Extinction Rebellion holds protests in Bewdley and Stourport

Extinction Rebellion Wyre Forest staged demonstrations as part of its Dirty Water campaign on Saturday (January 28) to draw attention to the "shocking state of our waterways."

As part of the protest, the group installed blue satirical plaques in Bewdley and Stourport which read “Mark Garnier MP Voted to block a law requiring water companies to dump less raw sewage in our waterways and seas, 20th Oct 2021”.

The campaign featured a mannequin resembling the Wyre Forest MP sitting on a toilet, with campaigners offering fake edible “poo” to passers-by.

Extinction Rebellion Wyre Forest has highlighted a Rivers Trust report, claiming that in 2021 there were at least 1213 hours of sewage discharge from five different sites on the river Severn between Bridgnorth and Stourport. They claim that between Kinver and Stourport there were known to be at least 3912 hours of discharge from 7 sites along the river Stour.

They added that current funding levels have led to the Environment Agency putting back the target date for the clean-up of all of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters from 2027 to 2063.

The campaign stand in Stourport, featuring a mannequin of MP Mark Garnier (Image: Extinction Rebellion Wyre Forest)

Dee Edwards, aged 68, who is a retired domestic violence co-ordinator from Bewdley, said: “The plaques highlight the government’s failure to tighten environmental regulations and stop profit-grabbing by water companies.

"Our survey shows that people are overwhelmingly concerned, although many found pollution levels were worse than they thought, and not one person felt the Government was doing enough, quickly enough, to clean up our rivers".

James Richards, aged 62, a retired fire service watch commander, said: "The Government will acknowledge that the level of untreated sewage in our waterways is unacceptable but their own response is also unacceptable. Their actions show insufficient urgency.

"We need everyone who cares about our rivers and seas to stand up with us and speak out. Today is just the first part of a bigger “Dirty Water” campaign initiated by Extinction Rebellion to protect nature and our waterways.”

The satirical blue plaque (Image: Extinction Rebellion Wyre Forest)

MP Mark Garnier said he was "baffled" by the demonstrations.

He said: "The vote our friends at XR (Extinction Rebellion) are referring to was an amendment put forward by hereditary peer the Duke of Wellington, who in a peculiar piece of virtue signalling wanted to immediately ban all water companies from allowing storm overflows to go into rivers. This is something that has been around for as long as there have been water supplies and drainage and sewerage.

"Whilst a nice aim, it was simply not practical. To follow the amendment would be to create colossal backflows of sewerage at times of floodwater, leading to severe damage to residential areas. Moreover, to try to invest immediately to deliver the desired outcome would result in an immediate bill of up to £26,000 per household across the UK.

"The Environment Act, as I and Government backbenchers voted for, require water companies to phase out stormwater discharges. The Act, amongst other things, imposes a legal duty - for the first time ever - to reduce their discharges and to develop a plan to do so. Indeed, we recently voted to implement measurement of the success of these plans".