RiverActionUK

🚨 STOP BIG CHICKEN CHOKING OUR RIVERS

Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy has landed on @NetflixUK , exposing the hidden costs of our obsession with cheap chicken.

Here in the UK, our rivers are already paying the price.

Every year, more than 1 BILLION chickens are reared in the UK, producing 3.5 million tonnes of manure. In many areas, there's already more waste than the land can safely absorb. When rain washes this pollution into rivers, it fuels toxic algal blooms, kills wildlife and damages precious habitats.

✍️ TAKE ACTION. Tell the Government to ditch its Poultry Growth Plan and support farming that protects our rivers instead of polluting them.

SIGN THE PETITION: bit.ly/4w9IRGm

Lough Neagh, the UK’s largest lake, with a surface area bigger than Malta, has been blighted by blooms of algae that have killed wildlife, devastated the local fishing industry and turned the lough a sickly green.

But what’s behind it? 🤔

More than 60% of the phosphorus feeding the algae is thought to come from industrial agriculture. Since the government’s industry-designed “Going for Growth” strategy launched in 2013, pig breeding has almost doubled, poultry numbers have risen by a third, and phosphorus entering the lough has jumped 55%.

Now fishermen are taking the government to court, and more factory farms are planned on the lough’s doorstep.

New from @TBIJ's Muck Files 👇
thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-1…

Thames Water thrown another lifeline. 🚨

Thames Water’s creditors have offered another £2.4 billion in emergency loans and a plan to push its debts back a year. It’s not a rescue. It’s not a fix. It’s another year on life support, and another year of sewage in our rivers.

Their price? Thames Water gets let off penalties for missing environmental targets until 2030, and then they cash out.

We can’t keep repeating the same mistakes and expect a different result. The government doesn’t have to wait for the money to run out. It can put Thames Water into special administration now, for failing our rivers.

Tell the Prime Minister to place Thames Water into special administration today 👉 riveractionuk.com/email-andy-bur…

CAN COUNCILS PASS THE BUCK ON SEWAGE POLLUTION? 💩

Local rowers and residents have raised serious concerns about sewage pollution in the River Thames, backed by water quality testing and pollution evidence.

But getting their concerns properly investigated has been far from straightforward. Now, River Action is backing a legal challenge launched by local residents calling on Richmond Council to fulfil its legal duties and properly investigate these complaints.

Through our Make A Nuisance campaign, we're helping communities use existing environmental law to demand answers and accountability. ⚖️🩵

Our argument is simple: Councils have a legal duty to investigate statutory nuisance complaints. They cannot simply pass responsibility elsewhere.

27 out of 35 weeks. 🦠

That’s how often two local river users found E. coli above bathing-water levels in the Thames, and now they’re legally challenging Richmond Council for failing to investigate. 📺 As seen on BBC London.

Scum on the surface. Foul smells. Rowers reporting they’ve fallen ill. And still no formal investigation.

The Council says it shares people’s concerns and will respond by 10 November. We’ll be watching. 👀

This is one of 13 Make a Nuisance complaints lodged with councils along the Thames last December. Almost a year on, not one has opened a formal investigation. ⏳