11 Dec 2024

Concerns about PFAS pollution have increased in many European countries but comprehensive monitoring data are often limited. A European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing ‘PFAS pollution in European waters’, shows that most monitored rivers, transitional and coastal waters and a large part of lakes in Europe are polluted with at least one of the many extremely […]

11 Dec 2024

The BBC reports that water companies are planning to build a pipeline network to move treated sewage away from conservation areas and into rivers, lakes and seas which do not have the same legal protection.   Photo credit: Gavin Young   The work will be funded by customers and the water regulator, Ofwat, has provisionally […]

11 Dec 2024

Following a successful prosecution by the Environment Agency, Anglian Water has been fined £300,000 for illegally discharging sewage into a watercourse that feeds into the Broads Special Area of Conservation in Norfolk. On 5 December 2024, Anglian Water Services Limited was sentenced at Basildon Magistrates Court to pay a fine of £300,000, alongside £21,896.56 in […]

11 Dec 2024

One of England’s top-rated water companies is using an accounting trick to artificially inflate its balance sheet by more than a billion pounds, BBC Panorama has discovered.     Severn Trent Water claims that an investment is worth £1.68bn in its accounts, when in reality it has no value to the overall business. The made-up […]

03 Dec 2024

New figures from Wildlife and Countryside Link reveal an ongoing pollution problem from bee-killing pesticides in English rivers. 85% of rivers tested in 2023 – 2024 were found to have bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides present, with the proportion affected seeming to have risen slightly from previous years. Campaigners call on the Government to deliver a step […]

03 Dec 2024

A new paper from the London School of Economics highlights how biodiversity net gain (BNG) and natural flood management can be integrated. It highlights that BNG legislation in England presents a key opportunity to unlock funding and innovative solutions that boost urban flood risk management efforts and wider co-benefits.   Photo credit: Ellie Burgin   […]

03 Dec 2024

From Wicked Leeks Earlier this year, Wicked Leeks brought you the story of poo, pollution and profits: how the UK’s intensive poultry industry has become a runaway train that was killing our rivers. Since then, the slope has grown even more slippery. “We are at ‘peak poultry’,” says Ruth Westcott, a campaigner with Sustain, who has been […]

03 Dec 2024

The Water Sector Multi-capitals Network has launched the Principles of multi-capitals approaches to decision making. Despite variations in approaches towards multi-capitals accounting, the principles laid out in this paper will support consistency and alignment, and support better decisions to be made using multi-capital information. Multi-capital approaches should be comprehensive, trustworthy and useful. This paper will help […]