Indigo De Souza’s lyrics – ‘Be like the water, go where you’re going’ have been running through my mind lately.   

I like them because of the suggestion that our direction isn’t driven simply by going with the flow, but also by a momentum that compels us to go where we must.  

When someone or something (like a natural system) is blocked, and unable to fulfil what it needs to, then trouble arises in one form or another. It might present as an algal bloom, a dried-out riverbed, the extinction of a species or declining crop productivity rate. Equally it might show up as rising rates of violence or accelerating climate change. 

Trouble is undoubtedly indicative of a deeper problem. 

It might also be the clue as to how to make change.  

As Professor Donna Harraway says, ‘Staying with the Trouble’ is what might allow us to find conducive ways to live together through the unfolding of ecological crises.  

Now back to the rivers.   

World Rivers Day is coming up at the end of September.

It is not news that rivers have long been neglected, paying the price for capital gains that have been legally and morally justified in western culture.  

However, in parallel, for decades there have been groups of people willing to fight for the rights of nature to exist safely, however unknown (or even vilified) their stories might be – think Just Stop Oil. From Vandana Shiva in India, to the Gurindji strike in Northern Territory Australia, to Julia Butterfly Hill in California who brought environmental activism into the general public’s vision; these are stories of brave individuals and grassroots groups who refused to stand by as cultural and land injustices occurred.

But the work is not yet done.  

This leads me on to the river Ouse, which passes through the town of Lewes, East Sussex. 

In Feb 2023, Lewes became the first town in England to try to make a legal change to acknowledge and protect the rights of the local river in law. 

Then in 2025, Lewes District Council became the first council to pass a motion seeking to declare a Rights of River Charter for the Ouse, following years of work by community organisers. Love Our Ouse is the driving engine behind it all – having proposed a draft charter for the rights of the river and begun organising three years prior. 

Building on their success, nearby Arun District Council passed a motion this January to afford extra protection to the River Arun, its connected waters, and all rivers and streams that are connected to the District. 

This vital work has now paved the way for other types of land and water rights to emerge in policy. Policy which reflects our changing cultural relationships with the land and which enables fairer subjectification of nature in law.  

You can explore and collaborate with the Charter now on OnePlanet – link here.