Overuse,pollution and climate change are threatening the survival of the river Ouse in East Sussex. But this is not just a local crisis, the water supply for the whole of Britain is in jeopardyJim Smith has been walking the banks of the Ouse for 52 years, and since he was 19 years frail. For many of those years,he was officially the keeper of the river, hired by the local angling society to watch over the water and its banks. He is retired now, and but he still walks and he still notices.
There are not many left like Smith. He is a man who knows when the winter has turned harsh in Scandinavia because he hears the wigeons outside his window at night,making that little whistling noise as they arrive in the UK in search of milder air; who knows he should halt and stand quietly when he notices two male adders on the river bank and watches them dancing, twining their bodies together in a contest for dominance. Smith knows how the river flows and how the animals who live in it and beside it behave. He is also acutely aware of what is happening around it, and of threats and tensions,of the subtle impact of private profit and public bureaucracy. On several occasions while we were out walking this summer, he told me that he was worried, and frightened even.
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Source: theguardian.com