Healthy rivers are vital for the environment and us. The Times wants to see far more rivers and water bodies reaching good ecological status, meaning they’re close to their natural state. This is the manifesto for the Clean It Up campaign:
Jail and other criminal penalties for water chiefs under beefed-up Environment Agency
Water firms should be stripped of self-monitoring powers and the job handed to the Environment Agency.
Hollowed out when Liz Truss was the environment secretary, the regulator should be given more money by the government to fund prosecutions and reverse cuts to water sampling.
Its former chairwoman, Emma Howard-Boyd, backs custodial sentences for chief executives and board members whose companies are responsible for the most serious incidents. The Times agrees.
Bring forward the target date for improving three quarters of overflows discharging near sensitive sites
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has a goal of water companies spending £56 billion to improve 75 per cent of the 5,500 storm overflows that discharge near high priority beaches and rivers by 2035.
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This is not ambitious enough. Companies must also be compelled to invest more on other wastewater infrastructure by being permitted by Ofwat, the regulator, to charge consumers more in the second half of this decade, while protecting the most vulnerable households.
Dividends should be limited, and Ofwat should push through its proposals to link dividends to environmental performance.
Hundreds of clean bathing sites by the end of the decade
Only two rivers in England are designated as clean bathing sites, and both are still rated poor.
The environment secretary should make it easier for local authorities and community groups to apply for bathing designations.
The government and water companies also need to provide the funds to ensure that the greater monitoring that comes with designation is matched by improvements in water quality. Public alerts on days of bad water pollution should be improved too. Online sources of water quality are often hard to access, fragmented across different sites and rarely close to real-time. That must change.
Incentivise farmers to curb their pollution of rivers
Farmers face huge economic pressures, combined with uncertainty as they transition to new nature-friendly farming subsidies. But that should not let them off the hook.
The government must provide support so farmers can deliver on the Environment Act target of reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from agriculture at least 40 per cent by 2037, against 2018 levels.
Supermarkets should raise environmental standards so consumers can choose river-friendly products. The government must not water down the “nutrient neutrality” planning rules laid out by Natural England, the watchdog, for 74 councils, which are designed to stop new homes and new farm infrastructure worsening nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.
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Find out more about the Clean It Up campaign.
