MV Challenge is based at Lea Bridge In Lea Valley Park. We provide boat trips, boating holidays and

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Hackney, London, Lea Valley Park, United Kingdom
MV Challenge is based at Lea Bridge In Lea Valley Park. We provide boat trips, boating holidays and event accomodation for community groups, people with disabilities and other charities. Our area of operation includes: The River Lee, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Bow, Stratford and London's Waterways.

Sunday 28 July 2013

The Lea Needs Some Extra TLC


Well we’ve seen it all this week, thousands of dead fish, black putrid water, aerators that are not aerators and now a river dyed green.

The dead fish – This is well documented in the thousands of tweets, conversations and on the telly. From our perspective the amount of dead fish is a disaster for the ecosystem of the Lee/Lea. The river system is already under tremendous pressure from pollution and any more incidents like this week’s could push it over the edge.

The black putrid water – This now stretches from the pool below Tottenham Lock down to the weir at Lea Bridge. I personally can’t ever remember seeing a stretch of river so bad. Even the industrial canals of my childhood were never as bad as this stretch of the River Lee.
We have inserted this short video to show you the source of the problem:
 
 

The Aerators - The solution to all the problems, in your dreams maybe! When we heard about these on the BBC News we were a bit confused. On the day they were supposed to be in place we left Lea bridge at 11:00 and they were not in place. We arrived back at 15:00 and they were not there. On Friday they were not there at 10:00 but were there at 11:00. unfortunately they were gone by 15:30. Most importantly they are just small water pumps sucking out polluted water and pumping it back in. A bit like peeing into the wind!

It needs a lot more than this to create a haven for fish or to have any real benefit to the system.
 

Dying The Lea Green - Okay guys what's this all about? Don't you have enough colour in the Olympic Park with all the overtight Lycra and fancy trainers. The Lea needs TLC not gimmicks. The only green we want to see is reed beds and Lillie's. Use your dye to colour the hair of the organisers if you want more green!

The Litter & Rubbish - On Saturday as we were entering the Limehouse Cut from the Basin we picked up a duvet cover around our prop. This stopped us dead in the water for over an hour whilst we cut it free. This is not the only thing we have to avoid on the river system. By far the biggest cause of frustration is the sheer amounts of litter left by users of the tow path or green spaces. Even when there are litter bins they rarely get emptied. most of the rubbish ends up in the river.


The saga of Deephams - This is fairly simple, the River Lee doesn't want your overflowing sewage. It has enough to cope with from litter, misconnections and pollution from the roads. Use the money you get from water rates or wherever to sort the problem before this river finally dies.
 


The 'Lovers of the Lea' have got their work cut out to get this river back on track.





 
 

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