The UK is moving away from EU water quality monitoring standards, reports The Guardian. This is sparking fears that the new monitoring methods would be less rigorous and fail to protect water bodies from pollution.
For instance, when it was part of the EU, England conducted an annual chemical and ecological survey of rivers. Since 2016-2017, water quality will be tested under the Water Framework Directive, transposed into English law, every three years.
Water bodies were last assessed in 2019; at the time only 14% of rivers were in good ecological health, and none of them met the criteria for good chemical health. Now the government has said there will not be an update until 2025.
On the other hand, a new methodology will be used to assess river health. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has said they will be using the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) process to assess performance. “A pioneering partnership between Defra, Natural England, Environment Agency, Forest Research and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, NCEA blends capability, expertise and experience to build a richer, more comprehensive picture of our natural environment, monitoring quality and quantity, assessing the impact of or need for interventions and helping to manage and protect our natural capital”, a spokesperson from the Environment Agency told The Guardian.
According to government officials, in 2022 monitoring was carried out in a limited number of water bodies, due to the pandemic and budget cuts. The limited data obtained showed that monitored sites were in worse condition than in earlier assessments; it will not be extrapolated to the national level to avoid a bias.
The Environment Agency has stressed that “improving water quality is one of our highest priorities”, and they are working with partners to provide better information, including real-time data; there will be no significant changes to the classification methodology in the next comprehensive update planned for 2025.
Angling Trust’s Stuart Singleton-White, noted “past assessments have shown things are getting worse, not better”, and having to wait until 2025 for a full assessment “simply sows confusion and leaves the public in the dark when it comes to properly understanding whether our rivers are getting better or worse.”
Meanwhile, Tim Farron, spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, has criticised the scaling back of the assessments and calls for regular testing and a new water sector regulator with more power over water companies to tackle the problem of sewage pollution in English water bodies.
