Advocacy Strategy for the March for Clean Water

Client: River Action

Just a few years ago, river pollution was rarely mentioned in UK media and it simply wasn’t seen as a public priority. This has all changed since Seahorse was approached by former Teneo Chairman Charles Watson in 2021 with the intent to hold water companies and industrial polluters to account for destroying our precious ecosystems. From the Wye to Westminster, Seahorse has worked with River Action to campaign across the likes of agriculture, sewage, water scarcity, and chemical pollution to establish them not only a leading voice on the decline of UK rivers, but as a respected voice in Government and a key agent in the recently announced Independent Water Commission.

The journey to this tremendous result pivoted around the ‘March for Clean Water’ across Westminster, shortly after Labour came to power. With 15,000 people and 141 organisations united around a clear demand for swift action on water pollution, Seahorse and River Action had paved a way for political engagement that Defra simply couldn’t ignore. Along with our launch of a new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Water Pollution, No.10 meetings, and River Action’s close involvement in the Independent Water Commission, it is safe to say our goal of holding water companies and industrial polluters to account is alive and well. Throughout all of this, we have ensured that the communities represented by River Action remained at the heart of water policy change.