Rivers need RIGHTS

Our waterways are sick – can thinking about them as living beings breathe new life into the campaign to save them?

- MICHELLE HATHER

I chatter, chatter, as I flow, to join the brimming river, for men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever.' Almost 170 years ago, Tennyson's poem The Brook described a never-ending journey, of a precious river impenetrable to man's harm. But that was then and this is now – and never have our rivers been so under threat.

In East Sussex, the state of the River Ouse is so worrying it has just become the first in England to be granted its own legal rights. The decision by Lewes District Council follows similar models in New Zealand, Canada and Colombia, where rivers have rights to exist, flow and thrive free from pollution, with guardians appointed to act on their behalf.

'The Ouse has long been taken for granted,' says Emma Montlake, of the Environmental Law Foundation, which helped fight for the charter. 'This is just the beginning of a journey to give the river a voice and ensure its wellbeing for future generations.'

So why are our waterways so sick? A report last year found no single stretch of river in England or Northern Ireland in good overall health. The State of our Rivers Report, by The Rivers Trust, said waterways were plagued by sewage, chemical, nutrient and plastic pollution. Changes to the shape and flow of the rivers have made things even worse, leaving them especially vulnerable to the pressures of climate change.

Call to action

Wales and Scotland's rivers fare slightly better – 44% of Wales’ river stretches achieved at least good overall status, and in Scotland it was 57.2% – but Afonydd Cymru (Wales’ version of The Rivers Trust) believes this could bea reflection of differences in monitoring and reporting carried out by Natural Resources Wales, rather than a tangible environmental improvement.