Protecting Wild Waters
Do you swim in your local river or lake, and want to take steps to improve it’s water quality? Take action and apply for bathing water designation with our support.
The Government is reforming the Bathing Water Regulations for the first time in over a decade. And we need your help.
Sign our open letter to the UK Government to demand that Bathing Waters become Recreational Waters.
The government in England and Wales have plans down the road to expand the definition of a ‘bather’ to all water users when considering waterways as new bathing waters. The current outdated legislation means surfers, kayakers, paddleboarders and anyone else using the water in any other way than ‘bathing’, do not count and are therefore not protected. If all water users are considered when approving official bathing waters, more locations can be designated as bathing waters. And critically, it means everyone’s health will be counted.
How can you help?
We want to use people power to show the government that they need to be ambitious in introducing Recreational Waters immediately and not push plans down the road. With your support, we can evidence to the Minister for Water exactly how many water users are currently being let down by legislation and ignored. We will do this by showing the diversity of people using our rivers, lakes and beaches. We’re asking water sport clubs, National Governing Bodies for water sports, water sport businesses and individual water users to sign on to the open letter and tell us how many water users you represent. Demonstrating the number of water users will support our demands to the Government and illustrate how many people the legislation is currently ignoring.
- Read our open letter
- Complete the short form with your name, email, location, club/organisation logo (if you have one) and how many water users you represent.
- Share with other water user groups in your network. Use our social media pack to help spread the word.
What next?
We will hand in the letter to the Minister for Water with your signatures/logos and invite them to meet us at a beach, river or lake to demonstrate how our waterways are actually used.
What if you are a water user in Scotland or Northern Ireland?
We will very soon be launching campaign action to demand fit for purpose bathing water legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Watch this space.
