News / floating harbour
Blue plaques appear around Bristol
A number of satirical blue plaques have popped up around Bristol over the weekend.
One which has been affixed next to the SS Great Britain and another across the water from M Shed read: ‘The UK government voted to block a law requiring water companies to dump less raw sewage in our waterways and seas 20.10.21.’
Local activists made up of Extinction Rebellion members, local health professionals and a group of cold water synchronised swimmers are behind the ironic plaques.
is needed now More than ever
Local activists are behind the satirical plaques – photo: XR Bristol
They were installed in protest against the dumping of raw sewage into the River Avon and other local waterways, which the campaign group describe as “the veins of our country home to an incredible number of species and habitats.”
This marks XR Bristol‘s launch of its Dirty Water Bristol campaign to “highlight the government’s continued failure to tighten environmental regulations”.
Another spoof plaque affixed in Conham River Park has the same message written on but with Jacob Rees Mogg’s name in place of ‘the UK government’.
This plaque references a vote in October 2021 where Rees Mogg, Luke Hall and 265 other Conservative MPs voted down an amendment that would have required water companies to “demonstrate improvements in the sewage systems and progressive reductions in the harm caused by untreated sewage discharges”.
Today XR Bristol was joined by a cold water synchronised swimming group, local health professionals, a samba band, 40 concerned citizens, an effigy of Jacob Rees Mogg and even our very own mermaid to launch the DIRTY WATER campaign#ExtinctionRebellion#DirtyWater#VoteCleanWater pic.twitter.com/miphNG7251
— Extinction Rebellion Bristol (@XRBristol) January 28, 2023
Dirty Water Bristol spokesperson, Daniel Juniper, said: “We’ve watched in horror as our rivers and seas have become open sewers since October 2021, when the government voted down a proposal to stop water companies pumping waste directly into our rivers and seas.
“They justified this by claiming that the proposal was too expensive. These plaques shine a light on the government’s failure to protect our waterways, the natural world and all of us.”
All photos: XR Bristol
Read next:
- Study reveals most polluted parts of Bristol rivers
- Critically endangered eel and Atlantic mackerel found in Bristol waterways
- Protesters strip off for wild swimming demonstration
- XR Bristol gather outside Barclays Broadmead to protest ‘climate criminals’
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