19 Dec 2024

New research by two US Universities finds “shockingly” fast changes to flows of Earth’s 3 million or so rivers. The research, reported by CNN, found that nearly half of the world’s largest downstream rivers — 44% — saw a drop in the amount of water flowing through them each year. Hannah Cloke, a hydrology professor […]

11 Dec 2024

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has launched a new inquiry to examine flood resilience in England as homes and businesses recover from more flooding misery in recent weeks. At the end of November, Storm Bert flooded in excess of 100 homes and over the weekend, Storm Darragh triggered over 200 flood warnings […]

11 Dec 2024

An investigation by the Guardian suggests EU countries will share laboratory capacity but UK rules mean products cannot be tested abroad. It claims that the safety of tap water in the UK could be at risk because water companies are unable to use products to clean it, industry insiders have said, as all the laboratories […]

11 Dec 2024

Europe’s water is under pressure from pollution, over-use, habitat degradation and increasing impacts of climate change. Improving the resilience and health of Europe’s lakes, rivers and groundwaters is an urgent priority to secure good-quality water for people and nature.   Photo credit: David Ruh   ‘EEA Signals 2024 – Towards healthy and resilient waters in […]

11 Dec 2024

Concerns about PFAS pollution have increased in many European countries but comprehensive monitoring data are often limited. A European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing ‘PFAS pollution in European waters’, shows that most monitored rivers, transitional and coastal waters and a large part of lakes in Europe are polluted with at least one of the many extremely […]

11 Dec 2024

The BBC reports that water companies are planning to build a pipeline network to move treated sewage away from conservation areas and into rivers, lakes and seas which do not have the same legal protection.   Photo credit: Gavin Young   The work will be funded by customers and the water regulator, Ofwat, has provisionally […]

11 Dec 2024

Following a successful prosecution by the Environment Agency, Anglian Water has been fined £300,000 for illegally discharging sewage into a watercourse that feeds into the Broads Special Area of Conservation in Norfolk. On 5 December 2024, Anglian Water Services Limited was sentenced at Basildon Magistrates Court to pay a fine of £300,000, alongside £21,896.56 in […]

11 Dec 2024

One of England’s top-rated water companies is using an accounting trick to artificially inflate its balance sheet by more than a billion pounds, BBC Panorama has discovered.     Severn Trent Water claims that an investment is worth £1.68bn in its accounts, when in reality it has no value to the overall business. The made-up […]