Original subtitles

MICHAELA STRACHAN: Over the last few months,

you may well have heard that sewage

is being regularly pumped into our rivers.

And, like me, thought, "Really?

"Are our waterways really polluted by sewage?"

You can see the solids in the water, the little bits of human waste.

Oh, that is revolting.

The soft sediment underneath your feet,

I think you can probably imagine what it's made up of.

Oh, gosh. Honestly, just don't touch anything, hey?

But that's disgusting. Surely, somebody's doing something about it?

After an afternoon swimming in the Medway,

12 out of 13 people in our group were really quite violently ill.

I vomited six times.

So, how bad is the problem?

And what are these campaigners campaigning for?

Someone could die from the water quality worsening.

Not just here, but across this country.

It is an environmental catastrophe

and, if it's not stopped, it will just get worse and worse.

I've filmed a lot of wildlife in and around rivers

and things had improved, but it seems not any more.

Thank God we don't have to live in that water.

So, what can be done?

Well, I'm going on a journey to find out.

I'm starting my travels in the Yorkshire Dales.

The River Wharfe passes through

some of Britain's prettiest villages and towns.

Our rivers are precious habitats and vital ecosystems,

important for wildlife and a pleasure for us.

On summer days, people enjoy swimming, paddling, boating

and generally messing about on the river is great for our well-being.

Today, I'm joining a hardy group, the Ilkley swimmers.

This is the River Wharfe in Ilkley in Yorkshire,

it's a popular bathing spot, it's where this group...

Hello!

..like to go for their pre-breakfast swim.

OK, guys, is it cold?

THEY LAUGH "No, no," they say!

Don't put your head in, Michaela.

I brought my goggles, are we not swimming properly?

No, the flow's not great.

If you're really lucky, you might see a kingfisher.

Now, you're exciting me!

Yes, yes.

Come on, Owen!

Oh! Oof!

Definitely does make you feel good, a nice cold-water swim, doesn't it?

It does. I think sometimes you just need it.

You, sort of, feel a bit stressed from the day and you just think,

"Actually, if I get in the river, it centres you."

And it calms you down and it's lovely.

So, when did you start noticing, then,

that things were changing and it was becoming quite polluted?

So, a friend of mine got in touch with me and said, you know,

"You know how to campaign, Becky, we've got a problem."

And I said, "Well, what's the problem?"

And she said, "Well, there's just masses of raw sewage

"being discharged into the river."

I said, "Are you having a laugh, what do you mean?"

I said, "well, how masses? Let's have a look."

And when we worked it out, we had a look at how often it

was being discharged. It turned out it's about a third of the year

there's raw sewage being discharged into our river.

Completely unaware.

Cos you can't see it unless you look for it.

You can see it downstream, so, by the sewage treatment works,

where the big storm overflow is, that's the pipe where you can

put raw sewage into the river when it rains.

We thought, under exceptional circumstances,

but it turns out, here, 8mm of rain triggers it.

And then you can see it, it's like a brown sludge

and all the ducks head there, so you know something's happening.

Have people got ill?

Yeah, we've had kids in the local hospital on a drip,

missing their GCSEs. So, the local kids go downstream,

further down here, where they can't be seen,

cos they want a bit of privacy

and they wanna muck around with their friends

and they play and swim in the river down there.

And that's really what got us involved in this,

because we thought, "Well, not only is there sewage

"going in the river, but we know our local kids -

"and visitors who don't know anything about the river -

"go down there to paddle and play and swim."

And so we've got, potentially, visitors with young kids

and little fishing nets and, you know, little swimming rings

and stuff getting into the river there. I mean, that's horrific.

I mean, it's incredibly shocking, because you would have thought,

particularly now with all our health and safety regulations,

that if the water was that bad and actually dangerous

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

..there would be a big sign saying, "Don't swim here."

Recently, the council has installed signs along one part of the river,

but for the Ilkley swimmers, these are still insufficient.

You know, the British public uses the river in the summer,

always has done. Packs a picnic, fishing nets, "Off we go!"

It's something that everybody can do,

and, of course, everybody expects to be able to.

So, people have no idea this is actually an open drain.

Yorkshire Water told us...

So, if you're wondering where all this sewage is coming from,

it's called a CSO, a combined sewer overflow

for rainwater and sewage.

