We’re delighted to introduce Emma Dearnaley, our new Head of Legal at River Action. In our latest blog, we get to know more about Emma and the role that she will play to help rescue Britain’s rivers.
Q1. Tell us about yourself
Hello – I’m Emma.
I knew from pretty early on that I wanted to be a lawyer and, although I’ve now had a range of jobs, using the law has been the thread that has run through them all. I’ve charted my own course through roles in commercial and civil litigation at a global law firm, law enforcement, government policy and non-profits – before settling in environmental campaigning.
I decided to leave conventional City law in 2018 having become increasingly curious about the law’s societal role (and my own, as a lawyer) and frustrated by its lack of accessibility to those without power or deep pockets. A period of exploring roles acting in the public interest then followed. It was during my time at Good Law Project that I received a loud wake up call that made me realise I wanted to use my skills, experience and energy to find solutions to the interconnected climate, environmental and nature crises.
Alongside my day job, I am a trustee of two social justice charities – Cranstoun and Music of Life – who I support in their missions to, broadly put, empower people to make positive changes in their lives.
I am a pragmatic optimist driven by the need and opportunity to take action to protect and restore our rivers and environment, for us and for future generations. I believe nothing is more essential than this.
Q2. You were previously the Legal Director at Good Law Project (GLP). Tell us more about the role and your biggest highlights leading its legal work.
GLP is a campaign organisation that uses the law to hold power to account, protect the environment and uphold the rights of people and communities. As its Legal Director, I was responsible for developing and leading its strategic litigation and other legal work and I was part of its senior management team.
It was a fantastic role that provided a full immersion in legal campaigning – by which I mean the use of legal tools and processes to achieve change as part of a campaign strategy – and gave me the chance to work on many different issues of importance. GLP is probably best known for its work exposing the government’s ‘VIP lane’ for Covid-19 personal protective equipment contracts and Partygate, but it was the climate and environmental work that I was most drawn to and I proactively grew this strand of work.
The first case I developed was what became a judicial review against Defra’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan and GLP’s ‘Clean Waters’ campaign. As well as pushing for Defra’s plan to be improved (which it was as a result of one of our arguments), we looked to use the litigation to revive an English legal principle called the public trust doctrine that says the state has a duty to safeguard vital natural resources including rivers and hold them in trust for the public. That argument didn’t succeed in this case – we always knew it was very ambitious – but it may yet be used to protect water, as well as resources such as air, in cases that are to come – with its recognition in some US states giving cause for optimism. Beyond the legal outcomes, this campaign raised public awareness and – together with the work of other groups like River Action – helped to push the sewage pollution scandal up the political agenda.
I am also really proud to have worked with Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth to bring legal challenges that resulted in a High Court ruling that the government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan was inadequate. This significant win secured greater transparency, accountability and ambition, with the government required to revise its plans to include more robust measures to meet emission targets.
A major highlight came at the end of my time at GLP when the Supreme Court gave its landmark ruling in the Manchester Ship Canal v United Utilities case – in which GLP supported the Environmental Law Foundation to intervene and evidence the systemic nature of United Utilities’ failures – that ended the impunity of water companies for the damage they cause through sewage discharges. This judgment means that people and communities can now use private law nuisance and trespass actions to hold polluting water companies to account – and it is heartening to see claims being formulated off the back of this judgment and the law continuing to develop to provide clear avenues for challenge and protections for rivers and communities.
It was a joy and education throughout my time at GLP to meet so many inspiring people across the social justice, climate and environmental movements. It was through participating in a water strategy group that I first met Charles and James at River Action and started working with them, impressed by their focused and generous approach to environmental campaigning.
Q3. Tell us about your new position as River Action’s first Head of Legal. What can we expect to see from your role in 2025?
There is huge potential to use the law together with other forms of influence to move the dial on rivers in 2025 and beyond, especially with the newly formed Water Commission, public awareness at an all-time high, multiple routes of challenge available, and great opportunities for collective and community action across the country.
In my role, I expect to work with government to strengthen laws and policy. I expect to push organisations and companies to stop their polluting and environmentally damaging practices. And I also expect to take legal action to enforce the law or to make sure that others do, while recognising that you don’t need to bring or win every legal case in order to make people think harder about the decisions they make and what they choose to do.
Q6. Finally, in your opinion, what is further needed/what needs to change to rescue Britain’s rivers?
Rescuing the UK’s rivers is a big and complicated challenge that requires a big and committed ecosystem of actors. Collaboration will be key.
It will require government, agricultural producers, industry, supply chain participants and water companies to make systemic changes and for them to be held to account by regulators and civil society. It is essential that the government sets ambitious policy and that regulators are effective after decades of inaction and underfunding. There are plenty of water and environmental laws that exist already and they would be good laws if they were adhered to and enforced. Now more than ever it is vital that we hold feet to the fire over failures and push for sustainable solutions to be identified and implemented.
Ultimately I think the power to deliver change comes from political and corporate will. But there is plenty that can be done to influence and apply pressure – and I’m excited to be at an organisation that is able to do that using a full toolbox, including by using the law and litigation when necessary.
We’re thrilled to introduce Drew Richardson, our new Communities Coordinator, who will be joining our growing Communities Team at River Action. In our latest blog, we get to know more about Drew and the role that he will play to help rescue Britain’s rivers.
Q1. Tell us about yourself
Hello, my name’s Drew and I’ve just joined River Action’s Communities Team as a Community Coordinator. I studied Freshwater and Marine Biology at university before starting a career in the charity sector. I’ve worked for environmental charities, set up and managed York’s Volunteer Centre, secured over half a million pounds of investment into our local health and care system, and managed a squadron of Stormtroopers, an Ewok, and R2D2!
I live in Yorkshire and spend my free time renovating, volunteering, reading, and getting out into nature whenever I can.
