SWV Rivers Forum
Why SWV?
SupportingWoundedVeterans’ mission is to enable wounded veterans, mentally or physically damaged, to return to employment. All our strategy pillars are designed to help our veterans get back to society in good or better shape than when they first came to us using various programmes. Involvement in these programmes gives them confidence in their abilities as well as opportunities to “give back”, “lead” and “participate” exactly as they did during their service in the Forces.
There are some 1500 discrete river systems in the United Kingdom comprising over 200,000 km of watercourses. Only 14% of England’s rivers meet good ecological status, with only one river given safe swimming accreditation. Scotland is the only country within the United Kingdom where over 50% of its rivers meet good ecological health.To tackle the issues of pollution there is not one “cure-all” and particularly no easy alternatives for some of the problems. However, trying to avoid working in silos and realising that working better together will give much more impetus and strength to finding solutions.
The treatment of our nation’s waterways is potentially the next biggest battle to be faced down by our veterans. The charity is convening the Forum to design and implement a plan to be used throughout the four nations and involves veterans in the planning, logistics and implementation of the strategy.