CSOs are a necessary evil, developed to prevent sewage

backing up into people's homes in heavy rain.

But many campaigners around the country claim that these CSOs

are spilling waste into rivers far too often,

even when there's little or no rain.

Just imagine if you came here for a picnic with your family,

no idea that you're next to a sewage treatment centre

on a day that they're letting out all the untreated sewage

and your kids are playing in this river and paddling.

It's basically like...

well, paddling in your toilet. I mean, it's disgusting.

Next, we meet someone who films in rivers

to find out what really lies beneath the surface.

Oh, that is revolting.

I'm on a journey around the UK to understand

the scandal of our polluted rivers.

It's thanks to the public campaigning about it

that we've been made aware of the scale of the problem.

I'm in Yorkshire to meet Mark Barrow,

an underwater photographer who was so upset by

the pollution he witnessed, that he started posting regularly about

the state of his local waterway.

I mean, you're filming in there,

so you must have seen all sorts of disgusting stuff in the water.

Yeah, literally everything that's flushed down the toilet.

This is a typical sewage discharge going into the river

from a combined sewer overflow.

And, in it, will contain everything that's flushed down the toilet,

despite the fact that they say that they are actually taken out,

so, you'll have everything from Tampax to wipes,

sanitary waste, but obviously human solids, as well.

And, again, this is another discharge.

Going on directly straight into the river.

And 30 years ago, how often would you have seen that sort of stuff?

Very rare. It would only actually happen when there was an extreme,

heavy rainfall event. But I am now filming sewage discharges

in minimal rainfall or dry weather, when it shouldn't even be going on.

And that is during a discharge

when I decided to actually get in to actually see what...

Well, why would you want to see what a discharges look like?

Yeah, are you mad?

No, no, no-one needs to see a sanitary towel in the water.

But I mean you can see the solids in the water, as well.

Oh, is that what that is?

Yeah. Yeah, they're little bits of human waste.

Oh, that is revolting.

Yes, yes.

People need to know.

You know, I've spent half my life filming in rivers.

I mean, you would not advise anyone to get in

that part of that river in their trunks?

No, I wouldn't even get in with a wetsuit.

So I've always got my dry suit on, I'm fully covered.

You must have noticed a decline in wildlife generally?

Yeah, certainly, 30 years ago...

Cos we've always had otters on the river at Wetherby

in the River Wharfe.

There's certainly not as many as what they used to be.

And obviously what's going on with the rivers is having

a massive impact, even the river flies,

there's now sections of the river

which are literally completely void of life.

Cos all of that sewage stuff cannot be good for any wildlife.

It doesn't have a choice, it has to live in the river.

Yeah, I mean, this is their home and this is how we're treating it.

And, ultimately, what happens with our rivers

has an impact on our seas and oceans, this is the start of it.

So we need to get this sorted.

Mark, how has it been allowed to get this bad so quickly?

I mean, just ten, 15 years ago,

we were celebrating our rivers being clean.

So, what's happened, why has it gone so wrong?

I think that the increase in population,

the towns have grown,

some of the new housing estates around here,

their front gardens are all tarmacked over,

so, there's more rainwater going down the drains.

And the regulator's not regulating enough,

to be quite honest and, basically,

the water companies and government are turning a blind eye.

It does. I'm fuming.

Yeah. Because I know what this could be like and, unfortunately,

it is way off the mark.

The Environment Agency told us...

I've come to Surrey to see a chalk stream.

This type of unique waterway is characterised by clear water,

rich in minerals and attracts a diversity of flora and fish.

There are only 210 in the world and the UK has 150 of them.

So if anywhere promises clean, safe water, this is it.

Chris Gardner from the South East Rivers Trust

is going to show me around Hogsmill, near Ewell.

This is a chalk stream habitat, quite a small river channel,

lots of marginal vegetation for cover for, you know,

mammals and birds and vertebrates.

It is, yes. You can see

and it's a very clean-looking stream.

Yes, that's right.

The water's very clear here, and, you know,

this water has come up from springs from the chalk, chalk aquifer,

and has been filtered for, you know, potentially years as it slowly flows

through that chalk, so the water quality will be really, really high.

