The UK's rivers need protection... not economic growth

The dire state of our rivers emerged as one of the most hotly debated campaign issues during this year's general election. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens all competed to position themselves as the party most capable of addressing the shocking, inescapable fact that every river in the country is now polluted.

The dismal track record of the failing water industry - allowed to profit for years while treating our rivers like open sewers - became a source of widespread public outrage, frequently raised on doorsteps and at election hustings.

We woke up on July 5 to the unimaginable sight of the Conservatives losing dozens of true-blue rural seats where the pollution of the local river had been front and centre of the campaign. In the catchment area of the River Wye, for instance - one of the UK's most polluted rivers - the Tories held on to just one of their previously five "safe" seats, with two falling to Labour, one to the Lib Dems and one to the Greens.

So with Labour having placed a commitment to clean up our rivers "once and for all" at the heart of many of these local campaigns, our excitement and expectation for real change was immense. Their first action was the announcement in the King's Speech of the Water (Special Measures) Bill. We were deeply dismayed. The two cornerstones of this proposed act of parliament are to curtail water company bosses' bonuses, and put the same bosses in prison if they obstruct investigations into their companies.

Neither measure will make the slightest difference to the desperate state of our rivers.

When the bonuses of bankers were subjected to restriction after the 2008 financial crisis, they simply increased their salaries. Meanwhile any company director is already beholden to the law for unlawful behaviour. Instead of announcing real tangible actions that get to the heart of the causes of water pollution, the proposed legislation seems to be based more on catchy soundbites that presumably scored quite well with pre-election focus groups.

The root cause of the pollution of our rivers lies in the abject failure of regulation and law enforcement.

The UK already has in place a set of robust laws and regulations to protect nature and our water bodies: The Habitats Regulations, The Water Framework Directive, the Farming Rules for Water, The Water Resources Regulations and so forth.

The key issue however is that none of the above have ever been effectively enforced.

The bodies tasked to do so, like the Environment Agency, have had their funding cut to the bone following years of austerity. Meanwhile, the enforcement of regulations to protect water bodies from escalating levels of agricultural pollution have been consistently undermined by highly effective lobbying by the farming industry.

In response to the muted reaction to the Water Special Measures Bill, the Government has announced last week the creation of a Water Commission whose terms of reference is to conduct a wide-reaching independent review of the water industry to "inform further reform of the water sector".

There is no question that this development is welcome. We finally have a government that is listening to campaigners and is fully acknowledging that the system is broken and needs major action to fix it.

However, we temper that welcome with many concerns and questions. Firstly, why has an eminent banker (former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe), who has no environmental experience, been appointed to chair the Commission?

And why does the objective to promote "economic growth" feature repeatedly in the terms of reference? Our long-suffering rivers don't need economic growth. They need basic, effective and comprehensive environmental protection.

It's to deliver this clear message to Keir Starmer that on Sunday tens of thousands of people from up and down the country and from all walks of life will join the March for Clean Water in central London.

A coalition of environmental campaigners, leading conservation and heritage charities, athletes, activists, swimmers, anglers, citizen scientists, river champions and many ordinary concerned citizens will be taking to the streets to urge ministers to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix the nationwide water pollution crisis that has led to the poisoning of our rivers, seas and lakes.

See you there!

Charles Watson is Founder and Chairman of River Action. Visit for more details