08 Nov 2023

UKWIR (UK Water Industry Research) has published a new report ‘Enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion in the UK & Irish water industries’. Commendably, the water industry has recognised a lack of diversity, identifying that the workforce across the sector is not representative of the communities they serve. The project used a mixed method of research […]

08 Nov 2023

A new report by the influential Broadway Initiative, The State of UK Nature Markets 2023, finds ‘some progress’ has been made towards the goals outlined in the ground-breaking Financing Nature Recovery UK Report published in July 2022, but the most significant opportunities lie ahead. The report called for actions including a plan for nature market […]

08 Nov 2023

The Welsh Government has published a review of the costs and benefits of different storm overflow control policies for Wales. The analysis considers capex, opex, bill impact, benefits, net present value and carbon associated with both traditional infrastructure and “blue green” approaches. The report finds that The capital costs of removing the harmful environmental impacts […]

08 Nov 2023

A new piece in the International Water Association’s Source magazine argues that a focus on conventional, centralised systems has failed to deliver adequate access to sanitation. By Kala Vairavamoorthy The United Nations Water Conference has been hailed as a landmark event. In many respects it was, being the first since 1977. But as I reflect […]

01 Nov 2023

An exclusive investigation by the Guardian suggests England is to diverge from EU water monitoring standards. Campaigners fear the change of approach could lead to more pollution in England’s rivers and waterways if the new measuring methods are less rigorous. While in the EU, England was covered by the water framework directive (WFD), and a […]

01 Nov 2023

The world is approaching a series of climate risk tipping points, according to a major new report from the UN University. It is also on the brink of irreversible changes to nature, water systems and pollution in space, which would drastically damage our ability to cope with disasters, including the withdrawal of home insurance from […]

01 Nov 2023

The Environment Agency (EA) claims that an estimated 96,000 properties have been protected and as part of the EA’s response to flooding caused by Storm Babet. Further, twenty high volume pumps and five small volume pumps were deployed across several sites. The EA’s flood warning service sent out over 300,000 messages by email, telephone and […]

01 Nov 2023

On Tuesday, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee questioned the Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Dr Thérèse Coffey MP, and the Department’s Permanent Secretary, Tamara Finkelstein. Highlights: She said that the recent floods caused by Storm Babet were exacerbated by the impacts of rain coming from the opposite direction. She admits the Environment […]