River Brent Campaigners March on Parliament

Join tens of thousands calling for clean water

CURB members at the march in central London

November 6, 2024

Around 50 members of the Clean Up the River Brent campaign (CURB), mainly dressed in blue, joined the March for Clean Water this Sunday (3 November).

The group was among tens of thousands of people from across the country who had joined the demonstration in central London organised by the charity River Action.

The local campaign group was part of a coalition of 130 nature, environmental and water-sport organisations taking part in what is believed to have been the nation’s largest ever march about the issue of water. The march include other participants ranging from the Women’s Institute to the GMB union.

It was called to protest about the level of pollution in Britain’s waterways and to demand that the government take immediate action.

Figures released by the Environment Agency earlier this year showed that 2023 was England’s worst year on record for sewage spills.

The protesters wore blue to create an image of a river snaking through the streets of London. Banners condemned polluters and criticised the government and water companies for a lack of action.

Ben Morris, founder of CURB and trustee of the Brent River Park (BRP) charity, holding aloft a stick covered with the sort of detritus dragged out of the River Brent, said, “It’s astonishing that there are thousands of properties in the capital whose raw sewage is piped directly into rivers, without even seeing a treatment works. There are 5 such buildings on the Brent, and our volunteers have counted the wet-wipes and sampled the water to prove it.

“These cases represent a complete failure of Property and Environmental regulation, and we call on the Local Authorities, Thames Water, the Environment Agency, and Property Owners, working with the Mayoral Authority, to sit down and sort this problem out once and for all.”

Ben Morris holding aloft a stick covered with the sort of detritus dragged out of the River Brent

BRP trustee Steven Toft, who was also on the march, added, “It’s now possible to build new housing and commercial developments with foul water flushing straight into the rivers and nobody notices until it’s too late. It’s hardly surprising that our rivers are full of effluent when the regulatory regime is so ineffective. The only way to deal with this is tougher laws and stronger enforcement. As long as it is easy to cut costs by dumping sewage into rivers, people will continue to do it.”

When the protesters arrived at Parliament Square, they heard speeches from environmental activists such as Chris Packham and Liz Bonnin. Members of the Brent contingent were interviewed for the BBC news bulletin.

The CURB contingent assembles at Vauxhall Station

Ben Morris said afterwards, “Unless the government takes tough measures, this year will be another record year for pollution and so will the next. Unless it stops, our rivers will die.”

The Brent River Park charity, through its Clean Up The River Brent campaign (CURB), says it will maintain its campaign on this issue and will continue its Environment Agency sponsored work to monitor pollution in the River Brent.

For more information on CURB, and to volunteer, visit its page on the Brent River Park website, heck out their Just Giving Page raising funds for quality water pollution testing and follow them on Twitter / X @BrentPollution, or join them on Facebook at CURB – Clean Up the River Brent.