Amaya Edwards is keen environmentalist who recently won the BBC Make a Difference Norfolk Green Award. She is our youngest citizen journalist.
Firstly, I want to wish everyone a happy World Rivers Day.
In the UK there are about 1,500 rivers. The longest river is the River Severn and the smallest is the River Morar.
A river is a moving body of water which drains the land. It starts on high up ground and finishes in a lake, sea or the ocean.
Rivers are very important as they provide habitat for wildlife. They provide freshwater for agriculture and other industries. People can have fun on rivers going down them in boats. They can be a source of energy for hydroelectric power.
There are lots of animals that live in rivers. Some of these are different fish such as trout, eels, carp and even goldfish. Also, otters, kingfishers, badgers, dormice and stoats to name a few.
The rivers are a beautiful thing to go and see.
However they are affected by pollution. In 2024 in the UK, there were 994,499 sewage discharges into the rivers. When pollution gets into our rivers this affects the water quality and the animals that live in it. The pollution then ends up in our seas and oceans.
There are things we can do to help our rivers. These are reducing chemical use – for example use phosphate-free soaps and detergents. We can also avoid using herbicides or pesticides in our gardens.
We can reduce how much plastic we use and dispose of waste properly for example only flush toilet paper down the toilet.
On a bigger scale the UK could help stop pollution in rivers by using the same scheme they use in Australia. They use nets that go over drainpipes which collect any rubbish and let the water run into rivers clean. This has shown to work and is a simple solution. If you want to learn more in this, you can see my previous article which goes into more detail.
Rivers are amazing and so important and therefore, we should all help them on this world river day.
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