The issue – Why is this relevant to The Rivers Trust?
Water and sewage utilities are the single largest players in the UK and Ireland water sectors. They have some of the largest impacts on the quantity and quality of water in rivers through abstraction and the discharge of treated and untreated wastewater. They control important engineered infrastructure that impacts rivers, and most households and businesses are connected to them as paying customers for water supply and/or sewage management.
Water utilities are invested in the broader health of catchments and consequent impacts on rivers. In England, water companies have the single largest spend on the water environment through the Water Industry Natural Environment Programme (WINEP); in the latest round of investment planning, water companies have committed to delivering 24,000+ actions for the environment between 2025-2030, which represents a £22.1 billion investment. Water companies are closely linked to other players that have a stake in river health, such as local authorities and other urban stakeholders through their Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans.
The Rivers Trust movement plays a critical role in delivering improvements on the ground, working with local stakeholders to transform the health of our catchments. The water sector has a significant impact on, and role in the management of, our water environment. Therefore, it is essential that The Rivers Trust engages with the water sector, critically and constructively, to achieve our vision of wild, healthy and natural rivers valued by all.
Why is working with Water Companies contentious?
As set out in The State of Our Rivers Report 2024, up to 54% of rivers in England are not achieving good ecological status due to the activities of water companies (35% due to treated effluent discharge, 11% due to storm overflows, 6% due to groundwater abstraction and 3% due to surface water abstraction). The operations of water and sewage companies have negative impacts on rivers, and they are rightly criticised for this.
Over the last few years there has been heightened attention paid to the activities of water companies and the regulatory system around them, from the public, campaigners and politicians. In 2021, the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into water quality in England’s rivers concluded that the dire state of the country’s waterways is in part due to poor operational management and underinvestment in infrastructure by water companies. The Committee recommended that much stronger and more effective regulation of water companies is needed.
Since then, the regulators Ofwat and the Environment Agency have launched investigations into all 11 water companies in England and Wales and have so far confirmed enforcement packages against 7 due to failures to properly maintain their wastewater systems and overuse of storm overflows. At the same time, the Office for Environmental Protection has found that Defra, the Environment Agency and Ofwat have themselves breached environmental law regarding storm overflows. These activities clearly show that the water sector in England and Wales and the regulatory framework around it is currently not performing as required.
It is very clear that the water sector has serious work to do to regain public trust and start delivering effectively for customers and the environment. While this may be seen by some as a reason not to work with water companies, The Rivers Trust is clear that our priority lies with improving the health of the water environment, and therefore we are committed to driving improvements in environmental outcomes, transparency, and best practice in the sector.
What is our position?
Given the scale of operation and impact of water companies on the water environment, The Rivers Trust works with them to accelerate the recovery of our rivers. Any system for solving the complex problems facing our rivers will have to involve water companies as part of the solution.
The Rivers Trust works at a national level with water companies to jointly tackle systemic issues, such as barriers to nature-based solutions and gaps in the monitoring framework.
Members across the Rivers Trust movement work with local communities, using nature-based solutions, to improve the state of our rivers and their catchments, so we are a critical partner for water companies in planning and delivering effective solutions. Many of the members of the Rivers Trust movement deliver partnership projects (such as farm advice and river restoration) where water companies are one of the funders; by joining up across sectors, these projects can achieve even more for our waterways, wider environment, and communities.
We will never compromise our role in holding water companies to account and boosting transparency in the sector, as this is core to our charitable objectives. In the course of any work with water companies, we will always speak up against pollution and poor management, and champion better access to data and evidence on the state of our rivers.
What work are we doing?
The Rivers Trust’s work so far has enabled us all to hold the water sector to account more effectively. Our Sewage Map has for years made data on sewage pollution by water companies in England publicly accessible. We have pushed for improved transparency in the sector, being part of the group urging water companies to publish real-time sewage discharge data in an open and accessible way, which led to the launch of the National Storm Overflows Hub. Our role in holding water companies to account and sharing data and evidence on their impacts on the water environment is important in strengthening good governance in the water sector.
We consistently advocate for better, more effective regulation of the water sector and call for greater environmental ambition. The launch of the Independent Water Commission presented a significant opportunity to reset the sector and transform the health of our waterways, so The Rivers Trust engaged deeply with the process. We submitted a full response with sign-on from members of the Rivers Trusts movement and are continuing to press the government to act more urgently and with more ambition as it rolls out reforms.
We also collaborate to raise the volume of our advocacy efforts. We are part of the Blueprint for Water coalition that engages at the highest level with the water company business planning process and publicly analysed company plans in our PR24 Scorecard, boosting transparency for the public. We are also a member of the End Sewage Pollution Coalition, which has united environmental charities, sports bodies, and community groups around the shared vision of healthy and safe waterways.
The Rivers Trust focuses on strategic work with water companies that will result in step changes in how our catchments are managed and improve the health of rivers. This work will often include members of the Rivers Trust movement that carry out practical delivery across our catchments, including rewiggling rivers, creating wetlands, planting trees and much more. These projects aim to demonstrate new approaches to rebuilding nature and working with catchment partnerships, which have the potential to deliver more for our rivers and communities. Key examples of this work include:
- Establishing nature-based solutions at scale (e.g. sustainable drainage, river buffers, natural flood management) and ensuring that they are well built, equitably financed, well-regulated, and deliver benefits. For example, the Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions Programme brings together 22 cross-sector partners including multiple water companies to break down barriers to nature-based solutions.
- Including citizen scientists in building a better understanding of catchment health. For example, The Rivers Trust co-leads the Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo) project, along with United Utilities, which aims to bring citizen science into official decision-making processes.
In the course of this work, we safeguard our independence and ensure that our work is grounded in evidence. We will always be transparent and clarify where we are working in partnership with water companies, and where we are working independently.