59. 15-06-21 The Role of the Community in Protecting and Improving River Environments

It was a great pleasure to host this month’s Water Conservators webinar titled “The Role of the Community in Protecting and Improving River Environments” presented by Debbie Leach, Chief Executive of Thames21. Debbie began her talk by explaining how for centuries there has been a close connection between the River Thames and the communities it served. Right back to Roman times the river has been important for trade and transport, with London established a key trading port. Then with population growth the river became polluted in the 19^th century until the Bazalgette sewer system cleaned up the river. This has been followed up in the 21^st century by the Thames Tideway tunnel, preventing sewage overflows into the river.

However, in recent times a “disconnect” has grown between people and the river with many rivers becoming culverted and no longer looking like a natural river. So a key challenge for Thames21 is how do we engage people better with the issues we face, including climate change. Thames21 are supporting people to reconnect and help rescue our rivers via key projects such as Thames River Watch, a citizen science project in which volunteers collect data to help us better understand the health of the river.

Thames21 also has an established training programme and supports river action groups. The charity has also been involved in creating and protecting new wetland areas and has worked in catchment partnerships. Debbie explained how there is still so much to do to rescue our blue-green spaces, rebuild communities after the pandemic, tackle plastic pollution, and combat water scarcity. She urged everyone to help with funding to build Thames21’s core capacity, help to simply spread word, and introduce volunteers with technical expertise to support a growing organisation.

Debbie’s presentation was then followed by an excellent question and answer session which included how Thames21 and the Water Conservation Trust could work together to increase environmental learning about rivers in our schools, and possibilities to increase the links between City businesses and the River Thames, so that businesses understand more about the environmental challenges. On behalf of everyone I would again like to thank Debbie for an excellent presentation, and also give my thanks to everyone who attended making the webinar a great success.