‘The Telegraph is having a bit of a laugh at our expense.’

On October 26, a “March for Clean Water” will take place in London, demanding urgent action from leaders on water pollution. The rally is scheduled to coincide with the end of the first 100 days of the new government, just days before the Chancellor’s first budget on October 30. Environmental campaigners are keen to see financial commitments to environmental issues in the upcoming budget.

The rally will be led by the activist and singer Feargal Sharkey, who has long campaigned to protect Britain’s polluted rivers, seas, and streams. The legendary Undertones frontman is urging members of the public to join the protest through central London.

“It is now time to hold to account those industries that for too long now have been allowed to knowingly and wantonly pollute our waters driven by nothing more than profit and greed. We call on everyone in the country who is concerned or angry at the state of our waters to join us and march,” said Sharkey.

The campaigner will be joined by an array of environmental and sporting groups, including the Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB, The Women’s Institute, Angling Trust, Greenpeace, British Rowing and British Canoeing. The rally is being organised by River Action in collaboration with Surfers Against Sewage.

In Labour’s 2024 party manifesto, the climate and nature crisis was described as “the greatest long-term global challenge we face.” The manifesto pledged to address the “nature emergency,” focusing on reducing river and sea pollution, enhancing access to nature, promoting biodiversity, and protecting landscapes and wildlife. In the King’s Speech in July, the new government introduced several bills aimed at improving Britain’s energy and landscape. Among them was the Water (Special Measures) Bill, which seeks to regulate water companies to clean up the UK’s rivers, lakes, and seas.

While campaigners welcomed the Bill, they warned that it doesn’t go far enough. Charles Watson, chair and founder of River Action, noted that although the new government’s initial steps towards cleaning up Britain’s polluted waterways are encouraging, they “do not nearly go far enough to address the scale of the problem they have inherited.”

He added: “Nothing short of wholescale reform of our failed regulatory system and comprehensive strategies to address all major sources of pollution, including sewage discharges and agricultural run-off, will suffice. On the 26th of October the public will make this point very clear to Sir Keir Starmer in no uncertain terms.”

The Conservative-supporting Telegraph meanwhile used the news of the march as an opportunity to criticise the new government, misleadingly attributing the country’s water pollution crisis to Labour’s shortcomings. The article entitled: ‘Feargal Sharkey to lead mass London rally over Labour’s failure to tackle water pollution,’ discusses how Britain has been grappling with a growing water quality crisis due to various factors such as aging water infrastructure, lack of investment by water companies, a growing population, agricultural runoff, and industrial pollution.

Notably, the article failed to mention that Britain’s waterways have significantly deteriorated during 14 years of Conservative rule. In 2009, a year before the Tories came to power in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, a quarter of English rivers were rated as having good ecological status, a measure that considers flow, habitat, and biological quality. By 2022, not a single river was in healthy condition.

The article also failed to acknowledge that the decline of the Thames and almost every other river in Britain is widely attributed to the privitisation of the water industry by a Conservative government, which subsequently prioritised shareholder dividends over investment in clean water, environmental protection, and public health. As the Guardian’s environmental reporter Sandra Laville notes: “For voters, including many in Tory heartlands, the polluting of Britain’s rivers is among the most egregious legacies of 14 years of Conservative rule.”

The irony of the Telegraph’s headline was not lost on readers.

“While I totally support Feargal and the London rally, the Telegraph headline is having a bit of a laugh at our expense. ‘*Labour’s* failure to tackle water pollution’ Let me correct that headline. The *Conservatives’* failure to tackle water pollution’ Labour will tackle it,” posted journalist Graham Lambert.

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