How you can join the celebration:
📸 Send in a memory, photo, or message if you have worked/supported us over the last 21 years. We will collate all of these pics and messages into a collage-style document. Send this to communications@thames21.org.uk

We’re taking this moment to celebrate everything we’ve achieved together — and we want to hear from you!⬇️

As we reflect on 21 years of impact, we are also looking forward. The challenges we face remain real, but so does our resolve. Thank you for walking this journey with us — here’s to continuing our mission with heart, hope, and action. You are all part of our story.⬇️

However, much less has been written about the solutions. We’ve highlighted 21 ways we’ve been helping London’s rivers for the past years. Read more here: www.thames21.org.uk/2025/04/21-w...

Many column inches have been devoted to the sewage pollution challenge in the River Thames in recent times. The river faces other threats, such as toxic road runoff pollution and plastic pollution.⬇️

🥇We want to send out a huge thank you to the local communities we work with, our volunteers, partners, supporters, staff and funders. None of the achievements that we have made to fulfil our mission would have been possible without you all.🥇⬇️

Apologies. We stand corrected. Will issue another post. with the correct info. :)

Read full parliamentary debate here:
www.parallelparliament.co.uk/debate/2025-...

Thames21 and its dedicated volunteers have been building evidence through our work on the River Thames for many years. A huge shout-out to Thames21’s volunteers for their persistence!⬇️

This vital move is a crucial step towards protecting the health of our rivers, as it will reduce the introduction of microplastics into the environment.⬇️

Thanks to Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and the Public Affairs Committee for listening to our concerns. Thanks to our citizen scientists for giving evidence at this roundtable. Hopefully, the Public Affairs Committee can consider our evidence further and this may help to inform future actions.

Overall, we are reiterating our call for water companies to up their investment in sewerage infrastructure and calling for a properly funded regulator with teeth that takes firmer, proactive action against polluters.⬇️

Furthermore, water testing needs to modernise so continuous monitoring and citizen science data is incorporated.⬇️

So, we are urging policymakers to mandate routine testing of water bodies to account for all pollution sources, ensuring a fuller picture of contamination.⬇️

Unlike combined sewer overflows, road run-off and misconnections have no statutory monitoring and may contribute to larger drivers of decline to many of the tributaries of the Thames.⬇️

We focused on how rivers across London and the Thames Basin’s problems extend beyond sewage to include road run-off, misconnections (wrongly connected pipes), plastic pollution, and the effects of climate change such as droughts and floods.⬇️

After we showed him the Brook, we joined our citizen scientists, other river lovers and a group of cross-party MPs at a roundtable discussion where we highlighted the overall challenges rivers face across London and the Thames Basin.⬇️