Clean river campaigns latest

Water UK has come out in support of the river clean-up campaigns being run by The Times and the i newspapers.

In a blog, director of policy, Stuart Colville, said many of the campaigns’ objectives mirror calls already made by water companies – for instance, for a single national plan for water and for more bathing rivers. Moreover, Colville welcomed the greater attention being placed on the state of water bodies, and hoped “dispassionate scrutiny” by the papers would go some way towards challenging the misinformation and assumptions found frequently on social media.

He added that far from being reluctant, water companies “want to invest” – including the £56bn for storm overflows and £14bn for seven new reservoirs – and are “determined to deliver their part”. However: “We now need government, regulators and others to make the same commitment – for example, by Defra delivering the outstanding legal changes called for by its own Storm Overflow Taskforce to accelerate the achievement of its targets.”

The Times and i campaigns last week covered topics including:

• claims that Ofwat has watered down the robustness of former wording on storm overflows in its PR24 methodology;

• criticism of water company self-monitoring;

• criticism of Severn Trent chief, Liv Garfield, holding the role of chair of the Council for Sustainable Business;

• agricultural pollution of the salmon River Faughan;

• the reported success of those refusing to pay Southern Water bills because of sewage pollution in getting debt collectors to back off; and

• a group of environmental scientists and government advisors urging prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to set a new target under the Environment Act of 75% of England’s 4,100-plus sites of special scientific interest – which included rivers – reaching favourable status by 2042 from 38% currently.

In addition, notable other reports last week on river health included:

• Private Eye’s front cover characterisation of the environment secretary as "weak Coffey".

• a new Guardian series on forever chemical pollution of European waterways; and

• A comment piece by broadcaster, Eamonn Homes, in support of jail terms for leading polluters.