Q2. How did you become interested in river protection?
I’ve always enjoyed wild swimming. Living in mid-Wales for 10 years I was lucky enough to have a local walk with a rarely trod path that allowed me to swim in a section of the Ystwyth between two waterfalls; it felt like my own hidden oasis. This love of the water led to my studying Freshwater and Marine Biology at University where I really started to learn about the dangers to our rivers. Having moved to Yorkshire a few years ago, I’ve become really aware of the lack of clean wild swimming spots and it feels like that escape, that ability to literally immerse myself in nature, has been cut off to me. I want to restore our rivers so everyone can enjoy the benefits that they bring again.
Q3. You have spent your career working in the third sector. What have you enjoyed most about in this sector and what have been its biggest challenges?
The thing I enjoy most about working in the charity sector is everyone you work with is passionate about what they do in a way that just isn’t comparable when you’re working for someone’s profits. I spend the majority of my waking life working, so I want to use that time to leave the world in a better state than it was, and work around people with the same ethos. The biggest challenges I’ve seen are the increasing demand on charities, a decrease in funding, and fatigue. We’re so exposed to all the woes of the world, and simply don’t have the capacity to be experts in every cause and fight every battle, so it can be overwhelming. I just try to focus on a few causes I can throw my whole self into, and trust that others will do the same for those fights I can’t champion.
Q4. You are also a trustee for the Charity, Time to be Out. Tell us more about the charity and the role you play to support their work.
Time To Be Out supports people who have had to flee from their own country because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. We support people throughout every stage of their claim in hopes that they can move on from past trauma and build a life as an openly LGBT+ person for the first time.
As a Trustee my role on the board is to make sure our charity is compliant with the law, that we use our resources for the most benefit, and that we tactfully navigate the current climate towards those seeking asylum. As a micro-charity with no staff though, I do get stuck in with operational responsibilities too, like checking in on our clients. Whilst we are small, we punch way above our weight, and were even awarded Small Charity of the Year 2023 Finalist at the Third Sector Awards.
Q5. Tell us about your new role as Communities Coordinator at River Action…what can we expect to see from your role in 2024 and beyond?
Initially I’ll be working with community groups to ensure all their voices are brought together in our upcoming March for Clean Water so that their local campaigns are highlighted at a national level. Soon we’ll be launching our River Rescue Kit to support local community groups to have the maximum impact, wherever they are in their journey. So I’m looking forward to helping groups to use that kit and see what exciting things they can achieve with it. As the Communities team has grown, I’m particularly looking forward to meeting and working with groups we might not have met or had much involvement with yet, especially in the north. I’m excited to see what we can achieve together.
Q6. Finally, in your opinion, what is further needed/what needs to change to rescue Britain’s rivers?
It’s such an exciting time to be joining River Action, with many new MPs being elected with local rivers in their manifestos, with rivers being mentioned in the King’s Speech, and river pollution being such a prominent part of the national discourse. It feels like there is a lot of potential for change, we just need to work to make sure that potential is realised. At the moment, water companies and the agriculture industry can get away with polluting our rivers; it’s cheaper and easier for them, so there is no motivation for them to change. We need that to change so polluting is just not worth the risk which means we need empowered regulators that can hold polluters to account effectively and that takes a change from the government. What we need to do is continue to support community groups with their local campaigns, and to collect data as citizen scientists, so we can keep the public informed, keep river health in the public consciousness, and show the government they have a mandate from the people they represent to make impactful change.
When Labour published its election manifesto, a resounding cheer went up from River Action and many other groups campaigning to clean up our horrendously polluted rivers. We were delighted to see nature restoration and the need to improve water quality being acknowledged as priorities for the new government. We were also encouraged to see some tough talk around getting to grips with the disaster of our failing water industry and its equally poor regulator, OFWAT.
However, despite plenty of catchy soundbites designed to capitalise on the escalating public anger, these manifesto pledges were worryingly short on detail. There was no mention of the urgent need to tackle other sources of pollution, such as agricultural and road run-off – both massive issues for our waterways. There was no insight offered as to how the commitment for tougher regulation and water quality monitoring would be funded given the cash-strapped state of our water regulators.
The General Election came and our rivers spoke out loud and clear. Of the five true-blue safe seats of the catchment of the River Wye (one of the UK’s most polluted rivers), only one was retained by the Conservatives – with all successful candidates having signed up to radical action to clean up the river.
Meanwhile, across the country other once unassailable Tory seats were lost where river pollution was at the heart of the winning campaigns. Amongst these was Henley, the ultra-safe seat of former Tory Prime Ministers, where a resounding Lib Dem win put the severe pollution of the River Thames front and centre. Former Environment Ministers Terese Coffey and Mark Spencer, on whose watch the pollution of rivers continued unchecked, both lost their seats.
When Labour published its election manifesto, a resounding cheer went up from River Action and many other groups campaigning to clean up our horrendously polluted rivers. We were delighted to see nature restoration and the need to improve water quality being acknowledged as priorities for the new government. We were also encouraged to see some tough talk around getting to grips with the disaster of our failing water industry and its equally poor regulator, OFWAT.
However, despite plenty of catchy soundbites designed to capitalise on the escalating public anger, these manifesto pledges were worryingly short on detail. There was no mention of the urgent need to tackle other sources of pollution, such as agricultural and road run-off – both massive issues for our waterways. There was no insight offered as to how the commitment for tougher regulation and water quality monitoring would be funded given the cash-strapped state of our water regulators.
The General Election came and our rivers spoke out loud and clear. Of the five true-blue safe seats of the catchment of the River Wye (one of the UK’s most polluted rivers), only one was retained by the Conservatives – with all successful candidates having signed up to radical action to clean up the river.
