‘Save the Deben campaign’ demands legal identity for the River Deben!

‘Save The Deben’, a campaigning group founded by County Councillor
Caroline Page and local Visual Artist Ruth Leach, announces the
second reading of the draft ‘UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF THE
RIGHTS OF RIVERS ‘at Whisstocks Place, Woodbridge, at 12.30 on
Saturday 24th September, 2022.

The Declaration will be transported by long distance swimmers,
paddle boarders, kayakers, wild swimmers, rowers, Sea Scouts and
other recreational river users, in a 2-hour relay, up the Deben from
Felixstowe Ferry/Bawdsey Quay to Woodbridge Quayside where it will
be handed over and read by a guest speaker, at high tide of the
Autumn equinox.

This is being done in support of an international trend towards
granting rivers legal personhood. This status facilitates their legal
protection by empowering their guardians, often Town Councils, with
the right to sue in their defence thus protecting them from multiple
sources of contamination, which has historically resulted in the dire
state of our rivers.

The guest speaker is barrister Paul Powlesland, Co-Founder of
Lawyers for Nature, speaking on ‘The Rights of Nature’ followed by a
public question and answer session.

This will be part of an ‘Environmental Awareness Market and local
Food Fair’ (10am to 2pm) hosted by Transition Woodbridge in
Whisstocks Place and the whole event is hosted against the backdrop
of Jan Pulsford’s weekend long ‘Woodbridge Ambient music festival‘.