Protecting Our Waters: Keeping England’s Rivers Clean

Norwich Ava Lily

Norwich, Ava Lily

The main hazards to wildlife (swans, otters, kingfishers and endangered water voles) are lack of habitat, litter, pollution and raw sewage.

Although it’s true that some issues are due to invasive creatures, it’s important to note that this was not their fault. Mink escaped from being imported for the fur industry. And American signal crayfish were imported for restaurants.

Rivers provide us with fresh drinking water (through natural filters of ‘chalk streams’ for people and farmers). Chalk streams are quite rare (around 200 mostly in England, and a few in France).

Everyone can help keep rivers clean and safe:

  • Take litter home with you: Don’t leave rubbish on walks or picnics.
  • Use microfiber filters: Fit these to your washing machine.
  • Use organic gardening and farming: Avoid pesticides and harsh chemicals that can wash into rivers.

Choose biodegradable beauty, cleaning and laundry brands. If you use essential oils, only use a tiny amount (in reputable brands) and avoid scented products for pregnancy/nursing and if cleaning/laundering near babies or pets. 

Volunteer to Clean Up Rivers

You can become a volunteer with The Rivers Trust to help keep our rivers free from litter and pollution. Not just removing plastic and litter, but also removing ‘fish barriers’ to let them swim freely in rivers, and water quality testing.

Improve Septic Tanks

Around half a million homes in the UK don’t connect to water company sewage networks. So it’s their responsibility to treat their own sewage. Septic tanks are not on the public register, so it’s vital they don’t pollute rural areas.

Boycott Forever Chemicals

These are found in everything from rainwear to pizza boxes to firefighting foams. You can’t boycott all the items containing them, but you can for some. Read our post on reasons to boycott forever chemicals.

Take Your Fishing Waste With You

Whether you agree with it or not, millions of people in England go fishing. If you’re an angler, use a mono-master (buy online here) which is a nifty little device to safely keep fishing tackle on your person, until you deposit it in a fishing line recycling bin.

Also respect the voluntary ban on lead shot (not yet compulsory), which harms hundreds of thousands of wildfowl each year.

Fix Drain Misconnections

Modern homes have two sewers (one for surface water, and one for wastewater). But an estimated 150,000 to 500,000 households have (illegal) drain misconnections, which leads to untreated wastewater going into our rivers.

It’s the property owner’s responsibility to fix drain misconnections. This is not covered by insurance, so you’ll have to find a good affordable plumber.

Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners!

diver

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Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners is a wonderful organisation that started in Wales, and now has volunteers nationwide. Basically, it uses trained divers to go underwater and retrieve lots of rubbish for disposal and recycling, leaving the seas and rivers cleaner for fish and marine creatures (and nice for us too!)

At the end of each trip, volunteers are rewarded with a free leisure dive.

One great thing is that sometimes these volunteers come across trapped underwater wildlife, so are able to free the creatures to go on their way. The home page has a video of one volunteeer doing just that (from fishing waste). So far the charity has carried out over 1000 clean-up dives. Would you like to help?

Obviously if you are a diver, you can get involved. But you could also volunteer to get involved in collecting, sorting and recycling the rubbish that is found, if you prefer your feet on terra firma! Or in the words of NARC ‘if you don’t fancy jumping deep into the water with weights attached!’

The organisation also welcomes anyone who can loan them boats, so they can carry out more volunteer dive clean-ups.

How to become a volunteer diver

If you fancy getting involved as a diving volunteer, you must be qualified to the level of BSAC Sports Diver, PADI Rescue Diver of SSA equivalent and have completed a minimum of 40 dives in the UK. You must provide evidence of your qualifications and insurance, for safety. Air is supplied for your dives (sometimes food too!)

Here are just a few things that divers found in recent dives:

  • Lobster pots (often with live lobsters in them, which were released).
  • Crabs (also released from lobster pots)
  • Cat sharks and tadpole fish and rocklings (related to cod and haddock)
  • Spark plugs
  • 500m of rope
  • A torch battery
  • Fishing rods
  • Fishing hooks and spinners
  • Angling line
  • Tin cans
  • A wellington boot
  • 2 metre strip of aluminium
  • Plastic bottles
  • Disposable vapes
  • An umbrella
  • A pair of sunglasses

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