In our last issue we reported on the Water Blitz monitoring done in the Moorlands in April, including the contributions of several of our members. Across the UK, thousands of citizen scientists uploaded data in 4,017 surveys, 3,279 of which were collected in England. Sadly, the data indicate that England has the worst water quality in the UK, which is consistent with the findings of the Great UK Water Blitz events from June and September 2024.
Clearly, ongoing monitoring is vital and we in MCA believe it’s important to help maintain the impetus and help keep the issue in the public eye. We’ve been asked to return in September to the same locations, so that they can be monitored consistently over a period of time. Given that we all enjoyed the process in April, we are definitely keen to return and maybe recruit more volunteers. Baldrik, our beaver mascot, particularly enjoyed his time on the Churnet, although he's not convinced he learned much from the induction session provided by MCA member Mark Johnson.
You can find more information about the Great UK Water Blitz on their website, where you can also register to get a testing kit for this September (19-22). Registration is essential if you want to have your own testing kit. There’s a limited number of kits available and so far more than 4000 have already been allocated out of 6500. You can register an interest independently of MCA but we would prefer to coordinate our approach, so do let us know if you would like to join us via