Thames21, an environmental charity, is inviting Harow residents to take part in a community-led water sampling event called WaterBlitz.
This event aims to identify pollution hotspots in the Brent and London Lea catchments. The WaterBlitz will take place on Sunday, April 23rd, 2023, from 10 am to 2 pm BST. All necessary equipment, sampling bottles and personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided by Thames21.
The WaterBlitz will help provide a snapshot of pollution issues across the rivers’ catchment, including Dollis Brook, Silk Stream, Wealdstone Brook, and the main Brent in the Brent Catchment and Turkey, Salmons, Pymmes and Moselle, Dagenham and Ching Brooks, and the main London Lea in the London Lea Catchment.
By taking water samples at different points of interest, volunteers can identify ongoing pollution issues that impact water quality in these catchments.
Volunteers who register by April 10th, 2023, will receive an online training session on April 20th, 2023, on Microsoft Teams. During these training sessions, volunteers will be able to select sites that they wish to survey, which will be integrated into a working map to avoid duplication and for all to access.
To suggest a sampling site, volunteers can email josh.hammond@thames21.org.uk with the location of their proposed sampling site.
On the day of the WaterBlitz, volunteers will visit the nearest Thames21 station in the catchment to them, take sample bottles and equipment, and return these to the same station when sampling is completed.
For trained volunteers in the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (RMI), the event is a great opportunity to understand how water quality issues such as road runoff and sewage misconnections impact invertebrate communities.
After the event, the water samples will be sent to an accredited laboratory for assessment. Results will be reported back to volunteers by Thames21 in the form of an interactive online Storymap. Samples from sites with poor water quality will be reported to the Surface Water Outfall Programme (SWOP) team at Thames Water and raised with the Environment Agency.
The WaterBlitz is an important opportunity for local residents to participate in community-led efforts to identify and mitigate pollution issues in the Brent and London Lea catchments.
Remember to take pictures of yourselves sampling during the event and send them to the email address above.
