My father, Alan Keys, who has died aged 78, was a water quality campaigner. He not only highlighted the problem of the UK’s polluted rivers, but tried to find a way to revitalise them. He transformed himself from an intensive poultry farmer into a conservationist, and his innovative use of non-invasive comfrey plants to clean agricultural runoff offered hope for farmers and rivers alike.
Born in Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to Jack, a Methodist minister, and his wife, Lila (nee Gilpin), Alan went to Belfast boys’ model school. After studying at what is now CAFRE, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise, Loughry, he built up a successful poultry business just outside Cookstown. Like most farmers at that time, he spread nutrient-rich chicken litter across the fields and was unaware that the practice was helping to choke aquatic life downstream from the nearby Ballinderry River, which feeds into Lough Neagh.
Later, from his observations as an angler, he began to realise the extent of the problem. By the 1980s the Ballinderry was beginning to die, and was hit by successive pollution events. In 1984 Alan helped to found the Ballinderry River Enhancement Association (BREA), which brought together angling clubs to identify pollution hotspots, restore habitats and conserve wildlife.
In 1995 he made the decision to give up farming to work in river enhancement full-time. He became the manager at BREA, which evolved into Ballinderry Rivers Trust (BRT) and although he retired officially in 2018, he continued to work for it on a voluntary basis for the rest of his life.
His philosophy was elegantly simple: “Think like a fish.” When developing conservation strategies throughout his career, he would first ask: “What would the fish want?”
He was well known for his systematic approach, checking water quality at bridge after bridge, and he used simple logic and observation to track down pollution sources. His frequent calls reporting pollution to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency earned him the affectionate nickname “AK47” – a play on his initials and birth year.
While others pursued hi-tech solutions, Alan championed much simpler approaches: the BRT led a team that looked for innovative ideas to clean up the dirty water that ran from farmyards to the nearest stream, and from 2021 to 2023 ran a project on comfrey, a hardy perennial that could absorb excess nutrients while providing farmers with valuable silage or fertiliser.
Among his achievements was protecting the globally endangered freshwater pearl mussel in the Ballinderry River; they are an “indicator species”, one of the first to be affected by poor water quality. The trust set up “sanctuaries” at carefully chosen locations.
Alan was made MBE in 1994 for his conservation work.
He is survived by his wife, Libby (nee Campbell), whom he married in 1969, their children, Clare, David and me, and his grandchildren, Joseph and Tilly.
