The reason why England’s rivers are so polluted

The reason why England's rivers are heavily polluted is that agricultural facilities such as chicken farms discharge excessive amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and other substances into the rivers.

The British Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee has issued a harsh report, warning that the water quality of England’s rivers is one of the worst in Europe, with every river being contaminated by sewage and agricultural waste. and pollution from plastic products. The report believes that this is closely related to the inaction of the British government, water companies and regulators, who still continue to dump sewage into rivers more than a hundred years ago in the Victorian era.

At the same time, England's waterways are seriously polluted by agricultural waste. Reports show that agricultural facilities such as chicken farms in England discharge excessive amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and other substances into rivers, which causes algae to multiply in the water and affects the survival of animals and plants in the water. Feces carrying bacteria and pathogens discharged during agricultural production also cause serious pollution to rivers.

Recommendations to improve water quality in UK rivers

Recommendation 1: The Environment Agency works with water companies to ensure that easily accessible sewage discharge information is provided as close to real-time as possible. Governments and public authorities can fulfill their legally binding obligations under the Environment Act 2021 to designate at least one widely used river for bathing in each water company area by 2025.

Recommendation 2: Reduce the discharge of pollutants to human health, aquatic life and rivers, strengthen river observation and water quality monitoring, improve river safety data sets, and regularly monitor the amount of substances in rivers.

Recommendation 3: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in collaboration with the devolved administrations, undertake a UK-wide survey of emerging contaminants and microplastic pollution in the river environment, including an assessment of them Potential impacts on aquatic ecology.

Recommendation 4: Strengthen the protection of important river species. For example, wild salmon is an iconic important species. Wild salmon in almost every river in the UK are classed as 'at risk' or 'possibly at risk', which should set off alarm bells. Protecting rivers containing important species must be a priority for the Environment Agency and pollution levels in these rivers must be reduced.