Meanwhile, across the country other once unassailable Tory seats were lost where river pollution was at the heart of the winning campaigns. Amongst these was Henley, the ultra-safe seat of former Tory Prime Ministers, where a resounding Lib Dem win put the severe pollution of the River Thames front and centre. Former Environment Ministers Terese Coffey and Mark Spencer, on whose watch the pollution of rivers continued unchecked, both lost their seats.
So with a new seemingly river-friendly government in power last month, we all found ourselves sitting on the edge of our seats to see if these commitments were for real. Lo and behold a Water (Special Measures) Bill was duly announced as part of the Government’s legislative programme in the King’s Speech.
However, on scrutiny of its detail, all we could muster this time was a slightly muted cheer. Its main contents included powers to ban the payment of bonuses to water company CEOs (isn’t that what happened somewhat ineffectively to bankers after the financial crisis?); regulations to make water company bosses face personal criminal liability for breaking laws on water quality (but aren’t company directors already subject to criminal sanction if their businesses act unlawfully?); requiring water companies to install real-time monitors at every sewage outlet (although didn’t the last government announce last year that all of England’s storm overflows are now electronically monitored?); and, finally, the new powers to bring “automatic and severe” fines for water company transgressions.
Whilst the last point is excellent news, the key issue here is how will this be enforced?
The severely cash-strapped Environment Agency simply does not have the capacity to execute a tougher enforcement regime – and no commitments were made to provide any extra cash to the EA. Above all, the most striking thing about these commitments, is what was absent. For example, there was no mention of tackling the biggest polluter of our rivers, intensive agriculture. Of course, the King’s Speech only summarises planned legislation and His Majesty had a busy day with a further 39 prospective Bills to announce.
The devil will be in the detail and, until we see the first draft of the Water Bill, it’s unreasonable to be too critical. What is certain, however, is that if Keir Starmer honestly thinks that stopping the payment of bonuses to water company CEOs is enough to remedy the appalling state of our rivers, then he has another thing coming.
The Water Bill must offer definitive reform of the failed regulatory system which allowed the pollution of our rivers to happen in the first place. This will require significant funding to repair and re-empower bodies like the Environment Agency. It also can’t just hang its hat on catchy sound bites to exploit public anger over sewage discharges
With latest figures from the EA showing agriculture to be the biggest polluter of our rivers, the blight of diffuse agricultural pollution must also be addressed.
We know the Government has a lot on its plate, not least the recent chaos on our streets, but ministers must not take their eye off the ball on key issues like the nation’s water.
Come the next election, the electorate of the Wye Valley, where the boom in intensive poultry farming has been the prime cause of the severe pollution of the river, will once more be totally unforgiving if their elected politicians renege on their many promises to save one of our most iconic rivers. And they are the tip of a very large iceberg of voters angry at the decline of our rivers and beaches and dereliction of water firms.
Charles Watson, Founder and Chairman of River Action UK
We’re delighted to introduce Henry Shepherd, our new Communities Coordinator, who will be joining Chloe and Erica in our growing Communities Team at River Action. In our latest blog, we get to know more about Henry and the role that he will play to help rescue Britain’s rivers.
Q1. Tell us about yourself
I’m a young, passionate environmentalist and advocate for protecting the natural world upon which my and my generation’s future depends on. I’ve grown up in-and-around nature, and even in my time I have witnessed its dramatic decline.
I’m desperate to protect and restore what little we have left, especially in the UK – not just because we rely upon it every day, but for its intrinsic value and beauty too. This has spurred my interest in the politics of environmental issues.
Most likely as a result of my appreciation of the natural world, I am a keen traveller, always looking to visit new places and have new experiences. Apart from that, I enjoy a good country walk, love a bit of reggae, and still can’t beat a kick-about with my mates at the park.
Q2. How did you become interested in river protection?
From the canals in Birmingham where I went to University, to the Loch’s in the Highlands where I was born, I’ve always been around water. Every train journey, country walk, or road trip, we cross paths with our waterways. They are the veins of our environment running across the land. Their prolific pollution has infuriated me ever since I’ve known. How could we allow such short-sighted carelessness to take place, and even worse, allow people to profit from it?
Turning this frustration and sense of injustice into hope can be hard in a sector in which many feel hopeless. Rivers, however, are a great example of how we really can make a difference. They are woven into so many aspects of our society and economy, uniting a wide range of stakeholders and presenting countless opportunities to play a part in working together towards a solution.
So, whilst their desperate need for a voice was enough to motivate me, the potential for our rivers to set the standard for what people who care about the planet can achieve together also inspired me.
Q3. Tell us about your new role as Communities Coordinator at River Action…what can we expect to see from your role in 2024?
I am excited to be publishing and delivering the River Rescue Kit website, which aims to empower and encourage people from all walks of life to get involved in addressing the dire state of our rivers.
As part of this, I will support and work alongside communities and campaigners to ensure that the new government understands that river pollution is an issue that the public cares about, and one that requires immediate and serious action.
I’m also looking forward to coordinating campaigns at a grassroots level, as part of the Thames Campaign, and I’m keen to establish more community connections in Northern Ireland, North England, and in my homeland, Scotland.
Q4. Finally, in your opinion, what is further needed/what needs to change to rescue Britain’s rivers?
Firstly, for me, it’s an attitudinal shift that is required across certain sectors to one that sees our waterways not as resources to be exploited, but as essential infrastructure underpinning our society, food systems, economy, and our little remaining, wonderful wildlife.
We also need stricter regulation, enforcement of the law, and increased funding – all across the agricultural sector, water sector, and the Environment Agency. This necessitates that precedents be set and lines be drawn by our government and courts to make it clear that the current state of play is not sustainable, and must, and can, change.
To achieve this, we have to continue to use our voices to speak up for our rivers and demand that those in positions of power use their privilege to push for this issue to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
‘When the world ends, someone will have daubed on a wall somewhere “It was the water, stupid” in a parody of Bill Clinton’s famous campaign reminder to his team to remain focused on what matters most.
