Charmouth's river clean-up project boosted by £1,500 grant

The Lower Char Community Project has secured a £1,500 grant from the Wessex Water Foundation Environment Fund to start cleaning up the River Char as it runs through the village of Charmouth and out to sea.

The Project aims to bring the river back to health, to make the water safer for local people and visitors to enjoy and to allow wildlife that has disappeared from the Char Valley to return and flourish there.

The group say that a specific problem for Charmouth is that the rain falling on the majority of its roofs enters the sewers rather than draining to soakaways.

Periods of heavy rain can overwhelm the system leading to screened but untreated sewage spilling into the River Char around 15 times a year. This was said to be one of the reasons why there is an environmental alert on a sign at Charmouth Pool by the river mouth warning that the beach stream is unsuitable for swimming or paddling.

These spills add to the Char’s acknowledged phosphate, nitrate and mercury pollution.

The river mouth is also said to be heavily polluted with plastic ‘biobeads’ which are known to be used in some sewage treatment plants to the west of Charmouth.

The project aims to implement water-saving and water harvesting measures within the community to reduce the number of these spills.

The Community Project was formed in early 2022. It is working closely with Wessex Water and has support from Charmouth Parish Council and from Char Valley Parish Council's own Community Project, which covers the River Char higher up the valley and is run by Dorset AONB and Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Both projects together aim to identify sources of pollution to the river (run-off from farmland, leaking septic tanks, sewage spills, etc.), to measure regularly pollution and water quality in the Char and its tributaries to build public awareness and to reduce pollution dramatically. To find out more and join the Community Project, visit www.riverchar.org