River being given legal rights
A district council in England has passed a motion to grant its local river the rights to flow freely, to be free from pollution and to enjoy its native biodiversity. The move by Lewes District Council in East Sussex to recognise the fundamental rights of the River Ouse is the first of its kind in the UK.
In what has been billed a ‘major step forward in the UK’s environmental movement’, the River Ouse – the spine of an extensive network of smaller streams that fan across the Sussex county – joins a small but powerful international collection of rivers now recognised as “living entities” with “intrinsic rights to exist.” The Ouse follows on from successful models implemented in New Zealand, Canada, and Colombia.
However, in a recent piece for the Conversation Oluwabusayo Wuraola, a lecturer in law at Anglia Ruskin University, shared concerns that even as rights of nature are being considered in many countries, there is still little consideration of who will represent these rights effectively. She warns defending the rights of nature in court will ultimately be a struggle if it is not represented by someone with an ecocentric perspective. That means prioritising the intrinsic value of nature itself, rather than focusing on how it can serve human interests.
Giving rivers room to roam
In a similar vein, another piece in the Conversation has advocated for giving rivers room to move, in opposition to past management decisions that have artificially confined rivers within narrow channels, cutting them off from their natural floodplains. This alternative is increasingly being considered as an approach to mitigating flood risk, and allowing rivers room to move also delivers ecological benefits far beyond flood risk reduction, supporting biodiversity, improving water quality and storing carbon.
Community plans for rivers
Separately, a new outline of community ambitions to protect and restore the River Teifi has been unveiled with the launch of the People’s Plan for the Teifi. Developed with input from over 300 people within local communities, the plan sets out a shared vision for the river’s future – one that prioritises ecological health, sustainable management, and community involvement.
Citizen’s arrests performed over England’s record sewage problem
The UK’s Environment Secretary recently described the number of spills from storm overflows as “disgraceful”. It was recently revealed that nearly 4 million hours of raw sewage was dumped in England’s water last year, including a record number of illegal sewage spills in Windermere.
The Guardian reported this news was followed by citizen’s arrests being performed on the chief executive and chief financial officer of Thames Water on suspicion of causing a public nuisance. The campaigners accuse Chris Weston and Alastair Cochran of five to seven counts of the offence, which is regularly used against protesters, including illegal discharge of sewage, mismanagement of customer funds and operating unsafe infrastructure.
Investigation into Defra’s ‘possible failures’ on water quality efforts
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) watchdog launched an investigation into the UK government over potential failures to clean up England’s rivers under EU-derived laws.
The OEP published a report last year saying that plans to clean up waterways were too generic and did not address specific issues at individual sites. It said plans were being put in place despite low government confidence that their objectives could be achieved.
The watchdog will now look at whether those issues represent failures by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to comply with Water Framework Directive Regulations.
Photo: Valentina Sotnikova
Environment secretary’s appeal rejected
This week the Court handed down its judgment in the appeal of the case of R (Pickering Fishery Association) v the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed pursued an appeal against a group of anglers in North Yorkshire who had won a decade-long legal case arguing that the government and the Environment Agency’s plans to clean up the Upper Costa Beck were so vague they were ineffectual. The judge in the high court found that the government had unlawfully failed to assess and identify specific measures to achieve the legally mandatory targets for the waterbody. Reed however, decided to continue the challenge which had begun under the previous Conservative government, arguing that cleaning up their waterway was administratively unworkable.
On Wednesday, the appeal court found in favour of the anglers, the Pickering Fishery Association, upholding the high court ruling. The OEP said they welcomed the Court of Appeal decision on the correct interpretation of the law to protect and improve water quality, stating they had “intervened in the appeal to highlight the importance of clarity in the law to promote positive outcomes for the water environment following its report into implementation of the WFD Regulations and River Basin Management Planning in England.” The judges dismissed Reed’s argument that it was administratively unworkable to develop specific measures to clean up individual rivers, lakes and streams as is required by law under the water framework directive – legislation that aims to improve the quality of rivers, lakes and coastal waters.
Bill nationalise polluting water companies blocked by government
A proposed law that would take failing water companies back into public ownership if they repeatedly pollute Britain’s waterways has been blocked, after the Government did not offer its support to Clive Lewis’s Water Bill, which included a series of measures to tackle water pollution, including nationalising repeat offenders.
The Bill would have required the Government to publish a water strategy, establish a commission that would examine water ownership and value for money, and set up a citizens’ assembly on water ownership. MPs debated the Bill for more than four hours, but Mr Lewis asked for it to be adjourned until July 4 after failing to get Government backing. While adding the Government was committed to improving water quality and the wider industry, Environment minister Emma Hardy concluded it would cost more than £200 billion to renationalise the water industry.