The Great UK WaterBlitz: what happens behind-the-scenes

19th August 2025

The Great UK WaterBlitz is a biannual campaign calling on everyone to go out and test the quality of their local rivers, streams and lakes. This helps to build a picture of water quality across the UK. 

The Autumn Great UK WaterBlitz, taking place during 19-22 September, will be our fourth WaterBlitz. With nearly 8,000 people taking part in our spring campaign, it has become the UK’s largest water testing campaign!

But what does it take to make something this big happen? Let’s go behind-the-scenes with some members of the team who make it possible.

Meet the team

How they make it happen

Ben – “My role is handling fulfilment and logistics, which in a nutshell means sourcing all the items that make up a WaterBlitz pack, getting them into an envelope and through people’s letterboxes as efficiently as possible.”

Caroline – “It’s my job to project manage the Great UK WaterBlitz events, making sure everything is planned and runs smoothly and efficiently.” 

Josh – “My team help promote WaterBlitz participation to as many people as possible, so that everyone can get involved in testing their local freshwater. We also help to share the findings of the campaign, so that people can understand the issues facing their local waterbodies and to fight to improve the health of their freshwater.”

Laura – “I come in after the hard work has been done by the Earthwatch team and the citizen scientists who make the sampling weekend happen. My job is to help to quality control the data – making sure that all the points are where they should be and that any finger errors and other small glitches are picked up and sorted out.

Then comes the fun part for me, when I work with the data by country, region, catchment, and constituency to determine the percentage of surveys with acceptable and unacceptable water quality in each and rank them accordingly. It has been amazing to see how, thanks to successful campaigning and fantastic public uptake, the number of data points has increased with each Blitz. This means that we have covered a wider area more thoroughly each time, thanks to the citizen scientists.”

Sasha – “I consider myself super lucky because my role is extremely varied. I lead on some of the partnerships with other organisations, such as Imperial College London, to bring exciting new elements to the Blitzes like this September’s chemical testing; I get involved in some of the promotional content creating; I help with data analysis and writing up the report; and most fun of all, I get to take part!”

It’s about the small details

Who knew there were so many options for envelopes?! Or that glue dots could be so tricky! – Caroline

Ben – “With so many moving parts, the little details matter – weighing different paper thicknesses to see whether they will push your mail into a different weight category is one that springs to mind.”

Caroline – “The most surprisingly complicated thing about organising the campaign are the tiny details! Who knew there were so many options for envelopes?! Or that glue dots could be so tricky!”

Laura – “There is a relatively short time between closing the sampling window and publishing the report and it’s a VERY intense period. But it’s also great to work with the team in a very focused way on the single goal of using the WaterBlitz data for change.”

Sasha – “We have members of the team quality control checking the data as it comes in, so we can pick up anything unusual – like a geolocation gone wrong showing rivers running through peoples’ homes!”

How it all comes together

Feedback from people taking part keeps us motivated! We’re so lucky to have a network of amazing volunteers going out in all weathers to do the water testing. – Josh

Caroline – “Keeping track of thousands of kits and results can be a challenge, but thankfully we have a wonderful team who are pros at what they do, and our brilliant FreshWater Watch platform stores all the data making it instantly accessible for everyone.”

Josh – “Feedback from people taking part keeps us motivated! We’re so lucky to have a network of amazing volunteers going out in all weathers to do the water testing. The volunteers are so engaged and upbeat about making the UK’s rivers healthier that it’s really inspiring. It makes all the stress and complication worthwhile.”

Laura – “The hours may be long but it’s a positive experience and it helps to strengthen the team at the same time. And we have a lot of fun together because there are always new challenges with new ideas and ways of working being developed in response, so it’s certainly not boring!

It is incredibly satisfying to see each step of the quality control, analysis, report writing and design fall into place. Through it all we check in on each other and help each other with any issues that arise – it’s a very supportive team. We enjoy the transformation from a raw dataset to a polished report that shows very clearly, through the effort of thousands of people working together over one weekend, what the current state of the UK’s waterbodies really is.”

Sasha – “It feels like we’ve got the WaterBlitz down to a fine art; our communications team promote the campaign, our project managers handle the logistics, our community engagement specialists help with participant questions, our scientists analyse the data, and then it’s back to the communications team who work tirelessly to give the results back to our participants. As a result, there’s no single busiest time for everyone – we’re all busy at different stages and all championing each other when it’s our turn to rest!”

