Working with water companies

Testwood Lakes nature reserve © Southern Water

Rivers are the lifeblood of all species. All life needs water and rivers support flourishing landscapes and wildlife, while also being vital for human survival and the economy.

In our two counties, we are blessed with some of the UK’s most beautiful, important rivers and freshwater habitats. Among them, globally rare and revered chalk streams.

The Trust works to protect our rivers through delivering projects on the ground, supporting and empowering other stakeholders, and campaigning for change. Through our conservation, advocacy, campaigning and communications activities, locally and nationally, we stand alongside the many individuals, organisations, groups and wider riparian community in speaking up and taking action to stop the pollution of our waterways and protect our rivers and seas.

However, despite the efforts of the Trust and many others who work tirelessly for our rivers, the condition of these wonderful waterways is increasingly a cause for huge concern. Our rivers are facing multiple threats which are having a devastating impact on water quality, our natural heritage and the wildlife which dearly depends on it.

As the recent State of our Rivers report laid bare, the situation continues to get worse. None of England’s rivers stretches are in good or high overall health – 0% are in good overall status, 0% are in high overall status, 23% are classed as in poor or bad overall status, and 85% of rivers stretches fall below good ecological standards.

In Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight, we are witnessing the direct impact from deteriorating conditions. Phosphate and chemical levels in our chalk streams are reaching a tipping point of potential collapse in some areas. Atlantic Salmon have now been classified as Endangered by the IUCN with numbers entering the Test and Itchen way below their sustainable limits. Run-off from poor land management has devastated once-exceptional rivers like the Eastern Yar and we are tackling a nitrate catastrophe in the coastal waters of the Solent.

This situation is totally unacceptable; our rivers are suffering due to systemic failures, a lack of investment, poor regulation and a lack of joined-up policy. Over many years, we’ve seen:

Failure by the water industry to properly invest in the infrastructure needed to treat wastewater and manage water resources sustainably.
Failure by government to set ambitious and stringent targets for water and ensure regulation is fit for purpose to drive improvements.
Poorly resourced enforcement agencies who have failed to monitor water quality and hold polluters to account.
A lack of appropriate funding and regulation to deal with agricultural pollution.
A lack of joined-up policy when it comes to the planning system and development and its impact on water.

To achieve our vision and strategy for a wilder Hampshire and Isle of Wight, which includes restoring our rivers, it is vital that we use a variety of different levers and work with a wide range of people and organisations.

The Trust achieves impact in three main ways – through delivering projects, like restoring wetlands, buying land for rewilding or creating new habitats; through supporting and empowering others, such as providing land advice or training communities; and through campaigning for change, through our policy and evidence work.

Over decades, the Trust has continually evolved its approach to focus our limited resources into areas that have the greatest impact, often relying on partnerships with others to amplify our efforts.

Water companies are one of the many different organisations that we work with and have done so for many years. We understand that for many people, working with water companies is a contentious and increasingly controversial issue, particularly in light of the high-profile incidents around sewage discharges.

We are often asked how and why we work with these companies and we have addressed our position in the following FAQs

Why do you work with water companies?

Water companies are just one of the many different organisations that we work with and have done so for many years. Given the scale of operation and impact of water companies, they have a crucial role to play in solving the many complex issues facing our rivers. We are very clear in our position that water companies must urgently improve their practices, invest in infrastructure and clean up their act, while also investing in vital projects like river restoration, wetland creation and catchment resilience as a matter of urgency. Conservation charities like the Trust are well placed with the expertise to deliver these projects.

By working with water companies to deliver meaningful improvements on the ground, we use the opportunity to influence their practices and push them to invest. These collaborations help to strengthen the Trust’s capacity to address water-related challenges, promote responsible water usage, and craft holistic solutions for environmental protection and sustainability.

However, that is not to say the Trust won’t criticise water companies, nor does any partnership working with them stop us from calling out poor practice, campaigning for change or supporting groups and individuals in their own campaigning to protect our waterways.

How do you work with water companies?

The Trust works with water companies on a variety of projects, delivering contracted work, managing land that water companies own to create and protect amazing places for people and nature, and on advocacy and engagement, for example to promote water efficiency.

Alongside other partners, we deliver projects and contract work which significantly improves the health and quality of our waterways, and water companies work in partnership and/or provide funding for some of these specific activities.

