Pollution, sewage and water quality in our rivers - Amy Slack and Ash Smith

Etienne Stott, Olympic Gold Medal winner from London 2012
investigates pollution and water quality in our waterways.
Etienne gets stuck in to finding out more about his issue with
his guests. This is an audio version of a live conversation over
facebook and YouTube.


So why should paddlers care about this? As you'll hear, there are
plenty of places with sewage issues. When we enter into these
waterways we're at risk of gastroenteritis; ear, nose and throat
infections; skin issues and even hepatitis and e-coli. So even
just touching your boat could put you at risk.


Amy Slack is from Surfers Against Sewage and Ash Smith if from
Windrush Against Sewage Pollution(WASP). She claims our rivers
are being treated like open sewers and that issues that were once
affecting the coastline has now been switched inland.


Surfers Against Sewage started 30 years again when a bunch of
surfers were fed up of becoming ill by being in the sea. Now it's
a national campaigning organisation concerned about water
quality, plastic pollution and the climate emergency.


WASP looks out for the Windrush in Oxfordshire and was set up to
try to improve the quality of the water as they felt other
agencies weren't doing enough. Ash tells Etienne about the sort
of chemicals that are ending up in the waterways with long
lasting effects.


You can find out more about British Canoeing's Clear Access,
Clear Waters Campaign here


https://clearaccessclearwaters.org.uk/


And British Canoeing and membership details here


https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/