Anglian Water begins work to support the creation of the first official inland swimming hotspots in the East of England

• Water company pledges water quality monitoring support and funding to assist rivers groups
• Forms critical first steps of a commitment to ensuring 90% the region’s population live within 1-hour of an inland bathing location by 2030
• First sites chosen on River Cam, River Waveney, and River Deben

Anglian Water has announced a new package of work with local river and wild swimming groups to support plans for bathing water designation at three sites across the East of England.

The chosen sites, some of the most popular rivers in the region, will undergo detailed monitoring studies as part of the water company’s plans to bring together key partners and provide funding to carry out regular monitoring of the water quality in and around the popular swimming sites.

The announcement comes as Anglian Water has committed to go further to clean up rivers as part of its Get River Positive programme, demonstrating just how seriously it is focussing on creating a flourishing environment, and delivering on the expectations of customers, stakeholders and the environment itself to transform river health across the region.

It forms the basis of commitments made by the water company to ensure that storm overflows and sewage treatment works do not harm rivers and the first stages towards 90% of the region’s population to live less than 1-hourfrom a designated bathing spot by 2030.

The first locations include the River Cam south of Cambridge, the River Deben at Woodbridge and the River Waveney in Bungay. The data will provide valuable information for local river groups, who already use the areas for wild swimming, as some plan to progress applications for formal bathing water designation via the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Anglian Water will support the rivers groups by funding a robust sampling methodology and working with local groups to undertake analysis to assess the suitability of these river stretches for bathing, under the guidance of the Centre for Research into Environment and Health (CREH), who are affiliated with the World Health Organisation.

In partnership with local wild swimming and river groups, water sampling and data collection is now underway. Whilst water quality data isn’t required as part of an application for bathing water designation, the water company hopes that providing a set of baseline data will give information and assurance for users of the rivers and reservoirs.

The support from the water company follows local campaigns, such as that in Suffolk. Swimmers and rowers took part in a two-hour relay as part of a campaign to improve water quality. They swam, rowed and paddled from Felixstowe to Woodbridge in Suffolk to deliver a declaration of a bill of rights for the River Deben.

It was organised by the Save The Deben group which is putting together a bid to gain designated bathing status. The group said 300 people gathered for the reading of the declaration in Woodbridge, “surpassing expectations”.

For further details of the support of Anglian Water click here.

The report on the River Deben campaign can be found here.