The Government has today, 22^nd December, approved new plans to improve the health of England’s rivers and lakes.

However, a pattern of inaction to tackle pollution and other pressures over the past 15 years could see England’s waterways get worse before they get better, according to The Wildlife Trusts.

The new ‘River Basin Management Plans’ are the third instalment of proposals to restore nearly 5,000 rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters across England.

The first two sets of plans – from 2009 and 2015 – were supposed to oversee the recovery of a large proportion of these waters by 2015 and 2021 respectively. Both targets were largely missed.

Relentless pollution, combined with the impacts of extreme weather and drought, mean England’s waterways have seen little improvement since plans were first devised well over a decade ago.

Currently, only 16% of waters in England are in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards. This means that overall, 0% of England’s rivers, lakes, estuaries or seas are currently in a healthy condition.

Data shared during consultation on the plans indicated that only 204 of the near-5000 waters (4%) could be expected to be in good overall condition by 2027. Targets to improve the majority of waters – 3651 sites – would be pushed back to 2063.

Ali Morse, water policy manager for The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“Healthy waterways are the foundation for all life. Yet, for too long we have allowed our rivers and lakes to become poisoned, decimating aquatic wildlife and habitats. Worse still, the Government is intent on pushing through the dangerous Retained EU Law Bill, which could remove vital protections for wild places and minimum standards for water quality.

“We need ambitious targets to repair the immense damage inflicted on our natural world. Instead, the Government is comfortable with kicking action on rivers into the long grass. At this rate, a great deal of us will not see England’s rivers and lakes given a clean bill of health in our lifetimes – and that is nothing short of a tragedy.”

The Wildlife Trusts want to see the Government take urgent action on pollution to protect wildlife and clean up England’s waterways. This includes:

• Protecting and restoring small headwater streams, ponds and wetlands where a large proportion of aquatic wildlife spends at least part of its lifecycle. These areas are not subject to the regulations that require improvement plans.
• Tackling agricultural pollution alongside an ongoing focus on water industry pollution. Runoff from slurry, excess fertilisers, soil erosion and pesticide pollution are the reasons why around 40% of waters are failing standards. The new Environmental Land Management schemes must encourage farmers to create and restore wetlands, and to significantly reduce pollution to protect rivers, underpinned by effective regulation, advice and enforcement.
• Greater attention on the impacts of pollution downstream; the pollution from farming or sewage ultimately ends up in the sea, so investment and action should better account for the impacts not only on rivers but along coastlines too.

Pressures from water demand and pollution are incessant. Record-breaking temperatures and extended periods of low rainfall this year mean river flows have only just recovered and reservoirs remain well below regular levels. Despite the relative lack of rainfall, ‘storm overflows’ have been in frequent operation. These ‘safety valves’ across the sewage system allow water companies to release untreated wastewater into the environment during periods of ‘exceptional rainfall’, to avoid sewage backing up into customers’ homes. Their operation this year under normal and even dry conditions is a clear sign that investment in sewage infrastructure has not kept pace with what is needed. 

England’s waters are monitored against a range of factors to determine whether they can be considered in good health. This involves assessing pollution from heavy metals and pesticides, levels of excess nutrients that can harm aquatic habitats, the physical condition of rivers, the water levels and flows, and the state of wildlife, including fish and aquatic insects. For every assessment that is failed, management plans set out the actions needed to turn things around. 

The reason for the extremely long road to recovery of river health outlined in the new plans is, in the majority of cases, chemical pollution. Waterways are polluted by chemicals from landfill sites, urban runoff or agriculture, and when these chemicals have already reached the environment, there’s very little that can be done to remove them. It will take until at least the 2060s for waters to be clean from existing chemical pollution.

If controls on chemicals are relaxed through the Retained EU Law Bill, a wave of new pollutants could place the recovery of England’s rivers even further out of reach.