And so the wildlife and aquatic ecology that's adapted

to live in chalk streams, you know, is quite unique.

DOG BARKS

So I guess that's the chalk stream, then?

That's right, yeah, so this is the upper Hogsmill River,

this is the confluence with the Green Lanes stream,

which is a much more surface-drained water body and,

upstream of here, there are some CSO discharges.

We had some overnight rain last night,

and the discharges aren't taking place at the moment,

but they did discharge last night

and you can see the difference in the clarity of the water.

That is amazing, actually, Chris, cos you really can, can't you?

I mean, that's clear and, so, you're saying that

the overflow pipe is further up, meets this river and,

Yeah, exactly.

There's an overflow pipe further upstream,

there's also one downstream. That's the one we can go

Yes, that's right, yeah.

OK, let's wade along and go and take a look at it.

Hopefully, it's not flowing today. HE CHUCKLES

The sewage pipe, or CSO as it's called,

is one of 15,000 in England.

In 2021, these discharged for 2.5 million hours

into our rivers and seas.

Yes.

You can really smell it, Chris, and there it is.

That's the storm drain... Oh, gosh. Oh, it stinks.

Are you OK?

I mean, how disgusting is this water that we are standing in right now

if that did discharge last night?

Yeah, I mean, it's...

Well, the soft... The soft sediment underneath your feet,

I think you can probably imagine what it's made up of.

Oh, gosh, thank goodness for these waders, honestly.

Yeah.

Do you think that overflowed last night?

Well, it certainly smells like it and there's certainly, sort of,

fresh debris on the screen and the bits of twig there.

You can see bits of wet wipes and things like that and

the storm tanks themselves have a screen before they go in there,

so that's obviously bits of...

Sort of, small bits of debris that have made it through

the first screen and have just got snagged on the outside.

I mean, it is so disgusting, isn't it, to think that that is...?

I mean, for all intents and purposes,

Yeah.

..on a regular basis. What do you think should happen?

Well, we need to invest in our sewage infrastructure.

You know, we've had the past few decades where

we haven't had the necessary investment for

the sewage works infrastructure to keep up with the population growth.

And we also have, you know...

We also have climate change impacts, as well.

So, we have more intense rainfall.

Chris, those sewage works have been around since the Victorian era.

You know, a lot of building has gone on top of them.

So, how possible is it to just dig them up and make this better?

There's certainly technical challenges involved, you know.

And, as you say, a lot of the infrastructure goes back to

Victorian times and there is a big technical challenge.

But, you know, we put people on the moon with

the computing power of a pocket calculator 50 years ago,

so, surely we can upgrade our sewage works to

the standard that they should be and were originally designed to be.

The thought of all that basically raw sewage

pumping out of here into what was a gorgeous river.

And, you know, I met a local just now whose dog was swimming here

and told him what was going on, he was completely unaware.

And he said that would explain why so many dog owners

that he's met over recent years say their dogs have got skin problems.

And these are dogs that regularly swim in all this sewage.

And he said, "Why on earth aren't there signs up to warn people?"

I mean, why aren't there? It's mad, isn't it?

The whole thing's just mad.

And it gets worse.

It's a real danger to our health.

The Ames family went for a picnic by the River Medway

in an area supposed to be for families and water sports.

You guys, as a family, have really suffered the effects

of pollution in the river, haven't you?

Absolutely, it's something we didn't really think about

before we went for a swim.

Obviously, you know that rivers may not be perfectly clean,

but for 12 out of 13 people in our group

to be really quite violently ill

after an afternoon swimming in the Medway was pretty horrific,

really, with one of those people ending up in hospital.

Did you do any tests to prove that it was the water

and not a summer bug?

There's no way it could be anything other than the water.

That was the one common factor.

All children from the families, all five children, within 24 hours,

were vomiting and diarrhoea. And, through the course of the week,

everybody just toppled like dominoes.

And had very similar symptoms.

The only common factor was the river.

Yeah, we all ate different food, actually, cos we just brought

our own picnics to the river, so we knew it definitely couldn't be that.

And how ill were you all?

I vomited six times, my friend had to miss her last day of school,

cos she was so ill

and one of my dad's friends got put in hospital.

I was nauseous for a week.

For a week, so, I was wiped out from work for a couple or so days,

but felt really grotty for a week.

