Young environmental campaigners protesting at Hereford’s river Wye today (November 30) are demanding that chicken-themed restaurant chain Nando’s clean up its “polluting” supply chain.

Backed by campaign groups Save the Wye, Friends of the River Wye, People v Profiteers and River Action, the protesters were due to unveil a large banner on the city’s Victoria Bridge over the river Wye saying: “Nando’s: Your chicken is killing our rivers”.

The campaigners say that waste from the many intensive poultry units across the Wye and Severn catchments is “devastating” the rivers by causing lethal “blooms” of algae which kill plants and wildlife.

They claim that Nando’s processes over half a million chickens each week, sourced many from the Wye catchment.

The pollution problem has led government agency Natural England to recently downgrade the river’s ecological status to “unfavourable-declining”.

Nando’s website says sustainability “isn’t just a buzzword” and has had a sustainability team in place for over ten years, along with a chicken welfare policy.

But campaigners claim the company “fails to provide transparency about its supply chain” – which “directly contradicts its public commitments to environmental responsibility”.

Tilda Mason, aged 14, from Hereford said: “The River Wye used to be one of Britain’s most beautiful rivers. Now the river I love is being destroyed by millions and millions of factory farmed chickens.”

Her sister Etta, 11, added: “We used to really like swimming in the river with our friends. Now it’s really brown and disgusting!”

River Action head of campaigns Amy Fairman said Nando’s and other food retailers “have been complicit in the river pollution crisis for far too long”.

“It’s time they acknowledge their responsibility in safeguarding our crucial natural environments,” she said. “They can prove that its sustainability claims are more than greenwashed marketing slogans.”

Nando’s was asked whether it intends to address the issues raised by the protesters.