The Issue

The Environment Agency assesses river health in England in accordance with The Water Environment (England & Wales) Regulations 2017 (Water Framework Directive)^[1], whereby ecological health status is rated as a condition, and chemical health status is either passed or failed depending on the presence (or absence) of a list of chemical pollutants.^[2]

• Currently, of 18 local river stretches, only 3 are in “good” ecological condition, the rest have assessed as “moderate” or “poor”, and none have passed chemical pollutant tests.
  
  Pressures include:

• Over-abstraction of water and exploitation of natural resources^[3],^[4]
• Habitat loss and fragmentation in and adjacent to waterways
• Physical modifications and alteration to natural form and function
• Impacts of climate change (flooding, drought, extreme weather)
• Unsustainable development and poor land management practices 

These pressures are worsened by poor regulation and enforcement.

Over 10% of freshwater and wetland species are threatened with extinction in the UK, and we’ve lost 90% of our wetland habitats in the last 100 years; locally:

• Otters went extinct in the 1970s but are starting to make a return to our rivers
• Water voles and white clawed crayfish only exist in small populations in the upper reaches of the Don catchment
• Salmon have been largely absent for over 200 years
• Wetland plants such as pillwort and greater sundew are essentially locally extinct