Before this happened to you,

No.

I think that, you know, we've always thought about,

you know, the rivers could have run off from the fields,

there could be things in the river from the animals that are there,

but not raw sewage. And actually, even the treated sewage,

as the Environment Agency have confirmed to me,

isn't suitable for contact with humans, even though it's out,

continuously being pumped into the river day in, day out.

And also, you feel reassured by

the fact that there's infrastructure there for the stand-up paddlers,

the canoers and so on.

They've built stuff there, so that they can use the water,

so you think, "Well, they're not necessarily just gonna stay

"on those things, they may fall in the water, so it must be safe."

What do you think should happen?

Well, I think it's really simple.

There shouldn't be unsafe waste

legally put into the rivers, full stop.

And whilst there is unsafe waste and sewage

being put into the rivers, there needs to be very,

very clear communication to everybody who uses those rivers.

And when you've got infrastructure to support kayaking,

stand-up paddle boarders, even if the Environment Agency say

it's not a designated swimming area, it absolutely is an area

for water recreation and those users need to be aware.

Will you guys ever swim in the river again?

No. No.

Definitely not. Definitely not.

We had the best day, it was so sunny,

we had so much fun together, but it's not worth the risk.

Those rivers are full of sewage.

Next, I discover that the Lake District,

one of the most-visited tourist attractions in the UK,

has also become a victim of sewage.

Teesside, in the north-east of England.

It's an area well known for its long, industrial heritage.

Iron and steel industries began here in the early 19th century.

It's also known as a centre for chemical manufacturing

and, for decades, there have been claims of heavy pollution

and poor water quality along this stretch of the north-east coast

as a toxic legacy of those industries.

But, recently, things came to a head

when around 1,000 locals from coastal communities

along Teesside gathered on the beach to protest about

what they claim is an environmental catastrophe.

Reclaim our seas! Reclaim our seas!

Reclaim our seas! Reclaim our seas!

Wave, everybody!

In October 2021, large numbers of dead crabs

and lobsters washed ashore on the Tees estuary.

Local fisherman, Stan Rennie, has fished along the Tees Bay

since he was 13 years old.

I've fished this area for 48 years.

One of the richest places for shell fish stocks and marine life.

We haven't overfished it, we've fished it responsibly.

We've returned berried hens for years,

we've looked after the stock,

and on the 25th September last year,

my catches fell off a cliff. Absolutely heartbreaking.

When you're getting everything washed up on

the beaches from sea anemones, worms, crabs, lobsters, porpoises,

seals, everything you can think of.

Stan suspects something lethal to marine life contaminated

the Tees estuary.

It was just a mass die out, it was an extension,

we just didn't know what was going on

and it wasn't until a couple of months later that we clicked that,

at the same time this happened,

The Orca started dredging the mouth of the Tees,

248,000 ton of sediment in ten days.

Widened the channel a bit, deepened the channel a bit,

that sediment is from the cesspit of the industrial revolution.

The River Tees, God knows what chemicals are in there.

It's this dredging that's worrying locals.

Teesside is being prepared to be the biggest free port in the UK.

It's one of eight to come.

It will provide thousands of jobs and a boost to the economy.

But it also means deep dredging of sediment on

the seabed to enable large container ships to dock in a newly-built quay.

Local campaigner Sally Bunce,

who organised the Wave For Our Seas protest,

suspects there may be a connection between dredging and

the mortality of marine life,

including seal pups along beaches in this area.

So, Michaela, this is one of the many common seal pups

that we've had wash up on our shores on the north-east coast.

You know, seal pups obviously die every year, it's not uncommon,

however, the volume of seal pups which die here

is above what we get in other parts of the country.

We had guillemots washed up dead on the beaches around September time

and, again, dredging occurred, very deep dredging,

around the time of all this happening.

These are all of our waters.

You know, and the poor creatures that are trying to live in them.

Thank God we don't have to live in that water.

You know, we absolutely understand the importance of the free port

and what it's going to do for this area.

It's going to provide, you know, jobs for people,

the steelworks have gone and a lot of it is renewable energies

that are gonna be built here, which is absolutely amazing.

You know, but it has to be done with the environment at

the forefront of how it goes ahead.

