Clare Doyle, Hackney Socialist Party
In Britain – an island surrounded by sea and with literally hundreds of rivers – it would be reasonable to expect outdoor swimming to be a widespread, healthy activity available for all.
But what do we have? A farcical situation in which, of thirteen more designated bathing sites in rivers, only one has water qualified as clean enough to bathe in! Even there – at Ham on the River Thames – seasoned swimmers were dubious about having a dip!
For a few years now there have been important campaigns against pollution – for an end to the treacherous practices of profit-hungry water companies and farmers.
In 2023, it was Irish singer, Feargal Sharkey, along with comedian/angler, Paul Whitehouse, who raised the alarm about Britain’s rivers and exposed the big water companies’ total defiance of the law. ‘Surfers Against Sewage’ was launched and has now logged no less than 6,709 serious sickness reports at 514 UK bathing spots since 2019.
Private water companies rake in billions in profits and pay vast sums to shareholders and managers, but leave bathing areas in our rivers and seas dangerously polluted by sludge and excrement.
A film on Channel 4 spelled out the way the precious chalk streams and bathing places in the Hampshire area have been all but wrecked in the interests of big business and profit.
Lives are being blighted, even lost, through the continued pollution of our rivers, lakes and seas! How many more tragic deaths will there be like those featured in recent TV dramas – one of a woman who spoke out at a meeting against a water company in Cornwall and another an eight-year-old schoolgirl on holiday with her family in Devon? Will those responsible ever be held to account?
The ‘i’ newspaper carries its ‘Save Britain’s Rivers’ campaign when yet another water company transgresses but never will it call for renationalisation! In Scotland, water has remained in public hands but urgently needs control and management to be fully in the hands of elected representatives of the workers and consumers.
Generally, no private organisation should be allowed to take over places of natural beauty and recreation, let alone take payment from the public for enjoying them. This is what happened when the Corporation of London took over the swimming ponds of Hampstead Heath. (They should be taken back into public hands without a penny of ‘compensation’!)
The right to swim in all the country’s rivers, lakes and beaches without charge and without fear of getting ill as a result should be guaranteed. This should stand alongside the unassailable ‘right to roam’, fought for by generations of working-class people.
The maintenance of rivers, pools, ponds and lakes is a vital public responsibility, to be carried out with the fullest involvement of workers. Fight for total renationalisation of water under democratic workers’ control and management!
