Love The Lea

I thought Wick Village residents would be interested to know about Thames 21 charity's 'Love the Lea' campaign to clean up our beloved river.

'Thames21, London’s leading waterways charity, has launched the next stage of its ‘Love the Lea’ campaign to make East London’s rivers healthy.

The charity is calling on the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, his appointed body for sustainable drainage Drain London and all local authorities to implement and champion three solutions it says can make the biggest difference.

East London’s rivers are the most polluted in Britain, running with high levels of e-coli sewage bacteria, waste water from people’s homes and poisonous oils and chemicals from our roads.

This polluted water flows down the Lea Valley past the homes of thousands of people, reducing the quality of the rivers they enjoy. It flows down the Lea through the soon-to-open Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which should become a much-needed accessible green heart in East London. However, a heart cannot be strong if its arteries are poisoned - for the Olympic Park to realise its full potential, the rivers that run through it must be healthy.

Thames21 is pushing for 3 solutions for action on the River Lea Catchment:

1.     A comprehensive network of green drainage systems across North East London - to extend the life of the Deephams Sewage Treatment Works upgrade.

2.     Building Control Departments in Local Authorities and approved inspectors to regulate and prevent misconnections where waste water from homes pollutes local rivers.

3.     Reduce road run-off that sees rivers poisoned with chemicals and dirt every time it rains by building rain gardens in unused car parking spaces and roadside verges.

Thames21’s Love the Lea campaign coordinator Theo Thomas says “If London can begin to introduce these progressive solutions, it would change the way we treat our rivers and pollute our water. Every rain garden, wetland, and green channel we can create will help make our rivers a little healthier and we will make East London a greener, bluer, better place to live.”

To add your voice to Thames21’s call, join our Love the lea Campaign www.thames21.org.uk/project/lovethelea and call for a comprehensive network of natural drainage systems in the comments field on the Drain London website: http://www.london.gov.uk/drain-london

To find out more visit: http://www.thames21.org.uk/project/love-the-lea/ like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lovethelea'