You know, cos if we do destroy our environment,

it's hypocritical to produce renewable energy,

if we've destroyed the environment to do that.

So, yes, we do want this to happen

and we do want the regeneration of industry in our area,

but it's got to be sympathetic to the actual natural environment, too.

SEAL SQUEAKS

Stan and his fellow fishermen approached

the universities of York, Hull and Newcastle for help.

Dr Gary Caldwell examined crabs from the Tees estuary

to see if any chemicals were present.

Specifically, in terms of the Tees,

it's had such a long and deep industrial heritage,

big, heavy industries that will have polluted.

Dumped effluent into it with no regulation.

And the curious thing, scientifically,

about a lot of these pollutants is that,

once they go in the sediment,

once they get locked away from being exposed to oxygen,

they're there for the long term and they just hide in there.

And the risk is, if they become disturbed,

if they get returned back into the water,

and then other animals, other organisms,

can be re-exposed to them...

The best way to think about that sediment

is like a chemical cocktail. There will be tens,

maybe even 100 chemicals in there that potentially will be toxic

and we have only focused in on the one, a chemical called pyridine.

The reason why we've focused on pyridine

was because when the dead crabs were analysed for different chemicals,

the amount of pyridine found in the crabs was so big,

compared to what you'd expect to find,

that it just leapt out there is a candidate that could not be ignored.

Pyridine is a chemical which was produced in

the Teesside area historically.

It's used in the manufacture of weedkiller and pesticides.

As a scientist, what we can say for sure

is that pyridine was categorically present

and still is present in the Tees sediment.

University of York have measured it, we know how much was there.

We know how much the dredger moved and transported off sea.

DEFRA appointed a panel of independent experts to investigate.

They were...

They said that...

The fact that such a large section of coastline was affected,

but not a wider range of species makes it...

They concluded...

On my journey so far, I've visited rivers and seas

and I've been shocked at what I've seen.

Now, I'm heading to a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Lake District.

One of the most beautiful places in the UK.

And England's largest national park.

It's a place of nature trails, farmlands, hills,

rivers and 16 lakes.

It's also one of the most-visited areas,

drawing close to 16 million people each year.

Lake Windermere in the Lake District,

this absolutely glorious setting,

has been the inspiration for Romantic poets like Wordsworth

and famous children's books like the tales of Beatrix Potter,

which just happens to be one of my favourites.

These days, of course, it's well known for a tourist spot,

where people come and they boat and they swim

and generally enjoy messing about on the water.

Sounds idyllic, doesn't it?

Or is it?

As the largest natural lake in England,

Windermere has numerous rivers that flow directly into it.

Environmentalists have recently been posting on social media about

sewage going from these rivers into Lake Windermere.

Saying this could be a health risk for humans and fish.

Local zoologist and campaigner, Matt Staniek, is here to show me

what a healthy river should look like.

So, right now, Michaela,

we are above Ambleside Wastewater Treatment Works

and we're below Grasmere Wastewater Treatment Works,

so, we still get things here like dippers,

and that means that the invertebrates are here

for them to feed on. And, now, we'll head further down

and I'll show you a river that's really, really enriched.

So, this... I mean, it looks beautiful, doesn't it?

Yeah, no, to the eye, it is.

It's always a sign of a healthy river

if you catch sight of birds like dippers,

as they feed on invertebrates and can only thrive in clean water.

Matt, you've lived here all your life,

you used to play in this river.

How much has it changed in just your lifetime?

You know, this is the reason I started the campaign,

was this river here, right in front of us.

I just saw a decline of it through the last three years.

But when I was a kid coming here, you'd walk into the water,

you know, you'd struggle to walk across the stones,

but then you'd be met around your feet by hundreds of fish,

and they'd be nibbling at your feet,

you'd be then walking through aquatic plants.

So, I've brought you down to...

We're actually further down from where we saw the dipper

and, as you can see, we're now right in front of

the storm overflow pipe, which is marked on

the Environment Agency's permit.

So, this pipe here, in essence, discharges sewage into that river.

So, basically, the quality of the water gets a lot worse from here on.

Yeah, so, above this pipe, you get the dippers.

Below this pipe, you don't get the dippers.

It's really quite as clear-cut as that.

No!

..crouch down here, knowing what comes out of there!

OK, let's go further on.

