“As our world slips into an ecological crisis, I feel implored to fight for my future [. . .] and water is a vital part of it”: Young voices call for change.
By Flora Wallace, aged 16.
As I walked towards the huddle of rowing enthusiasts crowding before the Linacre Rowing Club facilities, I felt a sense of confidence and trepidation fill me at the sight. On Saturday 20th April, the Linacre women’s 8 rowing boat was named ‘River Action’, to honour the campaign group’s work drawing global attention to the horrific levels of pollution on the River Thames.
As a young person at the event, I felt privileged to be surrounded by such admirable people whose lives revolve around caring for others, the planet and in many cases their sport. I wandered around with my sister chatting by my side and witnessed partnerships turn to friendships and strangers turn to colleagues.
With the river running murky beside us, we feel our sadness at the state of the River Thames washed away by uplifting speeches from James Wallace, CEO of River Action and Frederick Mulder. They remind us what we are all striving for and the desperate needs of our rivers today.
I feel sickened, as do many rowers affected by E. Coli poisoning in the past year, at the poor state of Britain’s rivers and feel the health and happiness of my own future inexplicably linked to the wellbeing of every waterway around me. The toll of millions of hours of sewage discharge in the past year is painted clearly through the clumps of algal bloom and streams clouded brown, snaking their way through cities and rural countryside.
Lethal levels of the E.coli pathogen from sewage released from under regulated water companies, like Thames Water, are poisoning our waterways. As a young person, who should look up to the government with pride and confidence, I feel constantly overwhelmed by the disappointing levels of protection being taken to save the water that each and everyone of us relies on.
We all need water to survive and as I see futures of deprivation flash before my eyes, I think back to my childhood, filled with wild swimming in my local Kennet river. Weeping willows dancing beside the clear water rushing beside me and a feeling of elation at the beauty surrounding me.
As our world slips into an ecological crisis, I feel implored to fight for my future and just as every rower will agree with me, water is a vital part of it. So let’s protect it and value it and remember the summers we spent playing in it. Because those summers are over now and the safety we were once guaranteed is now fading into the past.
