Latest News

The Welsh government has launched its second statutory consultation on the Water Framework Directive, aimed at finding a solution for the "significant water management issues" identified across the country.

Response to the six-month consultation, which closes in December, will feed into the third River Basin Management Plans and the next State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR) required under the Environment Act, according to Natural Resources Wales (NRW). 

Ammonia and nitrogen pollution, mostly from agriculture, is harming more than 60% of the UK's land area and affecting the most sensitive habitats, according to a DEFRA report.

The trends report, published this week, finds that “there have only been small reductions in ammonia concentrations” between the periods 2009-11 and 2013-15.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Herefordshire Council are using satellite imaging to identify where soily water is washing into rivers and covering roads.

The issue causes a problem both for water quality and for driving conditions, seen especially during last week’s wet weather. It can also worsen flooding.

Satellite and drone photograph will be used to identify bare, sloping agricultural fields where soil is most likely to be washed away during heavy rain. Landowners will be visited and provided with guidance on better soil management.

England's rare and fragile chalk streams are in such a stressed state that wate restrictions should urgently be put in place to protect them, according to a group of 12 rivers and wildlife organisations.

The group, which includes the Angling Trust, the Wild Trout Trust, Chilterns Chalk Streams Project and the Rivers and Wildlife Trusts, says that river levels and groundwater supplies are now so depleted that the freshwater ecosystems are “quite simply dying from a lack of water”.