CONSERVATION group Transition Town Wellington are honouring the local waterways with a week-long celebration.

From Monday, July 14, until Saturday, July 19, the Water Guardians of Transition Town Wellington will be taking over the Fore Street Pop-Up Shop to promote ways in which residents can help care for nearby rivers and streams.

Volunteers will be sharing information and training from the Westcountry Rivers Trust to encourage locals to become citizen scientists.

To tie off the week, on Saturday, July 19, the Water Guardians will be hosting an afternoon of talks, discussions and a screening of a water-themed documentary film.

Talks will take place from 2pm until 5pm, featuring speakers including MP for Taunton and Wellington, Gideon Amos, who will speak on his River Tone and French Weir Park campaigns; Zoe Connelly, Evidence and Engagement Officer for Westcountry Rivers Trust, who will talk on the work of the Water Guardians; Vicky Whitworth of Kit Brook Restoration Project and Friends of the River Axe, who will talk about the headwaters of the Axe catchment; and Gill Westcott of Friends of the River Exe, who will talk about the group’s efforts to protect the Exe.

At 5pm, the documentary film ‘I Am the River, the River is Me’ will be screened at the Arts Centre.

Directed by Petr Lom, the 2025 documentary shares the story of the Whanganui River, in New Zealand, the first river to be recognised as having ‘legal personhood’ - it now has similar protections to a human being.

The ruling has come after many years of disagreements between the state and the indigenous Maori people, who regard the river as essential to their physical and spiritual livelihood and who feel themselves to be intrinsically connected to the river.

The film will be followed by discussion about the “Rights for Nature” movement.

For more information, visit the Transition Town Wellington website.