Why is the river thames so dirty
Cleaning Up The Thames For Good | Energy Live News
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you might not know it but every time you
flush the toilet you could be polluting
the River Thames sewage can either go
into the streets or it can go into the
river
we have bumped our way through turds
going up folk Creek Thames water says it
has a solution in the form of the Thames
Tideway tunnel tunnel we'll create a new
space for the sewage that's what London
eats of course everything comes with a
price tag and this super sewer is
expected to cost us 4.2 billion
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I feel the government should fund it
it's nothing to do with the little
companies that should be out in our
taxes in our rate whatever the answer
the project is already well underway
but will it clean up the Thames for good
so this is the River Thames and
unfortunately when we flush the toilet
this is where a lot of the sewage ends
up so that's mainly because London's
sewer system was designed and built 150
years ago squarely in the Victorian era
London's population was way way smaller
nowadays there's a lot more people
living here and going for their daily
ritual number ones and twos and
unfortunately this amount of sewage
can't be handled by the system and a lot
of it flows into the river right here
the situation used to be a lot worse
there was something called the big stink
where the river was so polluted that
poisonous gases were pouring off it
stinging people's eyes burning their
throats and even harming their health
obviously I'm standing here today I
haven't keeled over just yet so the
situation is improving but it's still
not perfect at 215 miles long the Thames
is the longest river in England over
this distance it provides a home to more
than a hundred species of fish
however these habitats are threatened by
the 39 million tonnes of raw sewage
pouring into the river every year
someone who knows only too well about
the terrible tide of pollution is
fisherman Keith Arthur I've sat here
many years ago now when the sewage from
Han
actually went into the river and we used
to call condoms Thames trout we'd catch
and they'd catch around our weight so
another Thames trout and and if the
river was flowing quite hard and we were
ledgering which is a still bate further
out and said
you'd wind in and there be shreds of
toilet paper all the way down the line
snow you want no it's completely
unacceptable I'll go back a long time
for that 35 40 years but now that still
happens it's hard to explain it's it's
chronically cleaner and it's critically
worse because there's less flow when we
do get a sewage incident which is it
only needs a decent shower arraign
unbelievably for raw sewage to come into
the river Forex take Hammersmith for
example you get a 20 minute half an hour
maybe heavy thundery shower that will
inundate the sewage works and the sewage
can either go into the streets or it can
go into the river when it goes into the
river to 85 90 percent of the population
it's invisible they don't know and what
they don't know they can't care about if
it went onto the streets 100 percent of
the population would be an uproar but if
you were paddling out of your front door
through well the stuff that goes down
the lavatory basically if you were
pedaling through that you would want
something done about it
and us as anglers we paddle in it we
fish in it anglers aren't the only ones
affected with each stroke rowers like
this would be taking a risk downstream
at Greenwich Yacht Club people on the
water have been dealing with this issue
for a long time I know all about how bad
it can get
it's cleaner than it used to be that's
the easiest thing to say in the six days
racing in dinghies on the river was an
annual day and if you went in it was
three days in hospital and there were no
fish it's not like that anymore
none of our rowing crew have ever fallen
in in 11 years and I intend to keep it
that way
if you dip your sleeve in the water that
piece of clothing goes in the wash if
you eat a sandwich you must keep it
wrapped up so it doesn't touch your hand
whilst you eating it peter is the
coxswain at the club which has more than
400 members who are regularly involved
with a range of activities on the water
the man in charge
Commodore nicht
believes a real transformation is needed
pollution is clearly really important to
us I mean I remember you've seen in the
background where there's thousands of
apartments now on the Riverside here
that weren't there before and every day
every single person living in those
apartments goes to the smallest room in
the house and the consequences have to
go somewhere you can imagine that the
infrastructure wasn't there to support
that kind of density our brisance so
it's really important to us particularly
here that the river should be clean I've
been in the water myself for 45 minutes
one day trying to get my dinghy back out
right again refusing to accept help
determined to do it and I started up
there and ended up down there and took a
mouthful of water what did it taste like
did you get ill I'm not telling you I
didn't get ill or my wife was convinced
that it would probably kill me but that
was fine but it clearly there's a health
risk health was the reason London's
original sewers were built in the first
place
between 1830 and 1860 tens of thousands
of people died of cholera as a result of
sewage being discharged directly into
the water they used to wash bathe and
drink from when the pleasure boat
Princess Alice sunk in the river after a
collision most of the 600 or so
passengers who were killed that I've not
from drowning but because of the
pollution in the water
Victorian architectures if basil gem was
tasked to help the city clean up its act
he designed and built 82 miles of
enclosed brick sewers and 1100 miles of
street sewers to stop sewage and the
diseases it brings covering the streets
of London more than a century later
these sewers are now unable to cope with
