March for Clean Water – why we are taking part

The March for Clean Water is being held in London on 3 November 2024. It is being jointly organised by River Action and Surfers Against Sewage.

Whilst much of the narrative is hung around sewage pollution and water company dividends, fronted by Feargal Sharkey, the reasons for marching set out on the march website are broader than this.

The headline ask is for clean water. This simple ask is compelling in the context of the challenges currently being faced by our water environment. There is a mixed cohort of supporters, from universities to the major eNGOs and local campaign groups.

Everyone supporting the march and present on the day will be doing so for their own particular reasons. Ours are specific and stated below.

Why has CIWEM decided to support the march?

CIWEM has thousands of members who are skilled professionals working in the water sector, dedicated to delivering clean drinking water to the public in their homes, workplaces and locations where people gather socially.

Our members know how the health of our nation depends on clean, safe drinking water and their work carries a sense of public service.

Sewage and its treatment has taken on a national focus because the people of the UK are concerned about how it is being managed, and the impact on those who use water bodies for recreational and wellbeing purposes, as well as on nature. This concern extends to many of our members, including those who work in the water industry.

Our sewage infrastructure was designed for a smaller population and without many of the complications the industry now faces. Upgrading it properly needs a national response from our government. This must encompass better regulation of the water sector, alongside improved housing and development planning and management of rural landscapes.

CIWEM is marching for A Fresh Water Future – an independent review and report on water sector performance and governance and a co-created expert, stakeholder and public vision for future water management in the UK.

This sets out a ten-point plan for government, which if implemented, will begin the journey towards a healthier society, economy and environment.

A Fresh Water Future identifies “wide-ranging underinvestment, inadequate regulation and progressive decline in the health and resilience of our water environment… Water management and regulation needs urgent and ambitious focus, policy response and investment. Without transformational change, the decline in the health and resilience of water for our economy, society and nature seen over recent decades will not just continue but accelerate in the face of growing pressures.”

CIWEM has been flagging concerns over the long-term sustainability implications of under-investment in water infrastructure and inadequate, narrowly focused water policy for decades. This extends to storm overflows, agricultural runoff, highway runoff, water resources and sustainable drainage and housing policy.

Like many marching, we believe we have not been adequately listened to despite advocating the necessary solutions. Our rivers are in poor health. Our water resilience is going in the wrong direction, and water sustainability in development has barely advanced in two decades.

Meanwhile, chemical pollution, habitat destruction and poor land management are decimating nature. Water companies and other polluters – of which there are many – have not been adequately regulated or made to pay for pollution they have caused, with such payments being recycled into environmental recovery activity.

This is no foundation for sustainable economic growth.

If we’re marching, it must be serious

CIWEM is a Royal Chartered, apolitical, evidence-led professional body and charity. A community of skilled and passionate practitioners and professionals working across water and environmental management.

We are a voice of reason and objectivity, focused on enabling sustainable solutions to water and environmental challenges and a positive representative for those who work daily in water management.

We are proud of the expertise and commitment our members bring to a sector focused on delivering an essential public good.

We will be marching peacefully in support of the calls set out in A Fresh Water Future. First and foremost, that the government commission a wide-ranging, independent review of water management and regulation with a mandate from the very top.

But also, and fundamentally, for a step change in ambition and commitment from this government to deliver wide-ranging policy and investment which will unlock green growth and skills and enable healthy and resilient land and water environments. The water solutions we know are needed and we know how to deliver. This will not be an overnight fix, but it is a challenge that can be fixed with the right level of political and economic will.

This will need an expanded and upskilled army of water professionals to deliver the improvements we, those marching and the wider public know are needed. We call on government to support blue-green skills for a clean and resilient water environment.

No more lip service. No more fudging. No more flip-flopping. We need a fresh water future.

So, to be clear, we are supporting this march for three headline reasons:

1. We believe it is in the interests of our members to support this march because the future health and resilience of our water environment is crucial for a prosperous, resilient, sustainable economy and society. Current approaches to managing water - including existing policies, regulations and investment levels - are unlikely to deliver this.
   We wish to bring our members’ professional knowledge and expertise to bear on improving water management. It is our members who know how to fix these problems. Government has proposed a comprehensive review of water management. This review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We mustn’t miss it.
   
   
2. Water must be a greater consideration in far more areas of government policy than it is now. Beyond water infrastructure, the activities of land use, city and town planning and development, food, drink and chemicals must give far greater consideration to the centrality and importance of water as an enabler of, or risk to them.
   
   
3. There must be serious investment in both water infrastructure and other areas to manage these risks and unlock the opportunities. This is a difficult balance for government to strike but delay or avoidance of the issue will only further exacerbate the problems that are becoming only too obvious now, whilst pressures from climate change, development, chemicals use and more ramp up.

This is essentially what has happened over recent decades to reach the point we are at now. This will need difficult decisions but also support for the most vulnerable in society who may struggle to afford the cost.