal Tide

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 important cases that empower communities to fight back here as time goes on. Please share any you become aware of with us on our Telegram Chat.

Ongoing investigations into the water industry and regulators

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: Corporate Scum

Corporate Scum

The Public is overwhelmingly behind us

YouGov Survey

The Corporate's Playbook

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..!)

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: Our Anthropocene

Our Anthropocene

Data Stream

Data & Facts - Gaps: Seeking Nature Based Solutions?


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.

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.

Generic Resources

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

Videos

Podcasts

Government Reports and Information

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?

Want to Organise Locally?

Don't Pay for Dirty Water Campaign

toe dip 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.

DontPay4DirtyWater-Sewage-Outfall.webp

Dirty Water | Waves

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.

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.

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

💧 Join our Telegram channels:

💧 Get our newsletter

👁 Sign up for #dirtywater news

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

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:

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:

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 Parliament's website here. You’ll see it’s scheduled for its second reading on 28th March, 2025.

Clive Lewis, MP, 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. The Commission 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:

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 The Dirty Water Campaign crew a Line