‘Cocktails belong in bars not rivers’: thousands join March for Clean Water in London
By Tilly O'Brien 4th Nov 2024
Yesterday, 3 November, thousands from across the nation turned up to River Action's March for Clean Water in London.
Starting at Albert Embankment at 11am, thousands of individuals, water groups, and rowing clubs, all dressed in blue, walked to Parliament to petition the government for clean water throughout the UK.
Protestors travelled to London to join the march from across the UK, including Wales, Cornwall, and Cheshire.
The protest began with talks from guest speakers, explaining how important it is to have clean water.
"Cocktails belong in bars not rivers," one said.
During the "peaceful" march, the protestors, including celebrities like Carol Vorderman and Bear Grylls, came together with various signs to advocate against river pollution.
Speaking about why he joined the March, Rick from the Cleddau Project in West Wales said: "I think we've probably travelled further than just about anyone else – it took us about six hours to get here to march today as our river is in really really, bad shape.
"We really appreciate River Action for putting this together and we want to make a difference and restore our river."
Also attending the march was a group of friends from Cornwall who previously lived in Teddington, who attended the march to protest against Thames Water polluting the river.
"It's awful and the water companies who are destroying are rivers are all foreign companies who don't know what they're doing. They're profiting off pollution," they said.
"It's not just sewage it's slurry from farms, but people are afraid to talk about this because they don't want to upset the farmers.
"I've always wanted to swim in the Thames by Teddington Weir, but I'm too scared because of the pollution."
A man from Tooting also attended the march because he contracted an illness back in 1989 after surfing in British waters.
Moreover, one lady from campaign group Zero in Guildford said: "We do a lot of water testing at Zero, so we regularly see levels of eco life in our rivers and we've all got sick from it.
"We care a lot about our rivers, so that's why we're marching today."
Following the march, a rally was held between 1.30pm-3pm outside Parliament.
To kick off the rally, Robert McFarlaine performed his poem 'River Song', highlighting the beauty of water and rivers.
Mcfarlaine's performance was followed by River Action founder and chair, Charles Watson, who welcomed attendees to the rally and explained that the demonstration was the biggest of its kind in the UK.
He also thanked attendees for bringing water from their rivers, lakes, and beaches to add to a single vessel and explained that contrary to rumours, River Action would not be releasing the water into the Thames as this goes against environmental regulations and they do not ignore such regulations.
The rally, hosted by Heart Radio's Katrina Ridley, then proceeded with talks from guest speakers, beginning with Olympic rower Imogen Grant who explained that when rowing in British waters, she is more afraid of getting ill from falling into the water rather than the fact of capsizing.
Teddington Blue Tits and Kingston and also attended the demonstration.
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