• New figures from Wildlife and Countryside Link reveal an ongoing pollution problem from bee-killing pesticides in English rivers.
• 85% of rivers tested in 2023 – 2024 were found to have bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides present, with the proportion affected seeming to have risen slightly from previous years.
• Campaigners call on the Government to deliver a step change on river pollution, enforce and extend neonicotinoid bans, better resourced regulators to make polluters pay, and ensure nature-friendly farm payments which incentivise a transition to pesticide-free approaches.
• The calls come after thousands of people marched the streets of London to protest the state of UK rivers and seas in The March For Clean Water on 3 November.

MCredit: Mrt Ziolko

A new analysis of the latest official data from the Environment Agency has uncovered widespread river pollution linked to toxic neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics), known for their harmful effects on bees. The data suggests a slight increase in the proportion of rivers affected over the past two years. These findings emerge as the government considers granting a controversial ‘emergency’ authorisation for the use of a banned bee-killing pesticide on sugar beet crops.

The analysis from the Rivers Trust and Wildlife and Countryside Link showed that:

• 1 or more harmful neonics were found in 85% of English river sites between 2023-2024 (23 of 27 surface water sites tested for neonics by the Environment Agency). The proportion of rivers affected seems to have increased – In 2020-2022 neonics were present in 79% of river sites tested by the regulator (34 of 43 sites).[1]
• Areas where sugar beet farming and processing is concentrated (particularly the East Midlands and East of England) had some of the highest detection rates of neonics in samples tested, and have many of the rivers with the highest number of neonics detected. The South West and South East had the highest overall neonic detection rate, in 54% and 41% of samples respectively.
• The largest numbers of neonics were found at single sites on the River Waveney and River Wensum in the East Midlands, where all 5 of the neonics analysed for were detected. Other sites that had high numbers of neonics detected included the River Nene, River Ouse and River Ivel in the East of England, River Lugg, River Tame and River Teme in the West Midlands, Sincil Dyke and the River Dove in the East Midlands, River Ouse and Ancholm in Yorks and Humber, River Test in the South East, River Chelt in the South West and the River Douglas in the North West.
• Only 27 river sites across the whole of England were tested for neonics in 2023-24, down from 43 sites in 2020-2022, a fall of over a third (37%) in the number of sites tested. Nature charities warn that this is an indicative sign of the worsening resources of the Environment Agency and the resulting decline in river monitoring by the regulator.

Two pesticides, Clothianidin and Imidacloprid, are by far the most prevalent neonics (both found at 29 of 45 river sites tested between 2020-2024 – 64.4%). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid in its own right but is also a breakdown product of Thiamethoxam – the banned pesticide permitted for ‘emergency use’ by the sugar industry for the last 4 years by the previous Conservative Government. Imidacloprid is banned for use on crops but is still used in tick and flea treatments, with pet and livestock use the likely main cause of Imidacloprid pollution in our rivers.

Covered by the BBC