As an angler I’ve lived all my life in, on or beside water. The rivers, oceans, lakes and ponds that have been my obsession for more than half a century are dying before our eyes. Either sucked dry by our relentless demand for more of this most precious natural resource or engulfed in a tidal wave of sewage and slurry, often both. Short sighted stupidity has been the hallmark of national water policy since before the Industrial Revolution. The current situation is little short of alarming:
Only 14% of our water bodies are now in good ecological condition.
In 2023 a total of 579,581 sewage spills recorded from storm overflows in
England and Wales for a total duration of 4.6 million hours.
Wastewater infrastructure replacement rate for pipes and main sewers is runnin at 0.05% of the network per annum – 10 times longer than the European average – meaning sewers with a 100-year life expectancy are meant to last for 2,000 years.
Environment Agency numbers show that in just the last year at least 120,000 fis were killed in sewage-related pollution incidents – the true figure will likely have been much higher.
The Atlantic salmon is now officially classified as an endangered species in the UK.
With a general election just a week away the condition of our rivers and waterways is higher up the political agenda than it has ever been. This follows years of relentless pressure from energised campaign groups such as Surfers Against Sewage, Angling Trust & Fish Legal, The Rivers Trust, Wildfish, River Action and many angling and local groups across the country, ably supported by celebrity angling activists like Feargal Sharkey, James Murray and Paul Whitehouse. Whilst it’s pleasing for campaigners like me to see our chosen cause front and centre of political debate, what is less encouraging is the failure of all political parties to acknowledge the depth and scale of the problem or to apply any serious thinking as to what needs to be done.
Last year over 579,000 sewage spills were recorded from storm overflows in England and Wales
Soundbites won’t fix our rivers and seas, but here’s 12 things that will make a difference if we elect a government with the guts to do what’s necessary.
1) Recognise that there is no such thing as cheap water
My local water company, Thames Water, provides my three-bedroomed, semi-detached house in Reading with clean, drinkable water for a little over £1 a day. Absurdly, I can also use this heavily-treated liquid to water my garden, wash my car, and to flush my toilet. Speaking of which, my bodily waste is also taken away and allegedly treated before being discharged as effluent back into the same river system from which it came. That same pound will scarcely buy a bottle of water in a supermarket, or a glass of the stuff with added bubbles in a restaurant, yet people regularly hand over wads of cash without a second thought for both, even though what comes out of their taps costs almost nothing.
Water for almost nothing is no basis on which to build public policy about a basic resource on which all life depends, human, animal, bird or fish. Water needs to become as political in Britain as it is in other countries where living conditions are far harsher. Look behind many of the conflicts and tensions in the world today and what do you find? Conflict over water. Too much of it, causing sea levels to rise as we fail to heed the warnings of climate change and more of the earth’s surface becomes uninhabitable. Too little of it, as warming temperatures turn once productive regions into searing dust bowls, causing millions of our fellow human beings to begin a giant migration in search of livable land.
2) Tackle the investment backlog
In 2021, my organisation jointly published a report looking at the sheer scale of the investment backlog facing the water industry. Called ‘Time to Fix the Broken Water Sector’, it exposed the ticking timebomb at the heart of the UK’s wastewater infrastructure that threatens the health of almost every river and stream in the land. The key finding were:
A £10 billion investment funding gap over the last 10 years.
The declining condition of rivers and streams due to increased sewage spills every year.
The absurd expectation of a 2,000-year lifetime for sewage pipes and other infrastructure.
Failure to build any new reservoirs in the south-east since 1976 despite a 3 million population increase and huge projected growth in house building.
Lack of investment in water supply has seen excessive groundwater abstraction drying up some chalk streams altogether and damaging many other rivers.
The impossibility of delivering commitments in the Government’s own 25 Year
Environment Plan and our legal obligation under the Water Framework Directive.
Failure of both the Government and OFWAT to heed the promises in the 2011 water white paper, or indeed the warnings from the National Infrastructure
Commission and the National Audit Office, about the pressing need for investment in water and sewerage systems to address the challenges of climate change and population growth.
The prospect of severe drought events causing parts of southern England to run out of water within 20 years.
The consequences of failing to invest in water infrastructure that will cost more in the long term – £40 billion versus £21 billion, and thousands of jobs.
Much of this sorry state was triggered by the politicians’ wish to kick the can down the road rather than face up to the looming water crisis. And behind all of this has been the thoroughly useless regulator OFWAT whose former Chief Executive and previous water industry fat cat, Johnson Cox, promised in 2017 – ‘a decade of declining water bills.’ He did this at a time when OFWAT had neither the engineering nor environmental expertise to make these judgements, unless, of course, you didn’t give a fig for the environmental consequences. As a result, the price limits were set so low that under-investment was inevitable, making a bad situation worse.
It is patently absurd to have two regulators allegedly overseeing the water industry. You can’t separate the consequences of economic regulation (OFWAT) from the impacts on the water environment (Environment Agency). The consequences of the OFWAT investment roadblock are plain to see. Here are a few examples:
OFWAT directly cut planned investment in PR19 (between 2020-24) by £6.7 billion (or £1.34bn each year). They even boasted about the size of investment they had prohibited water companies from making.
OFWAT held down bills below inflation for over a decade, removing around £11 billion from investment that should have been ring-fenced for improvements.
Allowing bills to increase with inflation over the last decade would have provided more for investment, which could have been ring-fenced for the most urgent projects. This would have been the equivalent of sufficient funding for up to half a dozen reservoirs or meeting overflow targets five years earlier.
OFWAT decisions overturned. Four companies successfully appealed their PR19 decisions to the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) who ruled as follows to:
Restore £7 million for Yorkshire Water to cut overflow spills, deliver wastewater upgrades, and the protection of tens of thousands of properties in Hull against flooding.
