press release
    25th November 2004

Campaign boat race sheds light on raw sewage nightmare

Tuesday 23rd November saw two crews of rowers challenging each other on the Thames tideway at Putney Embankment to a race with a peculiarly modern flavour. From the starting horn the two rowing eights burst off the start line for an 800m sprint on the stretch of water most famous for the Oxford/Cambridge boat race.

Both boats towed a 14' inflatable faeces and the crews were clad in gas masks as a demonstration against the unacceptable levels of pollution in the river, that came to the attention this summer after several large discharges killed most of the life in the river. Unsurprisingly, it is also pretty unpleasant for all users of the river as well as representing a significant health risk and it reflects badly on a choice for the 2012 Olympics in London. The red BioHaz team stormed to victory at Putney bridge leaving the blue GasHaz team fuming in their wake. There was some talk of race fixing as the GasHaz faecal inflatable looked decidedly sick and was not running in the water at all cleanly.

A 320 strong petition from river users was delivered to the offices of the Department of the Environment afterwards. Surfers Against Sewage joined forces with Rowers Against Thames Sewage (RATS) to mount a protest at the abuse of the river which receives 20 million tons of sewage discharges every year. It is as a direct result of lack of investment in modernising and expanding London's sewage system to bring it into line with 1991 EU directives, and not controlling discharges into the river caused by the antiquated Victorian system's inability to be able to cope with the increased load from comparatively minor rainfall.

Works on the sewage treatment works start next year, but with a completion date of 2012 and no plans to tackle the discharges into the river, conditions are going to get worse putting into doubt the ability of the river's ecosystem to recover from each event. Look out for further actions from SAS and Rats to clean up the Thames!

For further information or stills please contact Richard Hardy on Tel: 0845 4583001 or RATS co-ordinator Anatole Beams on

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