About ARK
 

Action for the River Kennet is a group of people who care about the Rivers Kennet and Pang and their tributaries. We are catchment hosts for the Kennet Catchment Partnership and joint hosts for the South Chilterns Catchment Partnership.


ARK is a membership organisation and our members include local people who enjoy having a healthy river as part of their living environment; tourists and visitors who enjoy walking by and fishing in the Kennet; and environmentalists who want to see a valuable chalk stream protected.

We have a strong volunteer team who monitor the health of the river and, working alongside a project officer, take practical action to improve and restore habitats.

As well as taking action on the ground we campaign to protect the river.

 
  • We succesfully campaigned to reduce abstraction and export of water from the Kennet Valley to Swindon. As a result Thames Water have invested 30 million pounds in a new pipeline that will protect the River Kennet by providing and alternative source of water for Swindon during low flow conditions. We continue to press for improvements to leave more water in the river for wildlife. 
  • ARK are campaigning to reduce domestic water consumption.
  • We campaign to improve water quality, believing that every river should be fit to support a healthy wildlife population and pose no risk to human health. Marlborough Sewage Treatment Works was one of the first treatment works in the country to be fitted with a phosphate stripper to improve the quality of treated sewage effluent.  This was largely a consequence of ARK's campaigning.
 
  • ARK watches and comments on planning decisions which may affect the health of the river.
 
  • ARK has caused the Environment Agency to rewrite its consent mechanisms regarding Sewage Sludgecake Storage to protect watercourses from nutrient loaded runoff.

We are a proud member of The Rivers Trust, and are a registered Charity - no: 11207525