The country’s waterways are awash with pollution from sewage, agriculture and motorways, threatening biodiversity and making many sites unsafe for swimming and watersports.
But to what extent are these problems unique to the UK, and how do we compare with our neighbours?
The dirty man of Europe
When the UK joined the EU in the 1970s it was branded the “dirty man of Europe” in part due to our heavily polluted waterways.
Countries across the EU, and the UK, monitor the ecosystems in their rivers and test the water for pollutants.
From this, they rank the “ecological health” of a waterway as High, Good, Moderate, Poor or Bad.
Just 16.1 per cent of England’s rivers, lakes and seas meet this standard, compared to 31 per cent in Northern Ireland, 40.5 per cent in Wales and 54.6 per cent in Scotland. The average across Europe is 37.2 per cent.
Other countries performing badly include the Czech Republic (6 per cent), Hungary (8 per cent), Poland (8 per cent) and Germany (9 per cent).
The chart below looks at the ecological health of rivers only. Again England is towards the bottom of the ranking, while Wales and Scotland perform above average.
datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gqBIz/4One of the factors that impacts England’s rivers in particular is the fact that they have been heavily modified over time with elements like weirs to control the flow of the water.
The engineering of rivers affects ecosystems as it can disrupt the migration of fish and remove habitats needed for them to survive.
Many would expect England’s waterways to perform poorly compared to other European nations due to the huge volumes of raw sewage being released into our rivers, lakes and seas.
“The pressure that we as a human population are putting on rivers is much greater than in Scandinavia,” Boxall said.
“My suspicion is that other countries in Europe probably have the same problems that we do. I’m not sure that it’s at the forefront of the public interest as it is in the UK and it’s such a big topic now that people notice it,” he said.
Chemical pollution
Chemical pollution is a growing issue of concern due to worrying substances such as PFAS – “forever chemicals” that do not break down in the environment and are used in everything from food packaging to fertilisers. Studies have linked them to health problems, including cancer, infertility and developmental issues.
Not a single river in England or Northern Ireland is currently in “good” chemical health. Conversely, the majority of rivers in Scotland and Wales meet this standard.
In general, Boxall said areas with high chemical pollution “tend to be sites where you have high populations, heavy agriculture or historic mining”.
“You had some countries where you could almost count the number of samples that were taken,” Boxall said, adding that the UK has some of the more rigorous monitoring standards.
Is the UK falling behind post-Brexit?
Following Brexit, the UK adopted these requirements in national law, but there are now signs the UK is starting to diverge.
As of yet, the UK has not indicated whether it will follow these new standards and impose tougher pollution standards on water companies.
The i Paper‘s Save Britain’s River campaign has been calling on the Government to get a grip on water pollution.
The Labour Government has met some of these demands, including by launching a root and branch review of the regulation of the water industry.
However, they have recently angered campaigners by apparently ditching an £11m fund put in place by the last government to pay for river restoration work.
The i Paper recently revealed that dozens of clean-up projects across England are in limbo as a result of Labour’s inaction.
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