Charles Watson, founder of River Action UK, on the crisis in our rivers Artwork

Girl on the River

Patricia Carswell, aka Girl on the River, loves to row and loves to talk, so it makes sense that in her podcast she'll be chatting to guests from all around the rowing and sporting world about anything and everything to do with rowing. Always informal, occasionally silly, sometimes serious, often informative, she delves into questions such as how athletes become champions, how to promote diversity in sport, the secret to staying alive on an ocean, how to improve your erg score and what to do to keep your body and mind in one piece. Her guests include Olympians, health experts, Atlantic rowers, kit companies, indoor rowers, TV presenters - in short, anyone with something to say about rowing and its place in the world. The podcast isn't just about Girl on the River and her guests, though. Community is everything in rowing, so you, the listener, are an important part of the show. There'll be regular Q&As and listener debates, and if you have suggestions for fantastic guests, she's all ears. Patricia can be contacted at girlontheriverpodcast@gmail.com or on social media at @girlontheriver on all channels - come and have a chat .And until then... next stroke, easy oar.

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Girl on the River

Charles Watson, founder of River Action UK, on the crisis in our rivers

October 06, 2021 • Patricia Carswell • Season 3 • Episode 2

S3, Ep.2 It would have been lovely not to need to do this interview, but sadly our rivers - and the River Wye in particular - are in crisis, and as rowers and river-lovers you ought to know what's going on. So today I'm talking to Charles Watson, founder of charity and campaigning group, River Action UK, to find out what's wrong with our rivers and what we can do about it.

How Charles went from PR boss to environmental campaigner
What's wrong with the River Wye
The elephant in the room dressed as a chicken
Three solutions
What you can do
How much time we have left

Resources
River Action UK
The Rivercide documentary
The BBC Panorama documentary , The River Pollution Scandal
River Action petition
Petition to ban discharge of raw sewage into watercourses
Find your MP here
Find your local Rivers Trust here

Where to report pollution incidents:
In England: Environment Agency https://www.gov.uk/report-an-environmental-incident

In Wales: Natural Resources Wales https://naturalresources.wales/about-us/contact-us/report-an-environmental-incident/?lang=en

Find your water company here
Find your water company's contact details here

Groups
Rowers United to Save the Planet
The Rivers Trust
Friends of the Lower Wye
Friends of the Upper Wye
Wye Valley AONB

Find them on Twitter!
DEFRA @DEFRAGovUK
Avara Foods @AvaraToods
Tesco @tesco
Sainsburys @sainsburys
Waitrose @waitrose
Marks & Spencer @MarksandSpencer
Morrisons @Morrisons
Asda @asda
Co-Op @coopuk
Aldi @AldiUK
Lidl @LidlGB
River Action UK @RiverActionUK