A new guide for your home, and a new website

We have launched two things this week: the Household River Care Manual, a new guide to what every home can do for the Dart, and a new Friends of the Dart website.

The Household River Care Manual

The manual is the part we most want you to see. Water companies and farming carry much of the responsibility for pollution in the Dart, but some of it starts in ordinary homes: the sink, the loo, the drive, the dog. None of it is done on purpose, and most of it is easy to change.

The manual goes room by room, from the kitchen and bathroom to drains, the garden and the dog, with the evidence behind every action. There is a page for homes that aren’t on mains drainage, with advice on septic tanks. If you only have a few minutes, start with ten things you can do this weekend: a fat jar by the cooker, a bin in the bathroom, old medicines back to the pharmacy. You can print a one-page fridge sheet or download the whole manual as a PDF.

When you have read it, make a pledge for your household. We count pledges by parish, so we can show where change is happening. Please share the manual with neighbours, your parish council or a local group. The more homes that use it, the more difference it makes.

A new website

We rebuilt the website to make our evidence easier to find and use. The old site had grown piece by piece. The new one is organised around what people come to us for: what is in the river, what we are doing about it, and how to help.

The home page now shows the Dart as it is right now, with figures pulled live from River Hub: how many storm overflows are spilling, the 31 sites we have lab-tested over two years, and the upgrades our evidence has helped secure. That is 16 sites so far, including UV treatment at Kilbury.

We are also fundraising for River Guardians, a network of local volunteers who each look after their own stretch of the Dart or one of its tributaries, with training in spotting and reporting pollution. If you would like to be one, the page explains how it will work. Businesses can support the network as Business Friends of the Dart.

Our testing results, reports and responses to government consultations are now in one place under Resources. Journalists and councillors have their own pages, with sourced figures and local briefings.

Our water testing continues into Phase 4. A donation of £20 pays for one lab test, and you can give on our Support page.

Old links should take you to the right new page. If anything looks wrong or is missing, let us know.