Restore £18.3 million for Northumbrian Water to prevent 365,000 properties in
Essex being cut off for a potentially extended period.
Protect £40 million investment in strategic water interconnection by Anglian Water, rejecting Ofwat’s decision that would have reduced the capacity of the interconnection pipes.
Restore £ 5 million for Anglian to increase its sludge capacity to minimise the operational resilience risk around their ability to deal with increased volumes.
OFWAT has clearly shown not to be fit for purpose. It should be abolished in favour of a publicly accountable single water regulator alongside a complete reform of the management and rebuilding of the UK’s water resources to deliver clean and plentiful water and wastewater infrastructure fit to meet the challenges of climate change and a growing population, without further damaging the environment.
4) Accept that underfunding leads to failure and underperformance
OFWAT’s rejection of necessary investment has directly caused problems. For example:
The whole industry was denied sufficient funding for leakage improvements over more than a decade.
They refused almost all of five English and Welsh companies’ climate resilience proposals to fund wastewater capacity upgrades, cutting the budget from £403 million to £16.4 million. This stopped £387 million of investment that would have allowed a half-decade head start on the storm overflows programme while also reducing sewer flooding.
Given the scale of both the environmental and economic challenge posed by a failing water sector with a crumbling infrastructure, the next government has little choice but to introduce primary legislation to abolish the two regulator model and overhaul the entire regulatory oversight of the industry to put environmental needs front and centre in a complete sector reset.
5) End the casino economy in the water industry
When water was privatised in 1989, the new companies were able to acquire public assets that were completely debt free. Thirty-five years later, companies like Thames Water are now a staggering £15 billion in debt and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. A succession of private owners levered this debt mountain to strip out more than £7 billion in dividends to shareholders whilst paying eye-watering bonuses to top executives as a perverse reward for presiding over operational failure and turning a blind eye to financial sharp practice. Vampire owners like Macquarie should never have been allowed to mortgage their company’s balance sheets to fund excessive dividends. OFWAT could and should have prevented it.
Every piece of this scandal took place right under the nose of OFWAT, whose senior directors see no contradiction in taking highly paid jobs in the same companies they are supposed to be regulating only the month before.
The next government needs a new Water Industry Act to either create entirely new community interest entities to operate the water infrastructure or, at the very least, to correct the gaping loopholes in the current legislation that allow public assets and vital public resource to be traded like Bitcoin irrespective of the looming threats to both the economy and the environment.
6) Give the Environment Agency the power and the resources to do its job
The EA has been systematically hollowed out by a 57% cutback in its resources since 2010 turning from the bulldog it should be into the ineffective lapdog it’s now become. Enforcement rarely occurs and when it does it can take years to bring polluters to court. Only a minority of reported fish kills will even trigger a visit from Agency staff who are now simply spread too thin to be effective.
The organisation has suffered from poor leadership and is massively risk averse at a time when environmental stakeholders and the public at large are looking to it to take tough action in defence of our rivers and waterways. The Environment Agency is now under new leadership. The next government must give them the resources to do the job, and make it clear it must hold polluters to account, and ensure the protecting the environment is its first, last, and only priority.
Only a minority of reported fish kills trigger a visit from Environment Agency staff
7) Treat water as national infrastructure priority
Part of any new deal for water must involve getting serious about planning and building control. It must treat water as a national infrastructure priority. It’s crazy that planning for capital projects is squeezed into a five-year time frame. Something the nuclear industry, for example, would consider laughable. Reservoirs take years to plan, years to build and a long time to fill. We need long term investment planning if we are to be in anyway serious about resolving the challenges posed by declining water quality, climate change and population growth.
Here are some much needed reforms the new Environment Secretary should bring in immediately:
The National Infrastructure Commission should be instructed to set out the funding needed to:
Adapt to climate change
Restore infrastructure to a decent standard (e.g. by setting a target to
Match European average replacement rates by 2030)
Eliminate ecological harm
Eliminate all serious pollution incidents.
OFWAT (or its successor) should be required to deliver consent to match that level of funding or explain to Parliament why it hasn’t.
The new government should replace the clunky and little heeded Strategic Policy Statement for Water – currently the only way ministers can seek to influence the ‘independent’ regulator – with an Outcomes Direction to force them to take decisions in line with the priorities above.
While a new Water Act is necessary in the next Parliament these immediate measures would not require legislation. The current Water Industry Act just says that government should provide high-level guidance to the regulator. The problem is that it doesn’t.
8) New legislation to reduce abstraction and improve water security
With 85% of the world’s chalkstreams located in England, our stewardship of these precious assets is little short of shameful. These globally recognised, iconic ecosystems should be exemplars of a pristine aquatic environment. Instead, some are now used as open sewers and others are sucked dry through over abstraction. The Hertfordshire chalkstreams such as the Rib, Beane, and Ver have been reduced to a shadow of their former selves and now are often completely dewatered in stretches that were once home to a thriving population of brown trout and coarse fish. Water companies like Affinity find it easier and cheaper to suck the chalk aquifers dry rather than invest in the storage of winter rainfall.
A basic tenet of any water policy must be to collect surplus in times of plenty to guard against economic and environmental damage in times of scarcity. A new Water Act must enshrine this principle into law.
It should also do the following:
Streamline the planning process for water resources projects so that small projects, including nature-based solutions, that interlink are approved as one project.
Amend Development Consent Order legislation so that non-potable water schemes are eligible. This is crucial for speeding up delivery of water transfers in and between regions.
Set a clear target for drought resilience standards as legal minimums (currently they are advisory).
Reform building regulations to ensure proper water efficient homes (including appliance labelling and minimum efficiency standards).
End the developers automatic right to connect into the local sewerage system if it lacks sufficient capacity to treat the effluent to standard. Force developers to pay for local upgrades required by their proposals.
