Newham has been handed two of the ten priority sites in Sir Sadiq Khan's £1.8billion plan to clean up London's rivers and canals, as the Mayor blamed "decades of neglect" by water firms for the state of the capital's waterways.
The Lower Lea Valley and Royal Docks, and the Lower Roding — which reaches the Thames at Barking Creek along the borough's eastern boundary — are both named in the 10-year Clean Rivers and Waterways Plan, which aims to turn London's "blue spaces" into swimmable areas where wildlife thrives.
City Hall pledged a further £2.7million to the plan on top of £13.5million already promised, while partners including Thames Water will fund the project to the tune of £1.8billion. The Mayor named Thames Water as one of the key culprits for dumping sewage into the city's rivers, but said the firm had recognised the consequences and agreed to commit £1.7billion over the next five years to depolluting the water.
'That's unacceptable'
"This is the most ambitious plan to clean up rivers and waterways across the globe," Sir Sadiq told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) at the launch, held at the West Reservoir in Hackney.
"We as a city have 600 kilometres of rivers and waterways. But there's been decades of neglect and pollution which has led to local communities not having access to blue spaces, and it's also led to the habitats being damaged so there's less wildlife.
"When I first ran to be Mayor in 2016, I was told it would take almost 200 years to clean up the air in London. We did it in nine.
"What we've set out to do with this plan is to reverse the decline in our rivers, but also work with other partners to reduce pollution, revive nature, and to revitalise and restore access for local communities."
On the water companies, he said: "This is water firms recognising the consequences of their inaction and their neglect. In 2023 we had five times as much sewage discharge than in 2022 – that's unacceptable.
"We've got these misconnections in people's pipes which means sewage is going into rivers. That can't be right."
Where the super sewer ends
The Mayor also praised the Thames Tideway Tunnel — a project whose entire output lands in Newham.
"The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a remarkable feat of engineering," he said. "They will take away around 95 per cent of the storm overflow that goes into our sewers which is really important and hopefully that will lead to less sewage discharge.
"But they have got to recognise one of the reasons we're having to clean up our river and revive nature is because of their actions over the previous decades."
The 25km tunnel runs from Acton in west London to Abbey Mills, near Stratford, where it meets the Lee Tunnel — a 6.9km sewer that lies wholly beneath Newham and carries the flow on to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, the largest such plant in Europe.
Before the Lee Tunnel opened in 2016, Abbey Mills was the single largest combined sewer overflow on the tidal Thames.
'Rewire our own brains'
The Mayor pledged to work with local authorities and community groups to keep waterways clean once depolluted — though he warned that some Londoners need to change their attitude towards blue spaces.
"One of the reasons why we've had the neglect and pollution is our behaviour as human beings," he said. "We've dewilded our city, we've not behaved as good custodians of these rivers.
"We've got to rewire our own brains in terms of thinking about these blue spaces like we did about green spaces as well.
"The beauty of our plan today is that by allowing and encouraging and making it easy for local residents to access this blue space, they have ownership. It's their blue space, which means they'll look after it more.
"We've got to think about good design, making sure there are bins available, making sure there are benches available, making sure there is signage available.
"It's a win-win because it means that Londoners get to enjoy these great assets, but they also take responsibility for these assets as well."
Checks and balances
Each of the ten sites will have a different lead partner, the Mayor said, with councils and community organisations sharing responsibility rather than City Hall directing from the centre.
"Different councils, different community organisations are involved, and the lead partner in charge of each action is different," Sir Sadiq said. "It's not all City Hall or all councils. That will mean that each of us can hold each other to account. Those checks and balances are really important."
The Mayor was joined at the launch by his deputy mayor for environment and energy, Mete Coban, and local MP and former cabinet member David Lammy.
The 10 strategic locations in the London Clean Rivers and Waterways Plan:
- Pymmes Brook, north London
- Salmons Brook, north London
- Upper Lea Valley, north London / Lower Lea Valley and Royal Docks, east London
- Lower Roding, north-east London
- Grand Union Canal, north-west London
- Lower Crane Valley, west London
- River Brent, west London
- Yeading Brook, west London
- River Ravensbourne, south-east London
- River Wandle, south London
