Kingston University students and River Guardians advocate against sewage dumping in Hogsmill River with exhibition
An exhibition hosted by River Guardians and students from the Kingston School of Art has been running since 14 April and ends today.
River Rights: Guardians for the Hogsmill is about protecting Kingston's Hogsmill River from sewage being dumped into it by Thames Water.
It was curated by Curating Temporary MA students Olivia, Sylvia, and Laurie who are "super passionate" about river rights.
The exhibition follows on from a curation dinner, focused on the same issues which the students held in June last year.
Speaking about the idea behind the exhibition, Olivia said: "We had the opportunity to curate outside of museum walls, and after focusing on nature and ecology as part of our course, we saw how Hogsmill River was being polluted, so we wanted to focus our project on this, and we feel connected to the river living so close to it."
Expanding on this, Sylvia said: "For the dinner event last year, we brought a small community of people together who didn't really know each other because with more people coming together, we can definitely do better.
"And this exhibition is more of an archive revisiting what we've done. When the university found out about our event last year, they were quite interested in it and wanted us to do more and include the university."
In the middle of the exhibition, which has been displayed in Kingston University's Knights Park campus, there is a table showcasing the specially themed dishes the curators served at the dinner last year in order of one to 13.
The dishes included items such as Nettle tea with spirulina powder, Seaweed snacks, and Clear water.
Sylvia said: "The food and drinks we served represented the river."
On a wall next to the table is a collage of graphics taken from newspaper clippings with headlines about river rights.
Speaking about the inspiration behind this, Olivia said: "We chose these article headlines and colours because they are very eye catching.
"We wanted to show people how the media portrays issues around river rights. The newspaper clippings provide alarming information, which we hope will show people how urgent the issue is.
"The newspaper clippings are about rivers across the UK as well as the Hogsmill River."
Sylvia says that the goal behind the exhibition is to "create River Guardians".
She said: "We want to bring new people to join the conversation we started at the dinner last year and create a bigger community.
"This is not something that happens overnight. It's something that takes time.
"There is no river in the UK that has actually been granted river rights, but there are rivers in other countries like New Zealand and India that have, so this is doable."
The curators explained that the exhibition has been very busy since its opening with people even travelling from afar to attend.
One visitor, Ralph, told Kingston Nub News that he travelled from South London.
He said he came to the exhibition because he "liked the idea that rivers have rights".
He said: "When it comes to river rights, it's not just about clean water, it's also about having a place for people to spend their leisure time and swim, especially in a city like London."
Ralph explained that he is a Thames water customer, though "not by choice but because there is no alternative".
He said that he believes that the company should be nationalized and not a private company.
Kingston and Surbiton Green Party member, Dr Debojyoti Das also visited the exhibition.
He said: "I think it's an excellent exhibition that showcases a lot of research that the students have done here.
"There is a lot of engagement with the local community, a kind of stewardship that has been built and a sense of bringing different stakeholders together who are thinking about the environment, but not necessarily connecting with one another.
"The curatorial dinner was a very important site to bring up those conversations about the right of the river, what kinds of roles the community have in protecting the river, and what kind of entitlement they have to the river.
"Water is priced by water companies, but we should see water as free and as something that can be enjoyed by all - right from the living resources in the water to people who depend on the water, for fish, for recreational purposes, for their livelihood.
"I think the river is a living entity. And that is what the exhibition is trying to celebrate."
Dr das says he is "very passionate" about river rights.
"We are slowly losing our rivers to polluted materials, to agricultural waste and dumps," he said.
"And that has been the fate of our Thames River. The Thames water is playing a very important role in not addressing its legal obligation to not pollute the river.
"So, I think this exhibition stands out as a very important message to the different stakeholders in Kingston to rise up to that call, to really challenge what Thames Water is doing to our rivers and streams, and particularly the local river, which is a chalk stream, the Hogsmill."
Dr Das continued: "And as David Attenborough, who is an alumnus of Kingston University, would argue in his past writings, rivers are a very significant place for our cultural heritage, for our memory, for our past.
"So, if we lose the river, we not only lose its critical resources, but we also lose a very important part of our history.
"And I think that's the very important denominator that we need to really take into consideration."
The Kingston and Surbiton Green Party has been very active in its work towards conservation.
It has regularly taken part in local campaign group, Save Our Lands and River's campaigns against Thames Water and is urging the government to nationalize the water company.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: "We know how much people enjoy and appreciate rivers, which is why over the next five years we will deliver a record amount of investment to address our ageing infrastructure.
"This is an enormous undertaking; we are responsible for the oldest and most complex infrastructure of any company in the sector.
"We continue to execute our plans to upgrade over 250 of our sites across the region to increase treatment capacity, lower the number of storm discharges and implement nutrient reduction schemes.
"This includes £100 million investment at Mogden sewage treatment works, which has already started, and more locally upgrades to increase the capacity of the storm tanks at Hogsmill sewage treatment works.
"We are committed to seeing waterways thrive, but we can't do it alone. Farming, industry, road runoff, wildlife and increasingly extreme weather also play a role in river health.
"While all storm discharges are unacceptable, the sewage system was historically designed to prevent sewage backing up into people's homes. Transparency is at the heart of what we do, and we were the first water company to publish a real time data map on our website, before it became legal requirement to do so."
Share:
