New plan to improve water quality launched
29 January 2010
A new plan to improve water quality in rivers, lakes, coastal waters and groundwater in the East of England is being launched today (Friday 29 January) by the Environment Agency.
758 rivers contained within 27,890 square kilometres of mainly agricultural land stretching from Lincolnshire to Essex and Northamptonshire to the coast are covered by this River Basin Management Plan (RBMP).
The plan has been developed by the Environment Agency in partnership with Natural England, water companies and farming and conservation bodies, as well as the owners of land on the river banks. RBMPs are used to plan how to achieve the requirements of the European Union Water Framework Directive, which aims to ensure that water quality is progressively improved across Europe.
In the five years covered by this RBMP, from 2009 to 2015, 1,700km of rivers are planned to improve against the stringent targets set by the EU, providing a better environment for fish and for invertebrates, diatoms, macrophytes and phytoplankton, which are good indicators of water quality.
Paul Woodcock, Environment Agency Anglian Regional Director said: ‘Many organisations and businesses have already been doing great work in this region to improve water quality to the generally high standards we see today.
‘We are currently implementing a £254k programme of fisheries work funded by Defra to improve the status of some of our region's rivers. The money is improving the migration and survival of sea trout and eels through the provision of new fish passes and restoring river habitats.
‘The RBMP plan is the next step in increasing our water quality further, and making sure that water in this region matches both our needs and those of the environment around us we enjoy so much.'
The region is currently home to 5.2 million people, with the government envisaging a further 500,000 homes being built by 2021. This will put pressure on the water available to both people and the environment in the region, but with good planning and resource use, should not be detrimental to our water environment.
The Environment Agency will now be investigating how water quality in particular areas can be improved, what the cost/ benefit of this might be, and what is economically sustainable action for organisations and businesses to be asked to undertake.