West Suffolk snorkeller calls for more to be done to prevent water pollution
According to the Environment Agency, sewage entered rivers and seas an average of 825 times a day last year
Last updated 23rd Aug 2023
A woman from West Suffolk is calling for more to be done to prevent water pollution.
Nicola Crockford goes snorkelling in various rivers around the East of England and calls the state of some of them 'disgusting... (with a) horrible bluey-grey-green colour and visibility of only about a foot."
This comes as data from the Environment Agency shows sewage entered rivers and seas an average of 825 times a day last year.
What's causing the murky rivers?
Nicola explained there are multiple things that could be causing the rivers to change and suffer "a death by 1000 cuts":
"So probably a key feature is increased nutrients from agriculture and treatment works.
"But also the canalisation that has happened upstream in the Cam where all of the natural gravels have been scraped off the bottom has resulted in the exposure of the mall underneath."
She also believes that sewage and agriculture are contributing to this:
"Unlike in the US, there is no regulation stopping farmers from farming right up to the riverbank. There they have really big buffer zones that are very strictly enforced."
What should be done?
Nicola would like more to be done around farming to prevent the 'nutrients and sediment' from going into rivers.
She'd also like to see water treatment facilities improve:
"Water companies obviously need to comply with the law and they need to pay for that, but standards need to be improved, beyond just getting compliance with what's legal at the moment and that's something that the taxpayer would have to pay for."
Could green infrastructure help?
Nicola believes that implementing green infrastructure could help the rivers as well as flooding risks and multiple other things.
"What is being shown again and again is that if we use green infrastructure, like river ecosystems, not only can that solve the problem with the nutrients and sediments, but it can also be fantastic for our biodiversity and for our human health, well-being and recreational enjoyment.
"It also helps to stop the flooding that is becoming an increasing problem and acts as a sponge so that we don't lose all the water.
"Of course, as climate change increases, the risk of droughts and water supplies becoming a real problem.
DEFRA's response
A Defra spokesperson tells us A Defra spokesperson said:
“We have been clear that the volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is utterly unacceptable.
"That is why our Plan for Water sets out increased investment, tougher enforcement and tighter regulation to tackle every source of river and sea pollution.
“We are scrapping the cap on civil penalties and have set stringent targets for water companies to reduce storm overflows.
"We have also increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network to 91% from 7% in 2010, reaching 100% cover by the end of this year.
"This extra data means we can hold companies to account and drive the improvements that we all want to see.”