Message in a Bottle

• Why? The UK’s water system is in crisis. Clive Lewis MP’s Water Bill aims to help, but for it to gain momentum, MPs need to show up and listen. Young people can help by inviting their MPs to attend the hearing and take action.
• What? Students write letters, draw pictures, or craft messages about their concerns and hopes for water in the UK. Messages go inside used plastic bottles and are delivered to MPs.
• When? Messages must reach MPs by Friday 28th February 2025 to make an impact before the Bill’s reading on Friday 28th March 2025.
• How? Get creative! Use this as a half-term project: letter writing, artwork, or poetry. Share your efforts with us and on social media using #MessageInABottle.

Water is essential for all life, but right now, the UK is facing serious problems with water. From floods to droughts, polluted rivers to wasted resources, the way we manage water is putting our environment, wildlife, and communities at risk. With climate change making things worse, the time to act is now.

People are calling for better water management, less pollution, and stronger rules to protect our water and the animals and plants that rely on it. They want to know what the Government will do if our water isn’t clean enough to be safe to drink or bathe, and what will happen if there isn’t enough. 

MP for Norwich South, Clive Lewis is asking the Government these questions on behalf of the people of England and Wales through his Private Members Bill: Overhauling the Failing Water System that will be read in Parliament on Friday 28th March 2025. It needs as many MPs as possible from across England and Wales to attend the reading in the Houses of Parliament to make sure that this Bill receives plenty of attention to start this conversation in Government. 

We met with Clive and asked how PACTS could help get his important message out. Clive said that he needs as many MPs as possible from across England and Wales to attend the reading in the Houses of Parliament to make sure that this Bill receives plenty of attention to start this conversation in Government. 

People have been setting afloat bottles with messages of distress, hope and even love  for hundreds of years across the seas hoping that someone will find them and respond. Shipwrecked sailors or travelers in peril would throw messages in bottles overboard hoping the tides would carry their pleas for help to civilization.

So we thought, maybe this is how we can help… if students wrote messages of their worries about water, of their hopes for the future and a request for help … maybe this could be our modern version of an SOS to call for help and hope. 

We can feel so lonely and disempowered with our worries about the environment, but Clive’s Water Bill wants to bring the public together with a strong voice.

Do you know the line in The Police's song 'Message in a Bottle'...

 Listen now

What if we could get schools across the country to flood MP’s desks and offices with messages in bottles?!

So, here’s our big ask…. we want as many kids in as many schools as possible to send a message in a bottle to their MPs. 

Write a letter, do a drawing, make it colourful, creative and compelling! Put it in a used plastic bottle, then take all of your messages in bottles and deliver them to your local MP. Take photos - share them with your friends and families and your local newspaper using the #messageinabottle to let them know just how important this is! 

This campaign should be fast and creative! 

Clive needs MPs to know they need to go to the reading of the Bill by Friday 28th February 2025, so find creative ways of making these letters in your school day…

School children could…

•  write these letters to practice writing compelling letters in their English lessons, 

• or history lessons (Christopher Columbus reportedly tossed a bottle into the Atlantic containing a report of his discoveries), 

• in an art lesson to make your messages bright and creative, 

• in geography lessons to learn about the flow of tides (sewegemap.co.uk use integrated hydrological digital terrain models to create a map that shows, in real-time, which river sections are downstream of sewage discharges from storm overflows),  

• or make it a school holiday homework project.  

These are great teaching resources on issues affecting clean water and sanitation (SDG6) you can use with your students to help inform them on issues facing water now and in the future in the UK. We have links to useful teaching resources on water you can use.

1. Play this video in class and let Clive Lewis break down the Water Bill and how to get involved! (Youtube, Vimeo)

2. Get your class to write letters to your MP telling them what worries them about water, what hopes they have, even what they love about and to do with water, and ask them to go to the reading of the Water Bill in Parliament on Friday 28th March 2025. Make the letters as bright, creative and compelling as you like! Find out your MPs name, make it personal. (Here’s a link to find them and their address)

3. Put your messages into used plastic bottles (we don’t want to add to pollution)

4. Deliver your schools messages in their bottles to your MP en masse before Friday 28th February 2025. *Please ask your MP to recycle the bottles when they have read your messages*

5. Take plenty of photos and share them with the PACTS team, family and friends and your local newspaper. Use #messageinabottle when you share. And please share with us by replying to this email or via hello@rebootthefuture.org

Share the idea with as many people as possible. You might have clubs that you attend that could make messages in bottles too!

You could even tell your local newspaper what you’re planning and see if they would come along and photograph your school’s delivery. 

This campaign isn’t just about sending bottles—it’s about giving young people a voice. It’s about showing MPs the power of collective action and inspiring them to stand up for water, nature, and the future.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s send a tidal wave of messages to MPs and show the government that we care about creating a future where water—and life—can truly flourish.

We hope you’re as excited about this as we are.

Please get in touch if you have any questions and we’d love you to share your photos with us too.

This campaign is powered by PACTS (Politicians Accountable for Climate To Students), a school-based initiative that empowers students to influence politicians and hold them accountable for climate action.

 

Sign up to PACTS to download your PACTS Teacher Pack and help your pupils build a relationship with their local MP to drive real change on climate issues.