The state of our rivers is a case of muddy waters
PAUL McGUINNESS, EDITOR
LAST SUMMER, ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION, I HEARD of friends or the children of friends being ill for days after swimming in a river that they and their families had been swimming in for years. My news feeds were reporting raw sewage being discharged into our waterways on a regular basis. Before going to a beach, I found myself looking up whether it was safe to splash around in the sea there with my family.
Our waterways, it was becoming clear, were in big trouble. But while the headlines suggested that the cause and effect situation was black and white, the more I read about the state of our rivers, the less clear the situation looked. Otters being spotted more commonly in urban areas, for example, was surely a sign of healthier rivers.
So with the state of our waterways in the spotlight like never before, we wade in to unmuddy the waters in our Troubled Waters feature.
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