from sewage to solidarity: How Bristol GNDR are fighting for public water 🌊

At the end of 2024, after all the hard work we had put in during the General Election, we were feeling energised by the success of helping to elect Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party and one of our Green New Deal Champions, as MP for Bristol Central. This huge success had brought many new members to the Green New Deal Rising Bristol group and we started to think “What next?”. With so many areas of GNDR’s demands to focus on, we put our heads together at a strategy day. The day was fuelled with energy and optimism and we saw a key opportunity in which we could make a difference to our own city as well as helping meet the demands of GNDR.

In line with our demands for a green and just transition, we decided to focus much of our energy in 2025 on campaigning for the end of private ownership of water, asking key polluters and Government departments to recognise water as a public good.

We know public trust in water companies is lower than ever, and this isn’t surprising given that 75% of the UK’s rivers pose a threat to human health. Not only does poor water quality affect us, but it affects the rest of nature, too; only 14% of English rivers are at a Good Ecological Status, according to the Water Framework Directive. And yet we are faced with another rise in water bills, whilst the health of our waterways continues to decline. Clearly, something isn’t working. With the River Avon the third most polluted river in England, this issue was close to the hearts of many of us within the Bristol group, and planning got properly under way. Very quickly, we had some exciting actions planned and, thanks to an arts and crafts session, some fun props.

And what better way to show our love for our rivers than to ask key employees in DEFRA, the Environment Agency, and Natural England to use their power to help us bring water back into public ownership?

On a freezing morning on Valentine’s day, we came together outside the Bristol offices of DEFRA, the Environment Agency, and Natural England. After a check-in, in which we all agreed that we were excited but slightly nervous, we personally delivered our hand-written Valentine’s cards. The office reception accepted our letters and promised to deliver them. But they weren’t so keen on drinking from the water cooler containing dirty water from the River Avon that we also delivered.

So, we took the water cooler to the public! We had water cooler chats about the state of our rivers, and the need for public ownership. People were overwhelmingly on board, and most knew that this issue was a greed-driven problem, with many environmental consequences. We were also very grateful to be joined by Enviral, who have created a vox pop to capture the opinions of the public.

Private water companies continue to make an astounding profit from polluting our rivers and seas. Between them, Wessex Water and South West Water provide water to 5 million customers in the South West, but have discharged over 943,000 hours of raw sewage into our rivers. We must hold these companies accountable for the damage they are doing – and that means bringing water back into public ownership. One of our Champions, Clive Lewis, is presenting a Bill this month to progress public ownership of water.

So, two weeks later, we took these concerns to the water companies themselves. We visited Wessex Water offices in Bath, and successfully delivered a ‘Best Polluter’ award, which was created in the shape of a golden toilet. The PR team they sent out to meet with us seemed to think that privatised water wasn't to blame, and tried to claim that our rivers would be even worse if they were publicly owned. But we know this is not the case: in France and Scotland, where water is publicly owned, prices are lower, there is more investment in infrastructure, and water quality is better.

This campaign so far has shown how powerful we are as a team - from creating the amazing props, to capturing the actions, reaching out for community support, getting press coverage, and more.

The elation that we all felt after completing these actions, and the rewarding feeling of talking to the public, means we are continuing to build on this momentum and putting pressure on water companies and the Government until we have safe and affordable water for all. As Arundhati Roy said, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”.