Up to our necks in it

The Mayor of London recently launched a "green living" initiative called Future London. Posters, billboards and ads are everyway encouraging Londoners to adopt a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. The campaign forms part of the city's lead up to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

One advertisment claims that "in one day the amount of rubbish or waste produced in the UK would fill Trafalgar Square up to the top of Nelson's Column." It's all very compelling stuff. However, while the mayor encourages Londoners to turn their thermostat down by 1° Celsius, the city's Victorian storm water drains kill fish by the thousands every year.

In the last two days more than 19mm of rain has fallen. As a result more than 51 Victorian stormwater drains have overflowed into the Thames River, saving more than a million homes from flooding. More than 1,320,000 tonnes of raw sewerage subsequently washed into the river reducing oxygen levels by up to 20%. Fish soon perish with oxygen levels so low. In August 2004 when a mere 600,000 tonnes was flushed into the river thousands of fish died.

Hydrogen Peroxide is currently being releashed into the Thames to boost oxygen levels. The city also has two "bubbler" vessels pumping tonnes of oxygen into the river. All of this could be avoided if a £1.5 billion tunnel was built to intercept rainwater and carry it to treatment works in West London. You can't help but wonder if the mayor has his priorities right. No doubt next week's headlines will carry stories of rotting fish.