Comedian warns of ‘big problem for our rivers’
Comedian Paul Whitehouse has issued a rallying call to protect Britain’s rivers as he warned there is going to be a “big problem” in the next decade because of water extraction.
The Rhondda-born Fast Show star, who is a lifelong fisherman, warned that action needed to be taken to stop the extraction of water from rivers.
“We do see the decline in the rivers.
“You get the impression that most of our rivers are cleaned up since industrial decline and the irony is that a lot of our rivers have got better,” Whitehouse, said.
“But in recent years, in the last 10 or 20 years, there has been a serious decline in a lot of our rivers through water abstraction.
“Water companies are quite happy to take water out of our rivers illegally and pay any fines they incur rather than construct reservoirs or do repairs that are necessary to stop water leaking.
“They will happily do it and they don’t really get censured.”
Whitehouse, from Stanleytown, was speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival alongside fellow comedian Bob Mortimer to promote their new book, Gone Fishing: Life, Death and the Thrill of the Catch, which is based on their popular BBC Two fishing series.
He said that fisherman were at the “frontline” because they spent so much time at riverbanks and were able to see changes.
Whitehouse introduced his friend Mortimer to fishing as both of them recovered from heart surgery.
Two series of the show have been made but both Whitehouse and Mortimer were coy on whether there would be a third when questioned by the Cheltenham audience.