George Monbiot in Rivercide

RIVERCIDE
Directed by Franny Armstrong
Certificate: PG
☆☆☆☆☆

THERE is not a single river in England that meets legal environmental levels for safety, or that can be said to be in good health. Let that sink in for a moment – our rivers are dying in front of eyes.

As this devastating documentary highlights, the Conservative government is directly responsible for the death of one of our most important natural resources, a key part of our commonwealth – and this gigantic crime against all of us is happening right now.

Rivercide shows the true impact of austerity combined with simple personal and corporate greed on our natural environment.

Presented by journalist George Monbiot, and directed by Camden Town film-maker Franny Armstrong, we are given the simply devastating fact that across the UK, our rivers and water courses are being poisoned to such an extent that they are no longer safe to swim in, fish and plant life cannot survive, and we are being left with murky, sewage-ridden waters.

The finger is pointed firmly at the government, which has slashed the Environment Agency’s budget by two thirds.

Our government is not only not monitoring water quality, but ignoring research proving the extent of the disaster.

Privately owned water companies, paying their shareholders huge dividends while charging customers ever-rising bills, are getting away with eco-cide each day.

It is not just raw sewage – though this film is littered with vile stories of our poo pouring out. One treatment works in Twickenham for example, put over seven billion litres of untreated sewage into rivers last year. Over two days last October, over two billion litres were sent into rivers from that one plant – the equivalent of nearly 20 Olympic-sized pools of sewage every hour for 48 hours.

And that is the tip of a very large fatberg.

Elsewhere, the chicken industry, which treats its livestock diabolically, is washing dung into rivers, causing algae blooms that kill everything. We are taken to the River Wye in the Welsh borders, and shown the impact this industry has on the natural habitat. It does not make for pleasant viewing.

This documentary is deeply depressing. Humans have this elevated idea of themselves, that they are the guardians of a natural world. If that’s the case, we are terrible at our job. We have completely failed to look after a shared natural element that in the past helped define a parochial Britain so many cherish – and our country is now a poorer cesspit of a stink hole for it.

• To watch Rivercide, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSPtVkJ_Uxs