Activists held a peaceful protest to campaign against Thames Water depositing sewage waste into the nearby waterways.

Members of Extinction Rebellion Chilterns staged a protest along a riverside in Little Marlow, nearby the Thames Water sewage treatment plant, on Sunday, April 2.

Protestors were dressed as ashen-faced 'penitents', a term for people repenting of their sins which was traditionally associated with the religious ceremonies of confession and reconciliation. 

They wore signs around their necks displaying the messages: 'Chose to ignore the raw sewage', 'Polluted rivers and poisoned lives' and 'Trusted Thames Water to care about the water'. 

A spokesperson for the group said: "Extinction Rebellion believes that polluted rivers, the climate emergency and the current energy crisis all have the same root cause: a political system which allows companies to destroy nature while profiting from the suffering of people and wildlife."

Extinction Rebellion Chilterns is a localised offshoot of the well-known campaign group, also referred to as XR, which describes itself as a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act on the climate and ecological emergency.

Buckinghamshire residents can view near real-time updates on discharge in rivers via the data map available here, on the Thames Water website.

A Thames Water representative said the company were committed to improving the health of rivers and to being transparent with their data.

A spokesman said: “Of course, what matters most is stopping the need for the discharges and we’ve committed £1.6 billion of investment in our sewage treatment works and sewers over the next two years. This will help us deliver our commitment to a 50% reduction in the total annual duration of discharges across London and the Thames Valley by 2030, and within that an 80% reduction in sensitive catchments.

“In London, we have started the £100 million upgrade of Mogden sewage treatment works, which will increase capacity and reduce the number of storm discharges from the site, and we’re also spending £145 million upgrading Beckton sewage works. We’re also currently increasing sewage treatment capacity at a number of our other sewage works across the Thames Valley, including Witney, Chesham and Fairford to be completed by 2025.

“In addition, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a £4 billion investment, is nearing completion and will capture 95% of the volume of untreated sewage currently entering the tidal Thames in a typical year.”

Sewage discharge in rivers is a global and national issue, affecting urban and rural areas across the UK and Ireland on a daily basis.

Click here for more information on its effects.