Watch out, there’ll be ‘yellow fish’ about! These ‘yellow fish’ will be an easy-to-see reminder that street drains are for rainwater – and for rainwater only.
Four St John’s Academy student volunteers are running the ‘yellow fish’ campaign for the River Kennet as a project towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award medals. Over the next few weeks eye-catching ‘yellow fish’ symbols will be stencilled by roadside drains that empty directly into the river.
The ‘yellow fish’ campaign has one simple aim: to make people aware that what they tip down many roadside drains may well run into a stream or river. And along River Kennet anything other than rain water that is put into these drains could harm its sensitive ecosystem.
Project member Angus Hitchmough told Marlborough News Online: “This campaign began in New York, spread around the world and was picked up by the Environment Agency and the Kennet is the latest river to get the ‘yellow fish’ treatment.”
Another member, Finn Halsall explained: “The fish will show people that whatever goes down the drains will go into the river. As well as stencilling fish we will be distributing information cards, posters and signs.”
His colleague Luke Davies warned about the risk of catastrophic pollution: “We feel that this project is essential in sustaining the local environment.”
“Only last year, an estimated teaspoon of pesticide contaminated the river and this killed off all the river invertebrates for 15 miles, in turn the river’s food chain was massively affected and some species were forced to change their feeding habits.”
“We can only hope this local environmental catastrophe will not repeat itself and we know this project will help stop it happening again.”
The overall campaign has been set up by the Environment Agency who have designed symbols and notices. But for this campaign about the Kennet, the students have designed a special yellow fish that is trout shaped – as befits a chalk stream.
The students’ campaign has the support of Wiltshire Council and is being funded by the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty organisation.
ARK Yellow Fish team member Oli Cowen explained why they decided to support this scheme: “As part of our Duke of Edinburgh Award we need to do six months volunteering so we chose to run this project on behalf of Action for the River Kennet. We chose an ARK related project because it is a local charity where we can really make a difference.”
Apart from the recent disaster mentioned by Luke Davies, there is plenty of evidence that people empty all sorts of dangerous liquids down rainwater drains without realising where they end up. Anti-freeze from car radiators, the contents of a mobile home’s loo and cleaning fluids are just some of the things that have been tipped into rainwater drains – and should not have been.
And the River Kennet in Wiltshire is a designated Site Of Special Scientific Interest and needs special protection – which this campaign will help to achieve.
During the winter’s floods, several towns and villages in the area had sewage overflow problems and this campaign will remind people they should not simply pump this sewage onto the street so it runs into rainwater drains and on into streams and rivers where it may well cause pollution and kill wildlife.
Many roadside drains in Marlborough do empty directly into the River Kennet – so keep an eye on those ‘yellow fish’.
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