Cllr Suzanne White has been working with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trust (HIWWT) on a campaign to secure ‘rights for rivers’. The approach is informed by the ‘Universal Declaration of River Rights’ that sets out six essential rights for rivers:
- The right to flow
- The right to perform essential functions within their ecosystems
- The right to be free from pollution
- The right to connect with sustainable aquifers
- The right to native biodiversity
- The right to regenerate and be restored.
The campaign started in June with a public event in Winchester organised by Suzanne White in collaboration with Lorna Selby from HIWWT. The event gave the local community and key river stakeholders the opportunity to come together to discuss issues on our precious chalkstreams, the River Meon and River Itchen, as well as comment on a draft Council motion.
This motion aims to grant rivers ‘legal personhood’ and could be a transformative step to giver rivers a voice in Council decision-making. Similar motions have been successfully passed by other Hampshire council’s including Basingstoke and Deane and Test Valley.
Suzanne said, “Our event in the summer was a great opportunity to hear the breadth of knowledge and experience about rivers from our local residents and conservationists. The next step is to use this information to help shape a potential motion that we can present to Winchester City Council in the autumn. If this motion is passed, it would be an important first step towards giving chalkstreams and rivers in the Winchester district the vital legal protections they need in the face of the pressures of pollution, abstraction and climate change.”
Read the Hampshire Chronicle article here
