With sewage pollution, the government nearly met its Waterloo. Now this historic Act must turn to action 12.11.21 Rebecca Duncan Op Ed by Christine Colvin, Director for Partnerships & Communications Learn more
The Rivers Trust are part of a winning share of £36m for cutting-edge water sector innovation 30.09.21 Rebecca Duncan The Rivers Trust are part of a collaborative proposal, named CaSTCo., which has won £7.1m in Ofwat’s first Water Breakthrough Challenge to implement a national framework for a catchment monitoring cooperative, using citizen science and standardised approaches to data collection and management. Learn more
State of Our Rivers will be won or lost on rivers — and right now, we’re losing. 24.09.21 Jayne Mann Our State of Rivers report will help the public understand the health of their river like never before, on both a national and local scale. Learn more
Environment Bill Amendments Passed by Lords – a great first step in strengthening environmental legislation 14.09.21 Rebecca Duncan Last night (Monday 13th September) an amendment to the environment bill was passed in the House of Lords, to place a new duty on water companies and the government take all reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged from storm overflows and requires that they progressively reduce the harm caused by these discharges. Learn more
Free resources for Key Stage 2 teachers to contribute to landmark plastic pollution study 02.09.21 Rebecca Duncan Plastic is quite literally choking our oceans and everything in them. But where does it all come from and how can we stop this from happening? The Rivers Trust and Preventing Plastic Pollution are calling on primary schools across the country to help leading scientists find out! Learn more
Tabled amendments to Environment Bill provide lifeline for rivers 27.08.21 Rebecca Duncan Several amendments to the Environment Bill have been tabled today which, if successful, represent a significant victory for river health, and indeed river users. Learn more
5 easy ways to revive your river: plastic-free power 04.08.21 Rebecca Duncan Over the next five weeks, we’re going to help you out by sharing our Five Easy Ways to Revive Your River as part of our River Revival campaign and Take 5 challenge. These are simple, low or zero cost actions you can take at home, in the garden, or at work, to benefit river environments. It’s easy to feel hopeless in the face of the climate and nature crises, but small changes like this can add up to make a big difference. For our first blog in the series we’ll focus on an issue most people are aware of – plastics. Learn more
From the frontlines: Fighting River Pollution on the Wye and Usk 23.07.21 Rebecca Duncan In our CEOs’ newsletter this month we hear from Simon Evans, CEO of Wye and Usk Foundation. The Wye was in the spotlight this month with the Rivercide documentary highlighting the cumulative impact of poorly regulated farming. Learn more
Nearly half of Irish Rivers are polluted by nitrogen — EPA 15.07.21 Rebecca Duncan Almost half of Ireland’s rivers have unsatisfactory water quality levels and there was a decline in water quality in 230 rivers recorded in 2020. Nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture and urban wastewater discharges continue to be the most significant pressures on surface and groundwaters in Ireland, causing a decline in water quality. Learn more
Water and Sewerage Company Environmental Performance Report: Winning slowly is the same as losing 13.07.21 Rebecca Duncan The Environment Agency published its Environmental Performance Report for water and sewerage companies today, assessing nine water companies’ progress against a set of environmental targets from 2016 to 2020. This report shows that the water sector has been moving generally in the right direction over the last 5 years — we see for the first time 5 out of 9 of the Water Companies receiving 4 stars for environmental performance — but progress overall is still too slow and persistent laggards are not responding to public and regulatory pressure. Learn more