The strengths of the science

People care about their local rivers, streams, canals, lakes and ponds, but they don’t always know what exactly is going on with them. – Laura

Josh – “I think the balance of making the science work and keeping it accessible is a relatively easy one to hit – the people taking part in the WaterBlitz really want to make a positive difference and they know that the best way to do that is through robust data collection. Our kits are easy to use, and the tests are quick – less than 10 minutes – so you really can make a difference for FreshWater in less time than it takes to make and drink a cup of tea!”

Laura – “The strength is that, because more and more people are taking part, we are building a more complete a picture of the UK’s water quality. People care about their local rivers, streams, canals, lakes and ponds, but they don’t always know what exactly is going on with them.

Good science is the key to giving people the correct information, so when people participate in the WaterBlitz, it’s a privilege to be able to synthesise the weekend’s results. It helps the public not only understand their own waterbody better, but to understand it within the local, regional, and national context. At the same time, we make sure that the results are meaningful to policymakers, regulators, and water service providers – through the report and through news, blogs, and social media.

We are confident about our results because the FreshWater Watch method has been thoroughly researched and is a safe, robust, repeatable, easy-to-use water quality testing approach. With all of that taken care of as standard, we can focus on telling the stories from the data.”

Sasha – “I think the great thing about our FreshWater Watch testing kits is that they are both scientifically robust and easy to use; so anyone can get involved in some truly informative scientific research.

The strength of the data is in the amount we collect; last WaterBlitz we had 4,000 datapoints over four days; generating an incredibly powerful snapshot of water quality across the whole of the UK. The limitation is that this is just a snapshot; water quality is changing all the time, so we also need more frequent citizen science monitoring through our FreshWater Watch community groups.”

Why they love it

The collective sense of purpose, the collaborative effort, is what makes it all worthwhile. – Sasha

Ben – “It keeps the state of the UK’s fresh water relentlessly in the public arena.”

Caroline – “It’s the people. 100%. It makes me so proud of our community, and hopeful for the future, to know that there are thousands of people who care and want to see change. I love to read the stories and see the photos that people share with us.”

Josh – “I love seeing the pictures of people doing the testing, particularly families. It’s so nice to see people enjoying the campaign.”

Laura – “Being part of something big and helping to make it happen.”

Sasha – “I love how the energy of the team is reflected in the enthusiasm of our citizen scientists. We couldn’t do this work without them, so the collective sense of purpose, the collaborative effort, is what makes it all worthwhile.”

Moments that matter

The story made local news and was just a fantastic example of participants taking action for their precious freshwater based on the data they and their communities had collected. – Sasha

Ben – “Seeing the map of the UK covered head to toe in datapoints after the event and knowing that each one of those points is someone who is concerned about water quality in this country shows how important this campaign is in bringing people together to showcase meaningful data.”

Caroline – “For me it’s that moment when I see a river or stream and it’s actually clear and has some life in, it’s such a surprise. And that breaks my heart – it should be that way every time I look. That’s why I want to fight for cleaner waters.”

Josh – “I know it sounds corny, but I love doing this with my kids. We go out together and test the water and they’re both so engaged in what we’re doing and they understand why it’s important.”

Laura – “When an extremely well-respected Emeritus Professor in the field of water quality, who over decades has advised governments, shaped policies, written many, many foundational papers, and graduated many, many Master’s and PhD’s, gets in touch to make sure that they will be receiving their WaterBlitz kit for the third time in row, you know we’re getting it right!”

Sasha – “I spoke to a participant in Rutland – which has twice had the worst water quality in the UK according to our WaterBlitz data – who took the results to Rutland County Council and ultimately to the water companies servicing that county. The story made local news and was just a fantastic example of participants taking action for their precious freshwater based on the data they and their communities had collected.”

Join the Great UK WaterBlitz movement

Our rivers and freshwater habitats are at crisis point and we need urgent action. Sign up to the Great UK WaterBlitz to join the fight for healthy freshwater this September! Help us build a national picture of water quality across the UK.

We’re calling on everyone to go out and test the quality of their local river, stream or lake during 19-22 September. Sign up to order your free water testing kit and join the Great UK WaterBlitz.