THE CAMPAIGN for a healthier River Tamar continues as locals gathered in Calstock at the weekend to demand clean water.

Around 50 people turned up to the Anti Pollution Alliance event held by Extinction Rebellion as part of their ‘Dirty Water’ campaign which saw the opening of the ‘Happy Poo Cafe’ in Calstock Village Hall on Saturday (March 18).

Drinks were served by the Tamar Valley ‘toxicitea’ ladies and there was music and singing from members of the pollution group who performed ‘we’ve all had enough of dirty water’ and ‘yo ho little fishy’.

The event also featured speakers including Dr Rebecca Pearce, an environmental scientist who specialises in drought and extreme weather in the UK, a talk by Chris Jones from the Beavers Trust, Dr Laurence Couldrick from the Westcountry Rivers Trust and parish councillor, Alastair Tinto.

At the event Cllr Tinto said: ‘The more people protest, the more people write to their MP, the more people write to their newspapers, the more they take part in things like this, the more drip drip drip, the more we might finally get safe water in the Tamar.’

A final demonstration to conclude the event was a gig that rowed up the river towards the viaduct displaying a ‘stop the poo-llution’ banner for all to see.

Saturday’s anti pollution event came as news of South West Water’s new campaign sees the unveiling of a WaterFit Live map.

The new map will share information about the region’s bathing beaches, location and performance of storm overflows and is promised to extend to rivers later in the year, news that has been welcomed in Calstock.

Cllr Tinto said: ‘This is progress, particularly for beaches. It says that rivers will be included later in the year.

‘That is also good news as it meets our first demand that we know what the discharges from the sewer overflows are.

‘It also means that there is now absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t share with us now the data on discharges from sewer overflows that they have refused to give us for 2021 when they discharged over 12,500 hours into the Tamar from the ten combined sewer overflows in Calstock Parish.

Cllr Newton-Chance who recently fronted the parish council’s bid to obtain bathing water status at Calstock that was turned down by Defra this month was pleased to see some progress.

Cllr Newton-Chance said: ‘We are very pleased to see WaterFit go live and that South West Water is now committed to sharing more information with us - presumably we won’t have to use FoI to find out what is going in to the Tamar anymore.

‘We are also pleased to see that Bathing Water Status on rivers is mentioned and hope that South West Water will support us with any re-application after DEFRA recently refused our last one.

‘The critical issue that remains is the very poor state of the River Tamar, highlighted again at last Saturday’s well attended event in Calstock. So, until the river is clean, healthy for wildlife and fit to swim in, we will continue to campaign.’