Partnership working continues with various stakeholders including the British Retail Consortium, Business in the Community (BITC), major retailers and manufacturers on raising consumer and customer awareness on what not to flush. Our reactive outreach work continues to help reduce pipe and pump blockages that cause pollution and sewer flooding.
The Keep It Clear approach involves identifying and working with trusted voices in the local community such as local councils, schools, businesses and other organisations.
We are always looking for bespoke ways of working in partnership with communities to reduce blockages and help the environment.
NAVCA is a national membership charity and is the body that oversees a network of local charities, community voluntary organisations (CVSs) in England. Anglian Water’s Keep It Clear programme has been working with local CVSs across our region since 2011. By funding the CVSs we are able to communicate awareness of Keep it Clear at a local level to community groups and residents while the CVSs are able to promoting their own activities and services.
By using a network of local CVS, Keep It Clear can tap into local, trusted voices promoting the Keep It Clear behaviour over the long term to create lasting behavioural change.
Sand in Your Eye creates inspirational and fun pieces that make people laugh and think, shout out in amazement, and perhaps even shed a tear. Keep it Clear teamed up with Sand in your Eye in Southend-on-Sea to run a sand sculpture competition with holiday makers. Using Sand in Your Eye we were able to communicate the Keep It Clear messages in a fun and engaging way. Recently we have worked with Sand in your Eye as part of our World Ocean’s Day awareness activities.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is the voice for everyone who loves the sea. They work to secure a future for our living seas and to save our threatened marine wildlife before it is lost forever. Anglian Water has a long term relationship with MCS. As part of Keep It Clear we co-funded their campaign – When Wet Wipes Turn Nasty.
Mad Science brings science education to millions of children each year. Their innovative programmes help kids learn about science through fun after-school programs, preschool programs, in-class workshops, camps, birthday parties and special events. Anglian Water has been working with Mad Science for a number of years offering Keep it Clear assemblies to schools across our region.
Keep Britain Tidy has been working to keep our country clean for nearly 60 years. Many years ago, Anglian Water partnered with Keep Britain Tidy to create the award winning RiverCare and BeachCare programmes which are still going strong today. Anglian Water’s bathing water beaches are also assessed and judged by Keep Britain Tidy each year as part of the Blue Flag Scheme as well as the Green Flag Scheme for our inland recreational areas.
Keep it Clear teamed up with City to Sea in 2016 to co-fund their ‘Switch the Stick’ campaign to stop the production of plastic stemmed cotton buds in the UK and to ask people to sign up to the petition to purchase only paper stemmed versions and to bin not flush the cotton buds. This hugely successful campaign has led to all major UK retailers committing to switch production to paper rolled stem versions by the end of 2017. So far the petition to buy only paper rolled version has reached 60,000 signature on the 38 degrees website. Our goal is to reach 100,000 signatures.
We are currently working with City to Sea to create and and pilot a one-stop, unbiased lesson plan resource for schools to spark debate about the methods of disposal of sanitary products.
More than 6,000 lesson packs have been requested by teachers following training days in the Anglian Water region.
By 2019, PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) lessons will be compulsory on the national school curriculum. By co-funding and working on the pilot, we are helping to initiate discussion about disposal methods, the social and environmental impacts of menstruation and the alternatives to disposal sanitary products. Once feedback is gained from the pilot it is intended to roll the lesson plans out nationally.