Drums, boats, and banner over Westminster Bridge: Extinction Rebellion hold ceremonies of love and connection for the River Thames in London
August 30, 2025 by Extinction Rebellion
| Date: 30th August 2025 Press contact: Dorothea Hackman 07301299930 saveeustontrees@gmail.com First Photos and Video: https://t.me/+7Owp8nddDCJhNzY0 Press selection: https://show.pics.io/xr-global-media-breaking-news/search?collectionIds=68aed8b34643ff06f47e6e60 From 10am this morning, Extinction Rebellion will march in a procession from Tower Bridge, drumming in mourning for the pollution of the Thames. An enormous banner will be dropped demanding “STOP POLLUTING OUR RIVERS” as Extinction Rebellion’s Red Rebels grieve on Westminster Bridge. In honour of the River Thames, ceremonies will call up the spirit of love for this great river. From Limehouse to Westminster to Thames Beach; sailing boats, drummers, ceremonies, rituals, red rebels and a water procession will honour the water without which there is no life. Two dramatic and spiritual water ceremonies highlight the day – at Tower Bridge an embodiment ceremony marked the start of a water procession to Thames Beach, where at low tide a Sacred Earth Dedication ceremony with songs, wreaths and dance will convey humanity’s never ending confluence with our rivers. England has some of the filthiest rivers in Europe. The World Water Wedding campaign is inspired by writer and campaigner Meg Avon from Bristol, who married the River Avon and took its name in 2023 to raise awareness of the gruesome condition of the river, which, like most water bodies in the UK, is choked with sewage, chemicals, and other pollution, making it unsafe for swimmers, watersports, and wildlife]. Feargal Sharkey, OBE, singer and environmentalist, said “They (Thames water) took £84 billion in dividends and created £74 billion of debt. We’ve been cheated. There is no pollution control in this country anymore, the companies are out of control.” [17] Ned Wells, Oxfordshire Clean rivers Initiative, from Oxford, also served by Thames Water, said “Water is life. UK water companies provide essential services with no competition. And it’s been profitable: Thames Water alone has paid out nearly £7.2 billion in dividends since privatisation…At the same time Thames Water has built up £19 billion of debt – not because it needed to, but because using debt cut its tax bill while still allowing big dividend payouts. Now it is asking for a £3 billion bailout just to keep operating…It’s time to get away from the ‘illegally polluting for profit’ business model. A special administration arrangement would stop payouts to investors, and let the company’s staff get on with fixing its broken estate.” Since Meg’s wedding, the state of the UK’s waterways has remained dire: an estimated 994,499 sewage discharges into rivers and other water bodies occurred in 2024: almost one discharge every 30 seconds]. The amount of sewage entering the water has been increasing year after year, and rose 60% in 2024, reaching the point of crisis. The water weddings symbolise peoples’ love for and lifelong commitment to protect their local water bodies, and they can be seen as part of the wider movement of campaigning for the rights of nature and shifting the dial towards an equitable partnership with our ecosystems. Water is Life. Notes From the 24th August to 24th September, Extinction Rebellion’s Dirty Water Campaign is launching the World Water Wedding with a range of actions intended for people to pledge their troth to protect rivers and water bodies across the country. The campaign will build up into next year to a global day of action on World Water Day, 22nd March 2026, where people around the world will commit to safeguard water by ‘marrying’ their local water source in mass weddings and commit to its care for life. There is mounting public outrage over what has become known as ‘The Thames Water Scandal’. In May this year, these issues resulted in a £104 million fine for environmental failures and misleading the regulator, alongside a £18.2 million penalty for improper dividend payments. These are the biggest ever fines issued by the water industry regulator Ofwat. [7] Thames Water discharged approximately 300,000 hours of raw sewage from its ageing sewage works in 2024 alone. [8]“Sewage is being dumped right under MPs’ noses and still there’s been no meaningful action to tackle the root cause of the problem: the greed of water companies’ owners”, said Good Law’s Project’s executive director, Jo Maugham in April this year. [9] Water companies are legally allowed to discharge untreated wastewater through sewer overflows during periods of heavy rain, but they have started to do so with alarming frequency [10] and not only when raining. A 2025 study found that England’s major water and sewage companies have been misleading the public and Government by using duplicitous greenwashing and disinformation strategies which mirror those of the tobacco and fossil fuel industries [11]. Thousands of people fall sick in the UK each year after swimming, watersports, or other contact with polluted water [12]. The broken water system has also resulted in contaminated drinking water [13]. Moreover, polluted and ecologically barren water bodies are a significant cause of the biodiversity crisis, failing to provide a healthy habitat for invertebrates, fish, birds, and mammals [14]. Sources [1] England has some of the filthiest rivers in Europe – and these maps prove it [2 ] ‘I married the River Avon – it has changed my life’ [3] Water pollution: facts & figures – Surfers Against Sewage [4] Water pollution: facts & figures – Surfers Against Sewage [5] Environment Agency storm overflow spill data for 2024 – GOV.UK [6] Serious water pollution in England up 60%, government says [7] Thames Water fined £122.7m in biggest ever penalty [8] Thames Water data reveals raw sewage discharges in rivers rose 50% in 2024 [9] The failing water company has been showing its appreciation for MPs by dumping 37 days’ worth of raw sewage into the Thames only a stone’s throw from the Palace of Westminster. [10] Water pollution: facts & figures – Surfers Against Sewage [11] Water industry using deception tactics to deflect blame for sewage pollution [12] Water pollution: facts & figures – Surfers Against Sewage [13] Should we be worried about our drinking water? | Science, Climate & Tech News | Sky News [14] New study finds that sewage release is worse for rivers than agriculture | University of Oxford [15] England’s River Ouse makes history as first to gain legal rights – Oceanographic [16] Environmentalist becomes first juror to swear oath on river water | Rivers | The Guardian [17] facebook.com/watch?v=3086017634910235 Feargal Sharkey How can England possibly be running out of water? About Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.Donate | Support our work What Emergency? | Read about the true scale of the climate crisis Why Citizens’ Assemblies? | Breaking the political deadlock XR UK Local Groups | View a map of all local groups XR UK website | Find out more about XR UK XR Global website | Discover what’s going on in XR around the globeTime has almost entirely run out to address the climate and ecological crisis which is upon us, including the sixth mass species extinction, global pollution, and increasingly rapid climate change. If urgent and radical action isn’t taken, we’re heading towards 4˚C warming, leading to societal collapse and mass loss of life. The younger generation, racially marginalised communities and the Global South are on the frontline. No one will escape the devastating impacts. Examples of personal quotes Meg Avon, who married the River Avon in 2023, said, “As the UK’s first known river bride, I am so excited to no longer be alone in my role of unconventional wedding bliss! Having a wedding and becoming married to water is such a beautiful way of stepping forward as a guardian – it can be as public or personal as you want it to be. I believe that every ceremony is a story, and many ceremonies of similar intention have the power to change the law. We are becoming kin with our landscape and natural entities once again and the timing has never been more perfect.” Denise Ashurst, from Cwmcarn in the Welsh Valleys, 61 years old and unemployed, said “I am regularly charmed by rain and dew, whenever walking with my dog in local woods. My face brushing dew from leaves, or listening to rain drumming my body as I walk below the trees make me feel open-hearted and full of love, so I’m committing to learning more about what makes this relationship work.” Ned Evans, a 60 year old teacher from Holmfirth, said “I have the most beautiful reservoirs near me in West Yorkshire which serve as vital water sources and are important for overwintering bird populations, including the protected red kite species. The reservoir levels are at a historic low for August, standing at 42.2% capacity, significantly below the usual range of 65% to 80% for this time of year, due to a prolonged drought and the driest spring and summer on record. As far as I know, this recent lack of rainfall is due to the climate emergency and increasing temperatures disrupting weather patterns, which likely means the levels will get lower each year and that leads to higher concentrations of impurities as the volume of water decreases. Water for me means life and I find it heartbreaking to see how much our pollution is damaging water and wildlife so I’ve decided to join the World Water Wedding campaign and commit to protect water. I’m going to hold a quiet personal ceremony by the edge of my nearest local reservoir, Winscar, on the 24th August and then send out my wedding invites to everyone I know to get dressed up and join me on World Water Day, Sunday 22nd March 2026, for a fun and joyous celebration of water. Steve Conlon, 70, a retired IT Manager from Twickenham, said “I have lived in a boat on the tidal Thames for nearly thirty years now and I love it, but discovering sewage pollution locally was very distressing. Becoming aware of the real scale of what was happening was heart-breaking. I have learned that critical water issues, from conservation, ecology, pollution, flooding and drought as well as corrupt utilities and ideology-fixated politicians, are interlinked. We need to pay attention to all of them together. This interdependence was addressed by Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the Rivers Trust, who was quoted in the Guardian [14] this week about our current water shortages, ‘We need to build more resilience into our rivers and their catchment areas with nature-based solutions at scale, such as healthy soils that allow water to filter into the ground and not rush off taking the soil with it; riverside tree planting to provide shade and further slow the flow of water; wetlands to store and slowly release water, and rewiggling streams to raise the water table and purify pollutants.’ If we attend properly to water throughout our environment, that is a true collective act of love, and an affirmation of life.” |