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I've spent my life toying with questions that start with 'what if...'. Not many people are comfortable building their livelihood on questions like this. But from an early age these question set me free, it gave me purpose. However it comes at a great cost. In rowing, the cost was the lifestyle of being a performance athlete, the pain during training, but the success set me free in ways i couldn't imagine.
A rowing career has transformed, not far, to water, to our rivers and lakes, and the sad state they're in. My focus has been for some time on the mechanics that has led to the abuse and neglect this critical environment has endured. Water is a human right, unfortunately human nature leads some of us to translate this as a right to pollute, to take without concern. What if we can change this perception, how can we change this.
The solution is visibility. We can all see our rivers, but we can't see into them. We can't, except a few, penetrate into the aquatic world. The solution is data; accessible, actionable data that makes water visible. The idea has grown from the wonderful mind of Paul Edmunds, a more passionate, generous and unassuming person you'll never meet. His journey started with 'what if...', and he's been breaking this question down every day to come up with the answer.
What if you could see river water quality like the weather forecast?
What if you could see river water quality like Trip Advisor?
What if we can see river water quality with the same openness as a belching dark chimney, a coughing blue smoke exhaust?
What if citizens could see water quality at the same time as those who pollute do themselves.
Aquascope is playing its part to answer these questions. It's pulling together data from many different sources, working with stakeholders, citizens and businesses in a clear transparent and independent way. Our job is to make make rivers visible, so business can build business cases, so citizens can build campaigns, so we can all effectively steward our rivers and lakes.
So:
What if we can change the way people see water...
What if the rivers and lakes around us are teaming with life, are clean enough to enjoy without thinking twice about pathogens,
what if they're as nature intended.
I believe we can do this, through data, and lots of it; to the right people, in a format that they can use. We've cracked the way to produce this data to a high degree of confidence, and break it down so people to understand it.
All we need to do now test it, run it through its paces, knock it around a bit, make it race ready. Then we can release it into the world - and i can't wait!