Algae, dense levels of tiny, green plants,

is something we may be used to seeing on

the surface of lakes and rivers. But algal bloom is different.

It's a toxic form of algae,

threatening health and biodiversity in Windermere.

So, we are now downstream of that pipe that I just showed you

and this is, you know, the result of all this sewage

that's going into Windermere.

On the river itself, it shows in a different way

to actually in the lake and what we see in the impact of the river is...

If I grab one of these rocks, can you see that slime?

Oh, it's covered in slime, isn't it?

It sits all on top of the rock and this is the big problem.

It's these algal blooms within the river that creates

a depletion of oxygen within the water.

So this, historically, is an Atlantic salmon spawning site.

So, the fish were to come up here

and they try to lay their eggs onto the water.

One, you get the physical barrier of the algae that sits on

the substrate and, two, if the eggs were lucky enough to get in

and amongst the rocks, the algae then takes

the oxygen away from the eggs and they're likely not to hatch

and that's just the fish themselves.

You know, you have the impacts of the algae on the invertebrates,

which is the fish food.

So, as you said, this goes into the lake.

All of the water within this catchment goes into Windermere Lake

and, for sewage, that now is sitting in Windermere,

creating all of these algal blooms,

through the nutrient that is phosphorus.

So, if it carries on, how bad will that be for the lake?

Well, on Windermere, we see these big blue-green algal blooms,

it then, again, similar principle,

it takes the oxygen out of the water, which then kills fish.

You know, this is a finite resource, freshwater,

and it's not being looked after by the government

and we are now paying the price for it.

You know, what is going to happen to Windermere?

And no-one knows, that's the problem.

Because not enough is being done to protect this and understand it.

Why are we letting that happen?

Well, I don't know, this is the thing.

This is what I can't understand.

Why are we seeing sewage within the national park

discharged into its lakes and rivers?

It's called the Lake District, it's named after the water

which brings millions upon millions of people here every single year.

And we're not protecting it, we are not standing up and saying,

"Actually, no, we shouldn't have

"any sewage discharged into these rivers."

And it's like, "What do we pay our water bill for?"

You know, since the start of privatisation,

it's been £72 billion paid to shareholders in dividends.

And that has not been reinvested into the infrastructure

and that's why we're seeing sewage still discharged

in 2022 into Windermere Lake.

The local water company, United Utilities, told us...

As I meet more people on my journey, I'm realising how much we need

and depend on the public to raise awareness

of what is going on in our environment.

It seems we can't wait for the government to take action.

Well, what an amazingly passionate campaigner Matt is.

And he's angry and who can blame him?

I mean, can you imagine if I suddenly squatted here

and took a dump in this lake?

People would be outraged. And rightly so.

But that is happening on a much bigger scale

and we should all be really outraged by that.

A lot of pollution in the waterways is difficult to see

if you've got an untrained eye,

but some of it is just a visual nightmare.

This is known as Wet Wipe Island and it's on the Thames,

just underneath Hammersmith Bridge and it's basically made up...

..of discarded wet wipes.

And, let me tell you, it is revolting.

The Thames runs for 210 miles

and passes through some of England's most scenic villages.

It's gone through many rebirths in its long evolution.

In Victorian times, it was a vast, foul-smelling drain,

with no oxygen, or life.

But thanks to the introduction of better sewage systems in the '60s

and the work of the Environment Agency,

it recovered and it's home to 125 species of fish.

But, today, a new environmental disaster is affecting it - plastics.

So, this just looks like mud here,

but it's actually where the Wet Wipe Island is. Oh, my word.

It's about 1.4m deep and it's two tennis court size,

or bigger, that they have found here.

I've come to meet Fleur Anderson, Labour MP for Putney,

who's trying to introduce a bill

to end the sale of wet wipes containing plastic.

It's so full of wet wipes, but, look here,

you can just see on the surface.

Look at that. You pull that, that looks like a rope,

or something.

It's actually just wet wipes.

So, it's just wet wipes all attached to each other.

And, because they are made of plastic, which...

You never think that wet wipes are really made of plastic,

but they are a single-use plastic,

they stick together and, you can see the wet wipe there,

you can see how it's not even disintegrating if I pull it.

