David Brearley

Exeter alumnus raising awareness of river pollution

In January 2019, Exeter alumnus David Brearley (MEng Mechanical Engineering, 2018) will be heading to South East Asia to document the problem of plastic waste on the Mekong River.

He will be spending several weeks in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam before heading to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

David said: “My plan is not just to document the problem but also to help organisations currently out there with their efforts. Eight million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, which is the equivalent of a dump truck of plastic rubbish every minute. Reducing plastic loads by 50% in the 10 top-ranked rivers would reduce the total river-based load to the sea by 45%, and eight of these 10 rivers are in SE Asia.

“I’m going to be working with charities helping to educate the local communities about the effects of the pollution, taking part in clean-ups and hopefully talking to industry about some of the actions they could take at little or no extra cost.”

David, who was captain of Exeter University Canoe Club during his time at University, will be kayaking as much as possible to reduce his own environmental impact and trying to raise awareness of the issue amongst the UK white water and adventure sports community, who have a love and admiration for the area. He is also hoping to meet up with Olympic slalom athlete Mike Dawson in New Zealand, who is undertaking a similar project, and deliver a couple of talks to kayakers there for the end of their season. After the trip David will be heading to mainland Europe to give some additional talks at kayaking festivals from Italy to Norway.

For more information or to get involved in the project, visit Paddler Magazine.

Date: 12 December 2018