18 Oct 2023

Water, the world’s most precious yet undervalued resource, lies at the heart of a mounting global crisis that threatens both human and planetary health, warns a new report, published this week by WWF. Released on World Food Day (16 October), The High Cost of Cheap Water uncovers a stark reality: the annual economic value of […]

18 Oct 2023

Defra and the Environment Agency have published the ‘Natural flood management programme prospectus’, enabling applicants to apply for funding to increase flood resilience with natural flood management. NFM measures can include: soil and land management river and floodplain management woodland management run-off management coast and estuary management To receive funding a project must: provide one […]

18 Oct 2023

The Defra press release highlights UK-wide consultation launched to ban wet wipes containing plastic Proposed ban will tackle plastic pollution in marine environment and reduce microplastics entering wastewater treatment plants Proposal delivers on the UK Government’s Plan for Water, delivering more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement across the water system A consultation on banning wet wipes […]

18 Oct 2023

A new online tool which highlights where the opportunities are to install nature-based solutions, such as wetlands, to tackle road runoff pollution before it ends up in London’s rivers has gone live. The nation’s rivers are polluted. Along with sewer overflows, littering and misconnected drains, pollution from our roads adds to this cocktail of pollution. Road runoff […]

18 Oct 2023

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure has published the Global Infrastructure Resilience Report. The biennial report addresses a crucial void in the ongoing discourse on infrastructure resilience by providing a compelling argument from economic, financial, and political perspectives for prioritizing investments in resilience. It brings together an unprecedented collection of evidence, delivering a strong case […]

18 Oct 2023

“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic”: EAC calls for better focus of Arctic issues in Whitehall and funding boost for research Rising sea levels, contributed to by Arctic ice melting, could risk 1.5 million UK properties flooding, with growing evidence suggesting that changes in the Arctic could make weather events in […]

12 Oct 2023

CCW has released its annual household complaint-handling report (pdf). The consumer body says households served by two of England’s water and wastewater companies are being let down by a failure to understand and deal with the causes of high levels of complaints from their customers. Highlights include: 232,817 complaints were made to water companies in […]

12 Oct 2023

An investigation by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations has highlighted how hundreds of potentially toxic road runoff outfalls are polluting England’s rivers. No regulator is monitoring the scale of impact of dangerous chemicals on wildlife or public health. Last month, National Highways reported it had assessed its discharge points and found 1,236 outfalls and soakaways […]