About Friends of the Rhee

Friends of the Rhee was established in 2020 under the umbrella of the Haslingfield and Harlton Eco Group.  For the next couple of years the group got to know the stretch of the River Rhee which runs past Haslingfield, conducting regular visual monitoring and water vole monitoring.  In 2022 Friends of the Rhee installed a wooden sign-post by the Haslingfield path, which names the Rhee as a tributary of the Cam.

In July 2024, Lara Hawkins from Friends of the Rhee joined the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Haslingfield Parish Council for an informative tour of the Haslingfield Water Recycling Centre (or Sewage Works).   The tour was facilitated by CamEO (Cam and Ely Ouse Partnership), and hosted and led by Anglian Water, with members from Cam Valley Forum (CVF) also in attendance.

We were given a thorough explanation of how the waste water from Haslingfield is treated, and the opportunity to put questions to the Anglian Water representatives who showed us around.  We discussed the capacity of the Centre, sewage discharges into the river and plans for future improvements.

After that meeting Cam Valley Forum shared recent monitoring data from the Rhee which shows that if it were designated as a Bathing Water, it would receive a “Poor” rating, with advice not to swim.  Haslingfield Parish Council (HPC) is keen to understand more about the water quality in the River Rhee so that it can provide guidance to Parishioners and visitors about the use of the river, in particular for activities such as fishing, bathing, paddling and dog walking.

The Parish Council is funding and Friends of the Rhee is co-ordinating a period of monitoring and testing of River Rhee Water quality.

Would you like to help us by volunteering for this collaborative, citizen science project? Please call or email Lara Hawkins   01223 874524 / 07881 348429 or larahawkinshome@yahoo.co.uk.  You can also look at our project page on the Haslingfield and Harlton Eco Group website.

More information about the water testing can be found through the following links:

  • Slides from a Friends of the Rhee zoom call about River Rhee Sampling and Testing for E-Coli
  • A May 2025 update from Friends of the Three about the water testing
  • Slides from a Friends of the Rhee presentation about the water testing, including results and observations
  • An August 2025 update from Friends of the Rhee about the water testing

Other ways you can help the river:

A huge problem at the moment is that during periods of heavy rainfall or storm events, the Water Recycling Centre becomes inundated with more water than it can treat, resulting in untreated waste water being discharged into the river. While the efficient running of the Centre is the responsibility of Anglian Water, there are measures that local residents can take to help reduce the problem of inundation, including:

  • Only flushing toilet paper and human waste down the toilets. Items with the specific ‘fine to flush’ logo can also be flushed. Items that simply say ‘flushable’ should not be flushed.
  • Laying down porous surfaces (e.g. gravel) rather than concrete for outdoor landscaping.
  • When planning home or garden improvements, make sure any waste rainwater (e.g. from shed roofs/extensions) is directed into a soakaway in the garden, not channelled into the sewer.
  • Considering having a ‘rain garden’, if you have the space – this is just a shallow dip in your garden, into which the run-off from roofs/hard standing is directed. It can be planted with water-loving plants.