Are you concerned about the health of the Thames and other local streams and brooks?

Do you have half an hour a month to spare?

Do you want to be part of research and become a "citizen scientist"?

If the answer to the above questions is yes, then we invite you to become one of our new Thames Water Watchers!

Water watchers test for pollution in their local river or stream regularly, usually once a month. The data collected helps to protect rivers. All of the data will be shared with the local catchment partnership, the Environment Agency, Thames Water, local councils and the media, and used to highlight issues in our local rivers and push for improvements and change.

For this training event, we are looking for volunteers who are interested in monitoring the Thames from Wallingford to Caversham.

A map of the potential sample sites can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/ae2x7h5s 

The training event will cover:

• An introduction to river health and river pollution
• Introduction to citizen science for rivers
• How to take a freshwater watch sample for phopshates, nitrates, ammonia and monitor visual pollution (field demonstration)
• Collecting and uploading data to the freshwater watch website
• Selecting a sample site
• Being a guardian and advocate for your local river: first steps

This training event is run by Thames21 on behalf of the South Chilterns Catchment Partnership, and funded by Mend the Gap.

The South Chilterns Catchment Partnership is a group of organisations and individuals who are working together for a healthy, thriving water environment for people and wildlife. Our vision is a network of healthy streams, rivers and other freshwater habitats, with flourishing nature and clean, plentiful water, particularly in our globally rare chalk streams. People value and enjoy the freshwater environment and use it sustainably, and nature and communities are resilient to flooding and the effects of climate change.  More information here: https://southchilternscatchmentpartnership.org/