Cleaning up rivers does work: An example from the Thames in England

The Thames is one of the great rivers of Britain. It splits the south east of the country and is the second longest in the UK, behind only the Severn. The River Thames passes through several major cities on its 215 mile course, including Oxford, Reading, and London and in the past it has suffered terrible pollution problems.

The River Thames in London

During the ‘Great Stink’ of 1858 so much raw sewerage and waste from tanners, slaughterhouses, and other polluting industries flowing into the Thames that the smell became literally unbearable.

The Great Stink of 1858

It worked, to a degree. The Great Stink was not repeated but the Thames remained heavily polluted. It was still a river of dead dogs, sewerage, and chemical soup. The salmon that were common in lower Thames up until the 1800s were gone by 1833 and they didn’t return after the sewers were built- they just moved the problem downstream. By the time of the Great Stink there were few or no fish left in the tidal Thames at all.

The fish markets of London either closed or were supplied with fish from the coast. Cholera epidemics were common and polluted water was to blame. Attempts were periodically made to clean up the river but they were never anything like enough to halt the decline of the lower Thames. By the second world war it was complete. There was not enough oxygen in the water to support life even if fish could survive the contamination. For a 30 mile stretch between Fulham and Tilbury it was a dead river.

The tide began to turn in 1961. In the 60s environmental consciousness was rising. Sewerage treatment facilities were expanded and improved and serious efforts were made to restrict the industrial effluent running into the Thames. In 1974, just 13 years after the program of water quality improvements began, a salmon was found in the lower Thames. After an absence of more than a century and a half, they came back.

Efforts to clean up the river have continued and these days more than 100 fish species call the Thames home, many of them in the lower reaches. Smelt, sole, and bass have all returned to the river and so have countless invertebrates, plants species, and water birds. Sometimes seals are even sighted in the London Thames.

While there are still problems with sewerage outflow and pollutants, the Thames clean-up has enjoyed outstanding success. In just a few decades it has taken a moving toxic sludge and turned it into a living, breathing watercourse with a working ecosystem. There is still a lot to be done, but the Thames example shows that no river is beyond saving if we’re willing to try hard enough.

Jess Spate lives in Wales not far from the River Taff, a watercourse with pollution problems of its own. One day she hopes it’ll be clean enough to go for a swim. She works as a sustainable business consultant for Fountain Spirit and Appalachian Outdoors, one of America’s best sources of outdoor and travel clothing .