Open letter to The Guardian

Save Lea Marshes is a campaign group dedicated to preserving the marshes in the Lower Lee Valley for wildlife and future generations. We were pleased to see the extensive and important coverage given to the issue of sewage pollution by The Guardian last week: ‘Water firms discharged raw sewage into English waters 400,000 times last year’.

The article revealed local water company Thames Water spent 215,886 hours discharging untreated sewage into rivers. Many of these spills were into the River Lea, one of the most polluted rivers in the UK, and its tributaries, via Combined Sewage Overflows.

The River Lea runs through the heart of the Lee Valley marshes and it is here we have witnessed the devastating impact of untreated sewage spills and extensive plastic pollution, as well as frequent industrial pollution incidents. Most summers, huge stretches of the river, from Tottenham to Hackney, have been strewn with dead fish, choked by oil or suffocated due to lack of oxygen. Recently, local people have photographed plastic and sewage debris hanging from trees and bushes all along the river. Many have taken it upon themselves to haul out fly-tipped waste, plastic and sanitary products, as the water company and river authorities have stood by, deaf to our appeals to take action. It has been both disgusting and heart breaking to witness.

We were, therefore, dumbfounded to see ‘Escaping the pandemic: East London’s secret paradise – in pictures’ appear in The Guardian today (07/04/21). The photos depict people happily assembling on the banks of the River Lea, swimming and splashing about in the river; there is even a photo of a baby floating on the heavily polluted waters.

The tone is light and the portrayal is misleading. Firstly, this location is not ‘secret’. As a result of hundreds of people travelling here and assembling daily on the banks of the river throughout the spring and summer of 2020, drawn by media content such as this, many wildlife species were disturbed and failed to breed successfully. This includes Red List kingfishers, who abandoned their nest, and little owls who abandoned their young because of the volume of people and the noise of the huge crowds. One of the photos in the piece sympathetically recounts someone turning on a large amplified sound system at this important site for nature conservation without thought for the consequences.

This is a fragile river habitat and not a beach. Photographs of people with inflatable beach gear and posing in bikinis gives the impression that this is an alternative beach destination. In fact, using this area as a ‘beach’ has led to serious compaction of the river banks; they should be covered in vegetation and are now bare and lifeless. A beautiful mature tree was cut down by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority because a man broke his hip while using it as a swing and had to be taken to hospital. Fire engines were called out when people’s barbeques got out of control and set fire to the woodland – had this happened on the meadow on the opposite bank, the whole area could have been destroyed, with long term and devastating consequences for wildlife.

Promoting this area as a party destination obscures the real and serious damage to the environment and wildlife caused by large crowds assembling here.

Depicting people swimming and splashing in the river makes people think the water is safe enough to swim in, especially if young children or babies are shown in the water. In fact, water with a high concentration of faecal bacteria poses a serious risk to human health from shigella, salmonella, E-coli and norovirus. This year has shown us that we all need to look after our health – not just for our own sake but for the sake of our communities, as well as protect the places that sustain us.

We ask that you retract this piece or publish letters from the local community alongside it, so your readers have a true awareness of the whole picture, including all the ugly facts that your latest piece fails to mention.

Save Lea Marshes