Guardians of the River Itchen

Guardians of the River Itchen are a local Southampton network of around 25 home educated, neurodivergent young people who are working to conserve, protect and campaign for the River Itchen.

 

The focus on work around the River Itchen began when local campaigning group Friends of Itchen Estuary asked for groups that could undertake some continuous water testing of the River Itchen to evidence ongoing pollution levels of the waterway. This testing includes for e-coli levels, salinity, nitrates, nitrites, and temperature, facilitated by Wessex Rivers Trust.

 

Through ongoing sessions learning about water testing, the home school group learned how to create a consistent environmental record of the river. This established a really consistent interest in the wellbeing of the river, so the young people chose the name ‘Guardians of the River Itchen’ to form a campaigning group to push for cleaning up the River Itchen. With support from Southampton National Park City (SNPC) the group has gotten involved in multiple linked creative and nature based activity projects.

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With the first year of the Urban Wild festival, several members of the Guardians took part in Interspecies Democracy, which was part theatrical performance, part civic action. Participants dressed up as various different animal, plants and species that inhabit Southampton and took over Southampton’s council chambers to take on the persona of different species. The participants then spoke about the effects of human activity on their existence and ability to thrive, and implored decision makers to consider their needs when passing decisions on the development of the city.

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Through the Guardians’ involvement with Urban Wild, in particular the closing festival day Urban Wild on the Common, the Guardians met with the MP representing Southampton Test, Satvir Kaur. Satvir then invited members of the Guardians to come to Parliament as youth ambassadors for SNPC to learn how the democratic process works. This has continued to foster their interest in political decision making and how to make change for the better. 

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For the second year of Urban Wild, the Guardians continued to be supported practically with the provision of equipment, including a gazebo to help them to cover events and for shading/weather protection during their outdoor sessions.

 

As well as attending Urban Wild on the Common for a second year in a row, raising their profile and awareness of their work to members of the public, the Guardians took part in the final event of Urban Wild. This was called ‘River Itchen Rising’ and was a pilgrimage along the River Itchen to talk about the push to recognise the rights of the River Itchen with a River Rights Charter. Over 100 people attended this event, walking along the river and learning about key aspects of the push for river rights, such as the right to not be polluted, and the right to flow freely. The Guardians spoke about their work collecting pollution data, what they had discovered from this, and how it had influenced them to push for cleaner river water. On getting involved with pushing for a River Rights Charter, Guardians member Zac said ‘River Rights are really important, like other Rights of Nature across the world. I think it’s important to have a basic structure for the protection of these natural habitats and ecosystems. Nature is basically our life support system - we can’t just have it crumble away because we’ll go with it. Getting involved in the rights of the River Itchen feels like an important thing to do, a duty in a way.’

 

SNPC funded a session during Urban Wild for the Guardians and other participants to explore their feelings of grief and frustration with the degradation of the waterway, helping them to process these feelings and keep going with their advocacy. 

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Southampton National Park City has also purchased a microscope with higher visual resolution to help the Guardians to continue their monitoring work, which they have started to incorporate into their regular sessions that incorporate writing, art and scientific study with local artist, Gemma Gore. They will continue using the microscope to monitor species in the river through the summer and beyond.