Public Declaration for Rivers and Seas

We care deeply about our rivers and seas.

We are fighting for an urgent end to sewage pollution in UK rivers and seas to protect the ecology so that they are fit for wildlife and people.

We have always, on sunny days, packed our picnics and taken our families to paddle, play and swim in our rivers and seas. It is no longer safe for people to enjoy our country’s waterways, our rivers and seas are being destroyed by pollution. We have a right to a safe and clean environment.

We have acted in good faith:

• As consumers we have paid, believing we were paying for our sewage to be properly treated.

• As taxpayers we have paid, trusting that our regulators were protecting our waterways.

In response to the sewage pollution of all of our rivers, and many of our seasides, the public has stood up for water, organising into hundreds of local campaign groups, testing our local water quality, applying for bathing status, engaging our local politicians and representatives, petitioning parliament and the water companies, lobbying, persuading and protesting.

Water companies must comply with, and regulators must regulate according to the 1991 Water Industry Act and the 1994 Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations which require all sewage to be treated, and for storm overflows (which discharge raw sewage) to only operate in truly exceptional circumstances.

Our rivers and seas should be protected for nature, for ourselves and for future generations.

This is our public declaration of our requirements:

• Stop pollution for profit.

• Make our waters healthy and safe again.

• Action now not targets sometime.

• Regulation that protects the victims, not the polluters.

• Now it’s time for the polluters to pay.

Who We Are:

We are campaigners who believe in keeping our waterways clean for the benefit of nature, ourselves and future generations.

We do not take money from government, regulators, water companies and associated commercial enterprises. We are local people who are not compromised by any association with the UK water system.

• Ilkley Clean River

• River Action

• SOS Whitstable

• Windrush Against Sewage Pollution

• WildFish

with

• Boston Spa, Wetherby & Villages Green Group

• Clean River Kent Campaign

• Hayling Sewage Watch

• Love Our Ouse

• Nidd Action Group

• Oxford Rivers Project

• Save Windermere

• Wetherby and Villages Clean River Group