Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash

Campaigners are urging the government to update bathing water rules to help tackle pollution at a spot on the River Thames in Henley, home to the annual rowing regatta.

The Guardian reports that businesses, river users, community groups and civic leaders in Henley wrote a joint letter to the Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, warning that poor water quality had been damaging the town and had put public health at risk.

E. coli up to 10 times the safe limit

The Guardian article notes that swimming events in Henley were cancelled last year due to falling entries amid concerns about water quality, and local businesses are now reportedly suffering.

Citizen-led water testing funded by the council and conducted by volunteers at Health on the Thames Water (HoT Water) has recorded consistently elevated levels of E coli, with testing conducted in 2025 finding E coli levels of up to 10 times the safe limit.

Campaigners, including the Henley Mermaids, have voiced their frustration that the current system puts them in a catch-22 situation; Henley cannot qualify for official bathing water status due to insufficient numbers of bathers, however, poor water quality discourages people from entering the river in the first place.

Meanwhile, bathing water designation would introduce regular testing of the river for fecal contamination and potentially force further treatment to improve water quality.

Who counts?

The letter calls on the government to implement several changes to address this, one of the key requests being an expansion to the current definition of “bathers”. The letter said a stretch of the Thames through Henley was turned down for bathing water status because of a narrow definition of those who use the river being confined only to “bathers”.

As per the Guardian article, people who use the river for organised swimming events, rowing, kayaking, paddleboarding or sailing were excluded from being considered as river users by Defra when the town council submitted its application in 2024 because they are not classed as “bathers” under the legislation, the letter said. However, government analysis last year found thousands more bathing sites than previously recorded when accounting for these water users.

Government begins evidence review

According to the Guardian, water company sewage pollution is expected to be a major election issue in the forthcoming local elections in May.

The government says it has noted the support for expanding the definition of a bather to include other recreational water users and says work had begun on an evidence review to consider the environmental and public health implications of any change.

However, the article notes Labour has so far refused calls to renationalise the industry, and has not yet taken the decision to put Thames Water into temporary public ownership under the special administration regime.