And this will be here for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

So, Fleur, is this because people are flushing them down the toilet,

or is this because sewage is being leaked into the Thames?

Well, it's both.

To start with, people shouldn't flush wet wipes down the toilet.

And then it shows that what they're flushing down the toilet

is coming out here onto the Thames.

And if wet wipes are here, we know what else must be here

and it's quite disgusting, isn't it?

an environmental catastrophe for the river?

Absolutely, so, the plastic in the wet wipes actually

absorbs the bacteria, it's horrible for the environment,

dreadful for fish. It goes out into the oceans,

taking all of that with them, as well.

And it's changing the course of the River Thames.

So the River Thames is actually moving around this island.

It is an environmental catastrophe and, if it's not stopped,

it will just get worse and worse. Before COVID,

we were using 11-billion wet wipes in this country a year.

That's gone up enormously, so, it's got to be tackled,

otherwise there are going to be...

Islands like this are gonna just be commonplace near everyone.

What do you want to see happen, then?

I think it's really an easy action that should be taken quite urgently

to stop things like this happening.

So, I want to go back to the source and say to the producers

of these wet wipes to stop making them from plastic.

There are alternatives available, it's perfectly possible to swap

and lots are already, but I think plastic in wet wipes

should be banned and that's my bill that's going through Parliament.

This is actually really depressing.

I mean, this is a first-world country

and we've got an island forming

on the banks of the River Thames in the capital, London,

and it's made out of bacteria and discarded wet wipes.

I mean, it's just depressing and it's disgusting.

This summer, Water UK,

the body that represents the UK water industry apologised, saying...

They announced they will spend £10 billion on modernising sewers.

Launching an environmental hub to give real-time information

on overflows,

and will support up to 100 communities

to create new, protected waters for swimming and recreation.

Our rivers and lakes are a national treasure,

an irreplaceable natural resource.

We should be taking care of them.

Sometimes, it does seem like it's not the people paid

the healthy salaries that make the changes,

but those impressive campaigners

that are fuelled just by their passion

and a sense of injustice that force the change to happen.

And what they've taught me is that action really can lead to change.

At the River Wharfe in Yorkshire,

Becky and the Ilkley Clean River Group campaigned

and succeeded in getting bathing status for one stretch of the river,

which means the Environment Agency

will have to do more regular water testing.

So, we had around 500 people contribute to

our bathing status application. We've got a lot of volunteers!

And, let's be clear, whilst we're campaigning for Ilkley,

we're only doing it as a case study for the country.

Because it's beautiful here and we've, luckily,

got the resources in the town to test the water,

to campaign, to make it very obvious.

We're lucky we can do that here.

But we are doing it on behalf the country.

This has inspired other groups around the country

to campaign for their rivers to be tested.

Activists like Mark continue to document

the decline to raise awareness.

It's the same thing with rivers, they're always overused,

overlooked and undervalued.

And it's on your doorstep and they...

Literally, when I'm in the water, it is magical.

You went to this world which accepts you for who you are

and you become part of the flow

and you become part of something absolutely magical.

And, in the Lake District,

Matt Staniek is tirelessly monitoring

the health of Lake Windermere,

asking tough questions of regulators

as to why a lake so precious is polluted.

I mean, look at this, it's the jewel in the crown

of the national park. England's largest lake.

And, on Teesside, Sally Bunce is set to organise another series

of Reclaim Our Sea protests.

The overwhelming response we've had of people saying

"We want to do this again, we want to get involved

"and we're in the middle of the country, what can we do?"

So we are going to roll this out now around

the whole of the United Kingdom.

And we're going to have people linking hands

and forming this chain of solidarity along rivers,

cos all rivers lead to the sea.

And all the way around the United Kingdom,

it doesn't matter if it's three people on a beach,

or it's 1,000 people on a beach,

collectively, it's a very powerful voice

and it's a very powerful visual image.

And the support we're having for this is just mind blowing.

Absolutely mind blowing.

We know that getting out into nature improves our mental health.

Rivers are so precious, for us, for wildlife and the ecosystem.

You might think you can't make a difference,

but these campaigners have proved that you can.

And things do have to change,

because it's not going to get any better and it affects us all.

Quite frankly, as I've discovered on this journey,

this is a really shitty, stinky mess that needs to be cleared up.