Water UK calls for a national plan for rivers backed up by a new Rivers Act

In a report published today, Water UK called for a “new deal for rivers” – crucially one that sees holistic action across sectors under the banner of a national plan, rather than leaving the bulk of responsibility for water quality on the shoulders of the water industry alone.

21st century rivers: ten actions for change acknowledged the £30bn of green investment that has been channeled through the water sector in the last 30 years and the positive achievements of the past, but went on to say that in the face of climate change and rising public expectations, “this is not enough”. It made the following ten recommendations under three stages: a new approach, new tools and delivering early changes.

A new approach

A national plan for rivers – create a clear, single, evidence-based, long-term plan for rivers between Government, regulators, water companies, agriculture, highways and other sectors through a steering group. This will help guide and prioritise investment and policy change, demonstrate how we will achieve good ecological status nationally, and establish an approach for going further, faster.

Protection in law – introduce a new ‘Rivers Act’ to ensure legal protection and close loopholes

in legislation that create unintended consequences. This should focus on outcomes, with the flexibility to ensure that innovation, particularly in nature-based solutions, can be delivered.

Local empowerment – the National Plan Steering Group should help build on the success of the Catchment Based Approach by agreeing three areas of support: more consistent expectations; more sustainable, long-term funding; and by integrating priorities at the local, catchment level into the plans that make the most difference on the ground, including local development plans, and the work of businesses, water companies and others.

Accountability – the National Plan Steering Group should adopt a data-driven approach that looks at all sources of harm within rivers. This should challenge and support each sector to find opportunities to build and sustain river health, and maximise the benefits to people and nature.

New tools

Next-generation monitoring –a national monitoring platform to collate and make available timely, accurate, multi-source data on ecology, chemistry, public-health and aesthetics from all rivers.

People – government, manufacturers, and retailers should work together to transform the public’s understanding of the water environment, campaigning to help consumers play their part too, especially on wet wipes, unflushables and water efficiency.

Prioritise nature – embed habitat restoration and species renewal across legislation and spending priorities to remove barriers to water companies, local authorities, NGOs, community groups, farmers and landowners working together to deliver solutions.

Delivering early changes

Abstraction – government to introduce a target under the Environment Bill to reduce the amount of water abstracted for the public water supply, to incentivise action and investment in the most impactful changes. The water industry’s next investment period, 2025-30, needs to enable a significant acceleration of efforts to all three components of resilience: demand, leakage reduction, and developing new sources of supply, consistent with working towards a one-in-500-year drought resilience target.

Storm overflows – agree a plan in 2022 to eliminate the 4% of harm caused by storm overflows to English rivers, starting with the most sensitive catchments. The plan should propose new measures to reduce and divert surface water away from drains, including a national commitment by Government on large scale sustainable drainage schemes.

Bathing rivers – co-creation of a new ‘bathing rivers’ framework for supporting the safe recreational use of inland waters, and deployment in every region of England.

Water UK chief executive, Christine McGourty, said: “Water companies are passionate about their own role as stewards of the natural environment and are committed to playing their part, but what’s needed is a clear, single, national plan, involving everyone – river users, customer groups, environmental charities, government, regulators as well as agriculture, highways, and all the sectors impacting river quality.”