the demands of a modern capital city so
in 2016
Thames Water started building their
successor
so I'm standing at the top of the lift
shaft of the Thames Tideway tunnel and
it's a far cry from London's original
sewer systems which were built in the
19th century from broth ground you might
not even be able to tell that the sewer
system is actually here but why is the
4.2 billion pound project so important
the massive tunnel will run 16 miles
from Acton in West London to Abbie Mills
in the east it would take a car
traveling at 40 miles an hour nearly
half an hour to drive down it it will be
7.2 meters wide in diameter the width of
an average UK Road and it will be buried
between 35 meters and 65 meters
underground so the scale is impressive
but what exactly will it do
one of our TV ends on this side TV
understands with tunnel-boring machine
and it will be actually creating our
tunnels 25 kilometers in total but these
two about an 11 come to drive between
them so that will actually join up to
all the different sewage networks across
London and that will be a new space for
the search for Victorian and sewage
system silver use but this would be a
bigger new version it's one of the
largest construction projects London has
ever seen but many of the city's
residents aren't even aware of what's
happening just below their feet so you
have something like a new railway line
it's visible change but the the change
will never be visible but the actual
environmental side of it the impact it's
going to have and we use this term
reconnect in London with the River
Thames I think that's so true
because although the Thames is still
part of our everyday life it's not in
the right condition it needs to be and
that's not really acceptable so I think
it will change in the sense that it will
have a better impact on London about our
outlook on London a city that's
ever-growing and it's sort of taking
care of the environment and one of our
biggest assets the river so massive
impact I think the first part of the
tunnel has been completed and it's
already having an effect there is a
pumping station at the top of both
creeks that's the foot of the river
valley which takes the northern outfall
sewer and reboots it to go the last
journey to Becton before they put the
new super sewer and it's the first bit
of the Tideway tunnel really from three
mills down to Becton the all the
overflow used to go in measured in
millions of tonnes into bow Creek and we
yes we have bumped our way through turds
going up both Creek if it had been
raining heavily it is now much cleaner
we've seen kingfishers there the seal
was seen there a couple of weeks ago not
all the way up but getting up that way
we've seen seals as far upstream as Lion
house I've myself have eaten a sieve a
skort Bullock and I've seen shrimps and
crabs
living under the slipway just down here
I think it's a cure unless there's a
breakdown that shouldn't right now
because all this is a big hole that's
gonna be carrying rubbish so unless
something breaks down from where it
comes from our lavatory and goes into
that big tunnel
it's not going to impact on the river
anymore it's going to be carried down to
Tibet some work so it's going to be
treated and it is going and this is a
very strong word to use but in my
opinion it will honestly eradicate the
problem that's certainly a bold
statement but if it is to eradicate the
issue of sewage it's sure to come at a
cost
do you think it's worth you know the
massive investment that it's gonna cost
absolutely yeah I do I know there's a
bit of fuss about that but it what has
to be has to be but what about the
general public right here on the streets
of London they'll be paying for the
project through their water bills so we
asked them what they thought about it
I don't mind paying that amount of money
at all no I mean the amounts of cherish
that go to the thames and that sort of
thing don't they all do Tower Bridge and
everything on the Thames oh I don't
think they'd be impressed with a load of
Swedes wandering around the river so no
I'd be quite happy to pay you for it
yeah I feel the government should fund
it it's nothing to do with the water
companies that should be out in our
taxis in our rates and I don't know why
the government aren't funding something
to maintain a city it should be their
responsibility they can't have it off to
private water companies each region has
its own area of concern for London it's
the Thames for coastal regions it's the
coast canals you have the canal ways I
think we should all be paying for the
parts of the world that we live in
yes it's important that it's clean and
and looks clean no one wants sewage
flowing in a river that's going through
the middle of a city sometimes these
projects run so high over cost you know
and it one wonders whether it would have
been easier to put a pipe or drop a long
pipe along the Thames was inside and
under the water but the experts appear
to know we just patch things up we need
to really you know build infrastructure
that's solid and it will last so it
makes it economical and financial sense
we all benefit that way as the river
moves on the Thames Tideway tunnel is
just another chapter but one that could
potentially make life far better for
generations to come
so in 20 years time what kind of river
could we expect to see
if I'm still around I just hope it will
be better that's all
I don't think we'll be diving in the
swimming they're less smell less
unsightly sights along the shores no
condoms on the beach for example better
health yeah you know we're continually
piling people onto the planet aren't we
and especially within the m25 and and
especially around the river so there are
going to be more and more people but
it's a pretty big tunnel it will take a
lot of poo to fill it yeah it'll be a
huge difference I mean it's already
pretty clean the river as rivers go I
think worldwide in the middle of great
conurbations like this but eh yeah it
will make a massive difference and the
fishermen amongst us I think will be
also very happy
