Clean rivers campaigner praises citizen scientists

ABOUT 40 people celebrated the work of citizen scientists at an event at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley.

They also took part in a water quality testing session with a woman who is walking from the source of the River Thames to the sea and had stopped off specially.

Li An Phoa, founder of Drinkable Rivers, has been testing samples with the help of local people as she walks.

On Saturday, she joined forces with Thames21, which is campaigning for bathing water designation status for Henley, for the event at the museum in Mill Meadows.

Aggie Hodges, of Thames21, revealed the results of the weekly water quality sampling that its citizen scientists carried out between mid-May and September.

These showed that the status at the sampling points at Henley Bridge, Mill Meadows, Marsh Lock Bridge, Loddon Bridge and Sonning Bridge was poor with regard to levels of E. coli and enterococci.

Ms Phoa spoke about her walk, which she began 13 days earlier in Kemble in Gloucestershire with her partner, Maarten van der Schaaf.

The couple, who are from the Netherlands, hope to complete the 350km walk at Allhallows in Kent on October 17. During the walk, they have been joined by almost 300 people, who either walked with them or took part in sampling.

Ms Phoa said: “We’re so happy that our invitations were clear so people could show their interest and support. In London there will be larger groups but it’s not just the numbers but also the diversity of people.”

She said a highlight of their walk had been seeing an otter on the Hardwick Estate in Whitchurch.

Ms Phoa said: “We were a little group, about seven of us, in the middle of the day sitting and waiting to be picked up and we saw it swimming by. A man in a canoe said, ‘You lucky b*****ds’.

“We saw kingfishers on two consecutive days. You get these little glimpses.” They also saw dragonflies which she said were a sign of healthy water where plants and larvae could grow. Ms Phoa said: “The otters, the kingfishers and the dragonflies don’t have the privilege or the choice of having the water cleaned before they use it. They are playing their part in maintaining balance in the system.”

She has previously walked 18,000km following three rivers from their source to the sea.

She showed a short film, called Long Walk to a Drinkable River, about her walk along the River Meuse from France into the Netherlands and the people she had met along the way, including fishermen and farmers.

This was followed by a question and answer session. Issues raised included housebuilding around Wargrave, the capacity of the Wargrave sewage plant and the regular flooding of the River Loddon.

Ms Phoa said: “A lot of people came, wild swimmers, rowers and paddleboarders who love the river and they shared their concerns. We heard the same story again and again.”

A small group went to the river to take samples. They measured the pH of the water, noted the smell and colour, and looked for pieces of plastic in the water and on the river bank. Other indicators included the presence of nitrate and chlorine in the water. Ms Phoa’s tests also showed the presence of E. coli.

David Dickie, a clean air campaigner, and town councillor Sara Kandiah took part. Mr Dickie said: “The quality of the water in the river is important to everyone. I’m amazed it’s taking a Dutch lady walking the length of the river to find out what’s going on. It’s deteriorating. The river is a whole ecosystem and not something to dump stuff in.”

Paul Lindley, chancellor of Reading University and founder and former chief executive of children’s food company Ella’s Kitchen, hosted the couple at his home in Fawley on Saturday night and joined them on their walk to Marlow the following day.

He said: “The river here in this part of the world is vital to our economy, to our community and to our environment and those three things are always interconnected.

“What Li An is doing is raising awareness of the vitality of the river to Henley. She’s talking about the environment, she’s talking about our economy locally and our community and our wellbeing.

“It’s so easy, I think, for us to take for granted our beautiful river, which we get so much joy out of, and how fragile it is.”

To see the results of the testing, visit: https://data.drinkablerivers.org/

Ms Phoa’s walk will be featured on BBC1 at 10.30am on Sunday on Politics South.