The Rivers Trust, in its latest State of Our Rivers Report has described Britain’s rivers as being “in a desperate state, with no tangible improvements since our first report in 2021”.
The trust reported that in all areas, “agriculture and land management, the water industry, and urban pollution are found to be the main causes of health test failures”. Agricultural activities contribute to 62% of failures, while the water industry has a part in 54% and urban and transport activities are involved in 26% (failures can arise from more than one cause so these figures do not add up to 100). 39% of river stretches have a failure which is under investigation.
The Rivers Trust said “We need to see government provide the funding and political will required to enforce our current laws, move forward with long-promised strategies around chemicals and land use, and rapidly roll-out nature-based solutions to build climate resilience and support nature recovery.”
It called on government to invest in tougher regulation outlawing more polluting products, such as persistent chemicals: "We need to use our existing laws to fully enforce the polluter pays principle. Properly funding regulators and providing consistent political support for their role is essential,” it said.
It urged the administration to work to make nature-based solutions mainstream. “Government must support efforts to break down barriers to the roll-out of large-scale nature-based solutions, by establishing strategic guidance and regulatory frameworks and standards that incentivise business and regulators to confidently work with nature”. And it called on government to integrate citizen science into a collaborative monitoring framework: “We need a clear framework and reliable standards around citizen science so that this data can be trusted and used by decision-makers, leading to better management of our rivers. This doesn’t replace regulatory monitoring, but it adds better coverage, responsiveness and transparency.”
The trust called on businesses to work collaboratively with their employees, supply chains and local communities to build a more resilient economy and reduce shared water risks. And it looked to businesses to push “new and innovative solutions that go beyond governmental and regulatory requirements.”
It said many businesses agreed that they should actually set targets that push boundaries and set the scene for new innovative solutions. “New technologies such as AI, sensors, satellites and drones could be explored to help us develop bolder ideas for water use and efficiency."
Current state of rivers in England
0% of stretches of rivers are in good or high overall health
15% achieve good ecological standards
23% are in poor or bad overall status
None of England’s rivers are in good chemical health. This means that the concentrations of toxic chemicals are higher than the safe limit in every single river in England.
Nearly 6% fewer stretches of river were assessed in the 2022 Water Framework Directive monitoring compared to 2019
Of the 3,553 river stretches analysed 151, got better since 2019 and moved up an ecological standard, but 158 got worse.
The trust pointed out that in 2016, 97% of rivers passed their chemical health test, yet when the testing methods were changed in 2019, every river assessed in England failed the chemical health standards.
The key reasons for this failure are ubiquitous, persistent, bioaccumulative toxic substances which include mercury (now banned) which used to be in medicines; brominated diphenyl ethers formerly used as a flame retardant; the now-banned tributyltin that was used to clean barnacles from boats; and some polyaromatic hydrocarbons leached from burnt wood.
The Rivers Trust said its analysis of government data showed that, despite being banned 15 years ago, levels of the toxic “forever” chemical, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, in freshwater fish in England, is still found in concentrations averaging more than 300 times the levels deemed safe for aquatic life.
State of rivers in Northern Ireland
0% of stretches of rivers are in good or high overall health and 12% were given either poor or bad overall status
31% achieved good ecological status, and just 2 stretches achieved high ecological status, and
70% failed to meet the requirements for good ecological status
47% failed to reach good biological status, which measures the health of living things in the water
53% were given good or high general physico-chemical status, which looks at conditions that affect life in the river, such as temperature and nutrient composition;
100% of river stretches were given moderate chemical status.
Toxic chemicals in the water that come from plastic and mercury presence in the animal and plant life were common contributors to rivers failing to meet high chemical status.
68% of groundwater bodies in Northern Ireland achieved good overall status, 55% were found to be in poor chemical health and 29% failed to meet the criteria for “good” chemical status.
State of rivers in Wales
The latest round of Water Framework Directive assessments in 2021 showed 44% of Wales’s river stretches achieved at least good overall status. And good chemical status was found in 94% success rate for good status. But the Rivers Trust reported that, while these figures are often used to make favourable comparisons between the state of Welsh rivers and those in other parts of the UK,
The Rivers Trust’s Welsh counterpart, Afonydd Cymru, was concerned about “the way in which assessments for Water Framework Directive are being carried out in Wales”. According to the trust, Afonydd Cymru believes that differences in waterbody status are “more a reflection of differences in monitoring and reporting carried out by Natural Resources Wales, as opposed to any tangible environmental improvement”.
State of rivers in Scotland
Fisheries Management Scotland’s member District Salmon Fishery Boards and Rivers and Fisheries Trusts reported in the State of Our Rivers Report that “in the face of the wild salmon and biodiversity crises we urge the Scottish government, and all relevant Agencies are doing everything possible to ensure that our aquatic environment is protected and restored.
The proportion of Scotland’s river stretches assessed as being in good or better overall condition is now 57.2%, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s classifications for 2022. This equates to an improvement in overall condition for 23 river stretches (to good status or better) since 2020. SEPA’s Water Environment Hub identifies rural diffuse pollution, man-made barriers to fish migration, modifications to physical condition of rural rivers, water use by hydropower and unidentified ecological pressures as the five issues which affect most river stretches in Scotland.
State of rivers in the Republic of Ireland
just over 50% of river waterbodies achieved good or high ecological status and 17% are classed as in poor or bad ecological health;
compared to lakes (31%), coastal (39%) and transitional waters (14%), a far lower percentage of rivers (8%) achieved high ecological status; and
94% of rivers in Ireland were not assessed for chemicals, but of the 193 that were surveyed, 60% failed and 40% passed standards.
Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency found that almost 92% of groundwater sites sampled achieved good groundwater chemical status, and 8% were graded poor.
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