For example, Southern Water are required to fund habitat improvements under Section 20 of the Water Resources Act to ensure that the rivers Test and Itchen are more resilient to drought. The Trust has been contracted to deliver a range of projects including river restoration, habitat creation for southern damselfly, and work to improve conditions for fish. Southern Water have also contributed to the Watercress & Winterbournes project which is engaging communities to take action for their local rivers, and Wessex Water and Bournemouth Water partly fund our conservation and engagement work at Blashford Lakes nature reserve.

What is the Trust doing to improve the state of our rivers?

The Trust has been at the forefront in both counties over the past 30 years focussing on work to protect and restore our rivers and wetlands. This work has included:

Leading the otter reintroduction to the Itchen in the early 90s.
Overseeing the UK’s longest running non-native plant eradication project on New Forest streams.
Fish passage work on the Eastern Yar.
Floodplain restoration schemes at Winnall Moors and along the Itchen Navigation.

In addition to the daily activities we currently carry out across our nature reserves to protect and restore wildlife, the Trust has a number of other projects which improve river health, hold polluters to account and seek to secure new protections for all chalk streams. Examples are listed below:

Last year, we launched the campaign Save our Chalk Streams which calls for new, pioneering, bespoke protection for all chalk streams, as recommended by the CaBa Chalk Stream Strategy, to make polluters pay, hold water companies to account and ensure we can rapidly repair our waterways. 

Together with 15 partner organisations and local communities, our work on the flagship Watercress and Winterbournes scheme protects and celebrates seven precious chalk streams – the upper tributaries of the celebrated Rivers Test and Itchen. This project includes restoring wildlife habitat, monitoring water quality, removing invasive species, supporting citizen science, and educating young people. The project is also delivering land advice and undertaking projects to prevent sediment from agricultural activities from entering watercourses.

We are using nature-based solutions to restore and revitalise rivers, improving water quality, reducing pollution, and enhancing biodiversity.

Our expert ecologists are working to protect and preserve the endangered the white-clawed crayfish, the UK’s only native crayfish, through the Southern Chalk Streams project. This work has led a pioneering science-led partnership with Bristol Zoo and the Wildheart Sanctuary on the Isle of Wight to establish captive breeding facilities to enable further translocations of crayfish on the River Itchen and to help support their reestablishment across their typical range.

We jointly chair the Test and Itchen catchment partnership with the Wessex Rivers Trust which aims to facilitate and champion joint working between riparian owners, fishing interests, local communities, charities, government agencies, local planning authorities, and water companies to deliver catchment scale improvements. We have recently joined the Pan Parish River Pollution Forum to add our voice to those rightly concerned about recent incidents. The partnership is leading discussions with Hampshire County Council Highways to try to address the acute problems of highways derived run-off and pollution.

And together with our national policy team, we are continuing to lobby government to improve regulation of polluting industries and ensure that polluters are properly held to account. At a national level, the Wildlife Trusts also chairs the Wildlife & Countryside Link’s Blueprint for Water Group which works on freshwater policy issues, with current work focused on environmental resilience, sustainable abstraction, water quality, infrastructure investment and agricultural pollution.

How can you hold companies to account if they are also partners / funders?

Working in partnership with a company does not mean that we endorse poor practice, and we always maintain the freedom to publicly criticise failings and damaging practices, regardless of any partnership or funding agreements which may be in place.

We would never compromise on this position and we have frequently shone a light on incidents such as pollution in recent years, through our communications, campaigning and conservation activities, both locally and nationally.

Our most recent statement on sewage pollution can be found here and a blog on how recent pollution events expose more toxic issues under the surface is here.

How can I get involved?

Through our Save our Chalk Streams campaign, we are calling for new, pioneering legal protections for all chalk streams. You can write to your MP and ask them to champion our chalk streams locally and in Westminster.  

You can also become a campaign leader to help drive change locally. We will provide training and advice on how to campaign to revive our rivers, including calling for your council to put in place stronger planning policies.

Alternatively, you can volunteer with Watercress and Winterbournes Landscape Partnership project. There are many ways to get involved, from habitat restoration and wildlife monitoring to youth education and creative activities.

Finally, if you are aware of a pollution incident affecting our rivers, you can report it to the Environment Agency through their 24-hour hotline: 0800 80 70 60.