A reduction in abstraction is vital to stop rivers running dry.
9) Re-use wastewater
The UK is well behind other countries in using wastewater sensibly. For example, in Spain it’s a requirement to use treated wastewater on golf courses rather than abstracting fresh drinking water from the public supply.
We need to quickly follow what is already happening in Europe by using treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation and businesses. This would reduce demand and abstraction and could make a significant difference to river health thereby improving the environment for invertebrates and fish.
10) Overhaul the Environmental Permitting Regime
If having a combined rainwater and foul water sewerage system complete with storm overflows delivers ‘pollution by design’ the anomalies in the current permitting system create ‘pollution by permission’. The whole system needs a complete overhaul focusing on the health of the rivers and seas rather than treating them as dumping grounds of last resort when the system fails or trigger points are reached.
A particularly absurd anomaly sees water companies measured on what they keep in the pipe not what spills out of it. And the counting of storm overflow spills makes little sense as currently a five-minute spill is counted the same as one that lasts 12 hours. We need to move to assessed volumetric measures. It’s the volume of shit that needs counting, not the length of time a pipe might be dribbling. It is also ridiculous that pipes at the same sewage treatment site are individually permitted rather than permitting all the combined output with an incentive to maximise the treated flow.
11) Worry more about major system failure
The headline figures on sewage pollution are primarily around storm overflows, but just wait until the rising mains start crumbling as is already happening in the Thames Water region. That’s when we get total wipe out – when a problem becomes an environmental catastrophe. By 2050, in many of our water companies a majority of their rising mains will be over 100 years old and well past their sell by dates. In a few cases we are still relying on the brilliance of Victorian engineers to keep untreated sewage out of the rivers. This is clearly not sustainable.
Of course, storm discharges are unacceptable, they are horrible and stink, but do a lot less damage than a fractured rising main sewer. Investment priorities need to be focused on reducing the most harm and this should include getting ammonia and phosphorus levels down in small streams in dry weather where the harm caused to fish and invertebrates is acute.
12) Embrace citizen science and involve stakeholders in the management of rivers
Anglers and local river groups invest millions of hours of volunteer time every year into the maintenance and improvement of water environments by clearing litter, restoring habitats and monitoring and fighting pollution. They see what is happening and are often ‘the canaries in the coal mine’. Currently the EA does nothing about discharges from septic tanks or from the growing army of live-aboard boaters. Local intelligence can help plug these gaps.
In 2022, in response to record levels of sewage discharges and the continued failure of the Environment Agency to properly monitor the threats to our rivers, the Angling Trust established a national Water Quality Monitoring Network of citizen volunteers to collect and analyse water samples in their areas. It has now engaged over 784 anglers from 278 clubs operating on 202 rivers across 68 catchments collecting around 5,600 individual samples. The results are alarming with 44% of samples exceeding recommended phosphate and nitrate levels, 200 incidents of algae blooms and 300 pollution incidents observed.
Citizen science clearly has a big role to play as we need much better data to make proper decisions but currently the EA won’t accept their results. This is absurd and we need the government to intervene and ensure a role for citizen volunteers alongside an accreditation scheme with independent verification.
Our Water Quality Monitoring Network shows citizen science has a big role to play in river management
Summary
The privatisation of our water industry has been a disaster and I doubt if any of the politicians likely to be in the hot seats in DEFRA have any real comprehension of the extent and scale of the problems they are about to inherit. But let’s not get too starry eyed about the record of the sector in public ownership for there really was no ‘golden era’ when the rivers flowed bright and clear and the taps kept running. In the 1950’s the tidal Thames in London was declared ‘biologically dead’ and further upstream around Staines, where I grew up, there were signs advising us not to bathe in its polluted waters.
There are now many rivers and streams that have been brought back from the brink primarily thanks to European legislation like the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, as well as tougher domestic controls. But rules and regulation require properly funded and empowered regulators with a clear sense of purpose that put the environment first. They also require an industry that is accountable and an infrastructure that it fit for purpose rather than the ‘creaking and leaking’ timebomb that is about to land on the desk of the new Secretary of State for the Environment.
By all means, play around with different ownership models that deliver proper accountability for this most vital of our public assets. But please, please don’t forget to fix the pipes.
By Charles Watson, chairman and founder of River Action.
Having spent a 25 year career in the crisis management end of the public relations industry, I recall counselling clients repeatedly that litigation was never something to take on lightly and the risks, almost without exception, will always outweigh the rewards.
And then, on 4 February this year, I found myself sitting as a litigant in Cardiff Crown Court, as our King’s Counsel rose to his feet to open River Action’s judicial hearing case against the Environment Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
A clue to why I had ignored my own better judgment lay in a beautiful glass vial of water that was sitting beside me in the court room. It had been drawn the previous day from the River Wye and was presented to me as I entered the courthouse by members of some of the Wye community groups who had (very noisily) joined us that day outside the courthouse to demonstrate their solidarity.
Once well protected, the river is now almost dead
Often cited as one of our most loved rivers, the Wye rises high up in the Welsh mountain hinterland before flowing majestically through the English-Welsh borderlands to its mouth in the Severn Estuary. Our fourth longest river’s unique beauty and biodiversity has been recognised over the years by the award of some of the highest possible levels of environmental protection, such as its Special Area of Conservation status and the designation of swathes of its valley as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
But, devastatingly, within the space of less than a decade this magnificent river has become the UK’s Ground Zero of river pollution. One major cause has been the uncontrolled growth of the UK’s largest concentration of intensive poultry production, which has resulted in unsustainable quantities of toxic animal waste leaching into the river, causing untold ecological damage. Ninety five per cent of the Wye’s famous water crowfoot river weed has disappeared, snuffed out by putrid green algal blooms. Last summer, Natural England downgraded the river’s status to a level just one notch up from being pronounced dead.
