EAC calls for culture of ‘water citizenship’

Improving water quality in rivers cannot solely be the responsibility of the water industry, the Environmental Audit Committee has said as it called for engagement from stakeholders.

In its Water Quality in Rivers report published on Thursday (13January), the EAC said engagement is needed with farmers, landowners, local authorities, food outlets, housing developers, manufacturing companies and citizen groups among others to address pollution concerns at their source.

The EAC advocated for Catchment Based Approach partnerships and called on ministers to increase funding and resources.

It called for a culture of “water citizenship” to be fostered by policymakers across government to make people better aware of how everyone’s behaviour can impact water environments. The report pointed out that awareness needed to be higher about blockages that lead to pollution incidents.

Furthermore, the EAC said citizen scientists should be “encouraged and recognised” without being seen as an alternative to adequately funded monitoring by regulators. It suggested the EA should, for instance, consider providing a publicly-available platform for citizen scientists to enter water quality readings that could be verified by other users, regulators or companies.

The report questioned whether water companies could have a requirement placed on them to respond to research done by citizen scientists that identifies problems with water quality and offer a plan to address the issues found.

The EAC said local authorities must be given sufficient powers to be able to add sustainable drainage systems to large roads and housing estates. It added authorities should be engaged in catchment work and engage with the development of drainage and sewerage management plans.

Where rivers pass through more than one water company’s catchment, the EAC recommended that the EA and Natural England should calculate nutrient budgets for each river catchment in England.