Anglian Water bringing communities and the environment together

Anglian Water has shown its commitment to the environment by considerably reducing its carbon footprint through energy efficiency and ensuring that over a quarter of its energy supplies are renewable, and by protecting habitats and reintroducing wildlife, including ospreys, in the waterways where they work.

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About Anglian Water 

Providing water for 2.6 million properties, including 6 million people and businesses in the East of England, Anglian Water is in a unique position to work with communities to foster an understanding of the importance of water and the environment that supports this precious resource. A key priority for the company is protecting and, where possible, enhancing the habitats and species which rely on the local waterways to flourish.

Rivercare 

RiverCare supports communities to set up active volunteer groups to address the environmental issues faced by their local waterways, for example to organise clean-ups of their local riverside environments and reclaim them as vibrant green spaces.

The programme was developed by Anglian Water and is run in partnership with the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.  The Environment Agency endorses the project and working closely with many other organisations the programme makes real changes ‘on the ground’ and enables communities to continue the work.

Rivercare aims to improve the quality of the local environmental and tackle anti-social behaviour issues related to the region’s waterways.  As the Group Leader of the Grantham RiverCare Group commented “youths have been involved in the clean-ups and anti-social behaviour has reduced and wildlife increased.”

The success of the programme has been in the self-managing of the different RiverCare Groups. New groups are established amongst friends and local residents with full control of how it is run kept within the individual group. To date there have been significant social and business benefits:

Impact of the programme

• Currently 48 RiverCare Groups operate across the Anglian Water region and more than 1,000 regular volunteers deliver local environmental improvements.
• In the last year alone 15,000 volunteer hours contributed to 212 RiverCare events and more than 8,900 bags of litter and 3,000 bulky items were removed from river environments.
• Independent market research has revealed a 24 per cent increase in the percentage of customers “fairly / very satisfied with Anglian Water’s involvement in community projects” and a nine per cent customer awareness of the RiverCare programme.
• In a survey of RiverCare Group leaders last year, 95 per cent of respondents reported an improvement in the local environmental quality of their local river due to RiverCare.
• Work is underway with the Environment Agency in the Midlands to extend the programme nationally.