How Local Communities Are Taking Back Their Rivers

Stretching over 10 miles from the leafy suburbs of Barnet to the inner-city sprawl of Edmonton, the Pymmes Brook flows though picturesque parks, past ancient woodland, behind council housing estates and under some of the city’s biggest motorway junctions. It traverses three London boroughs, spilling through political boundaries, gushing over administrative demarcations and washing away socioeconomic divides as it gathers pace and pollution on its course. The Pymmes Brook is just one of the many tributaries of the River Lea which flows into the Thames before spewing out its dirty load into the sea. Dirty, mainly because of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/14/sewage-discharge-in-english-rivers-10-times-higher-than-official-data-suggests" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">raw sewage illegally pumped into English rivers</a> by water companies on a regular basis. Thames Water, the company currently responsible in this area, has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-59351696" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">a history of polluting rivers</a> wherever it operates. But they’re not alone. Industrial farming waste is also allowed to flow into our rivers, making them rank with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/21/britains-rivers-suffocating-industrial-farm-waste" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">algal blooms and green slime</a>. And then there’s all the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/23/road-runoff-pollution-damages-londons-rivers-study-finds" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">road run-off in London</a>, which flushes oil, diesel and petrol spills along with car tyre particles, heavy metals and other pollutants into waterways every time it rains. No wonder some people mistake their local river for a dump. <a href="https://medium.com/the-new-climate/how-local-communities-are-taking-back-their-rivers-fa0d948618db">Read More</a>