Taking on the fight to save our chalk streams with Shark-dressed man Feargal

Feargal Sharkey discusses the shocking state of Britain's rivers and the failures that have led us to a looming environmental catastrophe.

Nada and Feargal Sharkey stand on the banks of the River Lea in London

It was during a chat with Undertones frontman turned campaigner Feargal Sharkey when I first realised the perilous state of one of our most important ecosystems.

We were standing on the banks of the River Lea - a socially-distanced two feet apart - on a windy afternoon in March 2021 when I spotted a rare water vole.

I’m in walking boots and a raincoat and feeling very underdressed compared to Feargal who is wearing a slick, tailored black suit. 

He tells me how the water voles have only recently reappeared after he went to war with his local water firm to clean up his beloved fishing spot.

It might look like a normal stretch of water but this river is “one of the rarest habitats on Earth”.

There are only 210 chalk streams in the world, and England is home to 85% of them - Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows was set on one.