They criticise struggle to fill water containers beside river (9)
I believe the answer is:
reviewers
'they criticise' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'struggle to fill water containers beside river' is the wordplay.
'struggle' becomes 'vie' (to vie is to struggle or contend with).
'to fill' indicates putting letters inside.
'water containers' becomes 'ewers' (ewer is a type of jug for water).
'beside' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'vie' put inside 'ewers' is 'eviewers'.
'eviewers' put after 'r' is 'REVIEWERS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for reviewers that I've seen is " critics".)