Last month, the Environmental Audit Committee, which I Chair, published the report from our inquiry into Water Quality in Rivers in England.

As readers will be aware, I have been at the forefront of the campaign to clean up our rivers in recent years. But when I was researching the problem for my Private Members Bill, I was hampered by a lack of data on the quality of water in our rivers.

So the Environmental Audit Committee set out to get to the bottom of this issue through an inquiry, taking evidence from water companies, regulatory bodies, scientific experts and campaign groups – and our report lays bare the scale of the challenge.

Only 14% of English rivers meet good ecological status, with pollution from agriculture, sewage, roads and single-use plastics contributing to a dangerous ‘chemical cocktail’ coursing through our waterways.

Until the passing of the Environment Act last year, which brought into law many of the key principles behind my Private Members Bill, there had been a lack of political will, for decades, to improve water quality, with successive governments, water companies and regulators seemingly turning a blind eye to dumping sewage and other pollutants in rivers. This is now changing, with real public desire to see this problem sorted out.

But lack of publicly available data has been an issue, which has hampered the ability to monitor water quality in rivers and detect permit breaches or pollution incidents, in turn limiting successful enforcement by the Environment Agency.

Technology is coming to our aid in enabling monitoring in real time, which the Environment Act will require to become available to inform the public. Having arranged a pollution monitoring trial project in the River Teme, I know it can be done. I am keen to do more, as I successfully encouraged Severn Trent Water to nominate the Teme at Ludlow as one of its first sites for bathing quality water. So if anyone is interested in helping with this initiative, please get in touch.

I have argued that the public deserve to know how clean their local river is, not least when the pandemic has seen a significant increase in use of our rivers for recreation – whether angling, wild swimming or canoeing (or perhaps even paddling coracles in Shropshire!). So in addition to publicly accessible information, our Committee has called for at least one widely used stretch of river to be improved to meet bathing quality status, in each water company area, by 2025.

Sewage is not the only issue, and agriculture does play a part. Intensive livestock and poultry farming is putting pressure on particular catchments, such as the River Wye. We called for limits on new intensive units where catchments are already under pressure from excess nutrient load.

Equally, there is action we can take in our homes. Fats, oils and greases, and cleaning and hygiene products containing plastic, are causing constant problems for drainage systems when they are poured away in sinks or flushed down the toilet. I am supporting two Private Members Bills, one to require filters to remove plastic microfibres being flushed away from clothes washing machines, and another to prohibit the manufacture and sale of single use cleaning and hygiene products containing plastic, in particular wet wipes, which do not biodegrade.  

Some people have focussed on the issue of public or private ownership of water companies, but based on my extensive engagement on this topic, I have found this is something of a red herring. Capital investment in water treatment by water companies in the first ten years of privatisation was roughly double the ten years prior to privatisation. But I do accept those companies which routinely discharge beyond their permits should consider bonus levels for executives. Our Committee also recommended that the new environment regulator should consider the roles of Ofwat and the Environment Agency in fulfilling their functions properly.

A problem of this scale is not fixed overnight, but I shall keep campaigning until our rivers are restored to become once again the clear arteries of nature, safe for the public to enjoy.