Help us campaign for a healthy and sustainable future for all of our waterways, be a it a river, stream, pond or lake!

Sewage Pollution

One of the most serious threats to urban waterways and the life that depend on them is sewage pollution. London, home to around 8 million people and growing is particularly at risk to sewage contamination. Sewage reduces oxygen levels in water, allows invasive species to thrive and poses a direct threat to wildlife and human health. Thames21 is currently spearheading two campaigns for solutions to this problem:

Love the Lea

A campaign to save East London’s waterways from industrial and sewage pollution. The pipes from thousands of bathrooms, toilets and kitchens are misconnected in East London, so wastewater runs straight from people’s homes into local rivers, making them stink and kill fish. We need people to sign up to the Pledge to protect their rivers and canals from pollution. Every time it rains, the oily runoff from roads poisons rivers, we need to clean this water before it gets to them using green drainage.

Thames Tunnel Now!

A coalition formed to demand the progress of the only feasible solution to end ongoing and unacceptable pollution of London’s river.


Waterway litter

Every year thousands of birds, seals, fish and other wildlife die as a result of plastic litter. The huge variety of waste products that litter our waterways pose real threats to the inhabitants of our rivers, seas and skies. Plastic products do not break down, but break up into small pieces which can be easily ingested, act as potential traps and can badly cut wildlife that come into contact with them.

Plastic bags can also trap and suffocate animals, and are often ingested by birds, which eventually die of starvation as their gut fills up with the indigestible material.  Plastic can holders are a particular threat, and can easily become tangled up around animals or even strangle them.  Ideally all waste that can be, should be recycled, but if this is not possible, items can be cut or squashed to help prevent entanglement or entrapment before being discarded of responsibly.

Thames21 will work with you relentlessly to remove plastic from our waterways, but for real long-term change we need to look at where the waste is coming from. Thames21 is calling for people, government and business to transform the way we produce use and dispose of plastic waste.
See us on BBC Inside Out in a look at plastic litter in the Thames.

Is there something you would like to see us campaigning on or would you like to add your voice to our call?
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