It was for the Wye that we had gone to court.
To me, our legal case was incredibly simple. The environmental regulations that were there to protect the river had simply never been enforced by the very statutory bodies that were tasked to do so.
Failure to enforce farming rules has been catastrophic
The core of these regulations originated in 2018, when our then Environment Minister Michael Gove introduced the Farming Rules for Water. However, immediately on introduction, their non-enforcement farce began. Highly effective lobbying from the NFU ensured farmers were initially exempt from the new regulations, however Michael Gove’s predecessor at Defra Liz Truss, had already slammed the nails into the coffin of effective agricultural regulation by virtually closing down farm inspections, thus eliminating all means of future enforcement, with agricultural regulation shifting to an almost exclusively ‘advisory’ basis.
The net effect of this approach on rivers like the Wye has been nothing short of catastrophic. Every six weeks, when the sheds containing the catchment’s 25 million chickens are ‘harvested’, huge quantities of highly potent manure are shovelled out and spread (for convenient disposal) across the fields of the catchment. As a result, the soils of the Wye Valley have progressively become saturated with totally unsustainable levels of phosphorus. And the rest is history.
In our view, had the Farming Rules for Water been properly enforced, none of this could have happened. Indeed, the most important of these regulations (Rule 1 a) states clearly that: “Application of organic manures… to cultivated land must be planned in advance to meet soil and crop nutrient needs and not exceed these levels”.
However, guidance issued by Defra to the Environment Agency (thanks to another NFU lobbying coup) specifically exempts farmers from having to follow this critical rule, thus creating another gaping loophole in the protections the Wye so desperately needed.
Major victories were won in court
It was to challenge this terrible state of affairs that River Action went to court, with the case being heard in February in Cardiff. Here, our brilliant legal team squared up against the combined legal teams of the Environment Agency, Defra and the NFU (the latter having gatecrashed the proceedings at the last minute as an ‘intervener’).
Although, when judgment was passed down four months later and the judge ruled against us, it was apparent that River Action had won some major victories.
First, the judgment fully acknowledged that, due to the Wye’s severe levels of pollution, farming practices must change. Second, the legal status of the infamous guidance issued by Defra to the Environment Agency, was called into question, with the judgment that spreading manure in the autumn and winter should be limited, when the danger of polluting the river is at its highest, with the NFU’s intervention being unequivocally dismissed.
Finally, the judge made it clear that the overall basis of his dismissal of our claim was because changes to key enforcement policies made by the Environment Agency, during the course of River Action’s proceedings, subsequently brought it into compliance with the law, and that these changes were only made by the agency as a result of our claim.
Notwithstanding the above, we have immediately moved to appeal the judgment and continue the fight for the river. Given that the Environment Agency’s new enforcement policies apparently now bring it into line with the law, River Action will make it our business to audit the new approach, with Freedom of Information requests being dispatched on a rolling three monthly basis to enable us to monitor inspection and enforcement activities. Let’s see if the agency really has turned over a new leaf.
The new government should repeal the flawed guidance
Finally, following the judge’s questioning of the legal basis of Defra’s guidance to the Environment Agency, after the general election, the new Defra secretary of state will find, at the top of his or her in tray, our demands that this now discredited guidance is immediately repealed, or back to court we will go.
The turbid, slime-filled condition of the River Wye can only remind us how far we still have to go before the river stands a chance of being restored to its former glory. But, perhaps, by defying the odds (and all better judgment), we hope our travails through the courts might just have made a little bit of a difference in starting to reverse the repeated injustices that have been allowed to be inflicted upon this once magnificent river.
By Rebecca Hardy, Aged 20, 3rd year Student at the University of East Anglia
As a third-year International Relations student at the University of East Anglia, I never imagined my academic journey would lead me to the heart of a grassroots environmental campaign.
It all started in my Activist Campaigning class. We had a guest speaker from River Action who painted a vivid picture of the challenges facing our local waterways. Pollution, habitat destruction, and neglect have heavily affected the rivers that once thrived in this region. Inspired and eager to make a difference, I joined a newly formed student group dedicated to campaigning for the health of our rivers.
Our first meeting was a mix of excitement and uncertainty. None of us had any real experience in activism, but we shared a common goal: to learn how to campaign effectively and bring about tangible change. We began by educating ourselves, diving into research about the local ecosystems, the impact of pollution, and successful environmental campaigns around the world. We attended workshops on advocacy and social media strategies, hosted by experienced activists and professors.
Armed with knowledge and a growing sense of purpose, we launched our campaign. We started by organising a week’s worth of campaigning such as creating and handing out flyers and showing off our fantastic placards (shoutout to the design team!) .
As our confidence grew, so did our ambitions. We created a petition demanding stronger environmental protections for the rivers. Our weekends were spent canvassing in busy areas, talking to locals about the importance of clean rivers. Engaging with the community was both challenging and rewarding. We encountered scepticism but also found allies who were passionate about our cause. As a result we garnered over 250 signatures for our petition which was a great result considering our campaign being short.
Social media has become a powerful tool in our arsenal such as creating Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts which got some attention. One of my most memorable moments was participating in an international conference in America where other
Campaigning students shared what they were working on. This provided a great learning experience and reflecting on what we have already achieved but also improve on next time.
Our efforts culminated in a hustings event with Green party member Gary Champion and River Action’s Chloe Peck. The hustings was overall a success with many willing participants and loads of questions which could have lasted more than an hour!. To our delight, the council acknowledged our concerns and promised to take steps towards better river management and pollution control.
Reflecting on this journey, I am struck by how much I have learned and grown. Campaigning for Norwich’s rivers has taught me the power of community, the importance of persistence, and the impact that a dedicated group of individuals can have. It has been a transformative experience, turning a group of university students into passionate advocates for environmental change. The rivers of Norwich are more than just waterways; they are lifelines that connect us all, and I am proud to be part of the movement to protect and revive them.
