Government must act urgently to save our rivers; proposed water quality targets represent a ‘death sentence’ for the River Wye

Join us in responding to major Government consultations to call for urgent action to save our rivers!

Read on to find out how you can help…

The crisis facing our rivers cannot be overstated: we are heading into yet another summer with every river in the country failing to meet basic environmental standards and some, such as the River Wye, facing imminent ecological collapse.

Our wildlife is disappearing, our rivers are not fit to swim in, and government and regulators so far appear to have been unable to get to grips with the scale of this crisis.

We simply cannot afford any rolling back of the already meagre protections and incentives we have for our rivers. Instead, we need Government to step up and strengthen these.

Additionally, our rivers only have any hope of survival if we can address the agricultural pollution crisis and transition to more sustainable and regenerative farming practices. While these are challenging times for the farming and food industry, we cannot afford to delay action further. We need Government to recognise that the food system is broken and to support solutions that help both people and nature, rather than taking a short-term approach and trading off the two: reducing the country’s dependence on imported inorganic fertilisers and increasing nutrient recycling through the wise use of manures and wastes would both bring costs down for farmers and also save our rivers.

As the situation becomes increasingly desperate, River Action is responding to two major Government consultations to share our views and call for action – and we’re calling on you to have your say too! The Nature Recovery consultation closes this Wednesday (11^th May) and the Environment Act consultation on Monday 27^th June so please make sure you have submitted your responses by then.

You can find River Action’s response to the consultation on the  Government’s Nature Recovery Green Paper here and you can respond to the consultation until Wednesday 11^th May here.

You can find River Action’s response to the consultation on new legally-binding water quality targets under the Environment Act here and you can respond to the consultation until Monday 27^th June here.

Please feel free to use any or all of our answers in formulating your response – and do get in touch if you have any questions at all or need any further information!