As I walked towards the huddle of rowing enthusiasts crowding before the Linacre Rowing Club facilities, I felt a sense of confidence and trepidation fill me at the sight. On Saturday 20th April, the Linacre women’s 8 rowing boat was named ‘River Action’, to honour the campaign group’s work drawing global attention to the horrific levels of pollution on the River Thames.
As a young person at the event, I felt privileged to be surrounded by such admirable people whose lives revolve around caring for others, the planet and in many cases their sport. I wandered around with my sister chatting by my side and witnessed partnerships turn to friendships and strangers turn to colleagues.
With the river running murky beside us, we feel our sadness at the state of the River Thames washed away by uplifting speeches from James Wallace, CEO of River Action and Frederick Mulder. They remind us what we are all striving for and the desperate needs of our rivers today.
I feel sickened, as do many rowers affected by E. Coli poisoning in the past year, at the poor state of Britain’s rivers and feel the health and happiness of my own future inexplicably linked to the wellbeing of every waterway around me. The toll of millions of hours of sewage discharge in the past year is painted clearly through the clumps of algal bloom and streams clouded brown, snaking their way through cities and rural countryside.
Lethal levels of the E.coli pathogen from sewage released from under regulated water companies, like Thames Water, are poisoning our waterways. As a young person, who should look up to the government with pride and confidence, I feel constantly overwhelmed by the disappointing levels of protection being taken to save the water that each and everyone of us relies on.
We all need water to survive and as I see futures of deprivation flash before my eyes, I think back to my childhood, filled with wild swimming in my local Kennet river. Weeping willows dancing beside the clear water rushing beside me and a feeling of elation at the beauty surrounding me.
As our world slips into an ecological crisis, I feel implored to fight for my future and just as every rower will agree with me, water is a vital part of it. So let’s protect it and value it and remember the summers we spent playing in it. Because those summers are over now and the safety we were once guaranteed is now fading into the past.
At River Action, we want to highlight the amazing work of communities up and down the country. Here we take a look at River Cree Hatchery & Habitat Trust SCIO (RCHHT) a community-led conservation project initiated by local people who have a passion to improve the health of their river.
THE STORY
In March 2010, members of Newton Stewart Angling Association commenced the hatchery and habitat project in response to the decline in the numbers of Atlantic salmon in The River Cree and its tributaries.
By October 2010 the hatchery facility was operational and in the first season some 65000 salmon fry were raised in the hatchery and returned to the river.
In 2011 a charitable trust, The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust, was formed to take over the running of the project and shortly thereafter a full-time Hatchery Coordinator was employed to oversee the running of the operation. Over the next few years the project steadily increased the scope of its activities, including:
Up to 190,000 salmon fry were reared in the hatchery each year and stocked into the Cree catchment.
Electro-fishing skills were honed in order to assist with broodstock capture and to monitor fish numbers, including stocked fry
A programme of extensive habitat improvements was commenced, including removing barriers to migration, controlling Invasive Non Native Species, cutting back self-seeded Sitka on the banks of spawning burns and re-planting with native broadleaf trees.
An education programme, initially involving four local primary schools, was developed.
A training programme was developed to enable employment and training opportunities to be offered to local unemployed youngsters.
Volunteering opportunities were offered for up to forty local people each year. Fish husbandry techniques were developed to improve the quality of the salmon fry being reared. Stocking of a limited number of fin-clipped fry was commenced to assist in identifying hatchery-reared adult salmon
In February 2023 the operation was transferred to River Cree Hatchery & Habitat Trust SCIO, which continues to deliver and develop all the above activities.
To deliver this extensive programme of activities it is important that the Trust trains a team of volunteers with the necessary skills to run the hatchery and con-duct the habitat restoration work. The Trustees would very much appreciate any assistance you feel you could offer to promote the further development of River Cree Hatchery & Habitat Trust SCIO. For further information on future developments please contact: Murdo Crosbie (Co-ordinator) Tel: 01671 403722/ 07798653740; email to: mcrosbie7@aol.com.
Set to take place at Morden Hall on the River Wandle, London, SM4 5JD, on the 21st May 2024, The UK River Summit Festival is an event which promises to be a platform for collaboration and communication to improve our river health.
The event will bring together leading environmentalists, businesses, individuals, brands, and members of the public who share a desire to work towards a more positive future for our rivers, both on a local and national scale.
It offers the public insight into the expert voices behind the headlines and the chance for campaigners, advocates, and conservationists to unify. Importantly, it promises to be a momentous movement, capturing the essence of community, culture, and environmental consciousness against the backdrop of our beloved rivers.
Speakers include the likes of: Lawrence Gosden (CEO of Southern Water), Lila Thompson (CEO of British Water), Feargal Sharkey (Campaigner and Vice Chair of River Action), Penny Gane (Head of Practice at Fish legal), James Wallace (CEO of River Action), Shaun Leonard (Director at Wild Trout Trust), Bella Davies (CEO of South East Rivers Trust), Jim Murray (Actor and Founder of Activist Anglers) and many, many more.
There will be a wild food lunch with DeliVita, cold Beers from Lakedown Brewing Company and soft drinks available, all included in the ticket price.
The afternoon will feature further panels and workshops throughout the day, from a range of local organisations and NGOs including: The Wandle Piscators, South East Rivers Trust, Orvis UK, WildFish, Abel & Cole, National Trust, Wandle Industrial Museum and many more, as well as comedy, music and film screenings. (Find out more).
![“As our world slips into an ecological crisis, I feel implored to fight for my future [. . .] and water is a vital part of it”: Young voices call for change.](https://riveractionuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Untitled-design-2024-05-16T193822.654.jpg)
