01 Jul 2020

Last week we covered the Climate Change Committee’s 2020 report to Parliament. Recently, the Committee also set out its recommendations for a resilient recovery from Covid-19 (published May) and (last week) on the coverage of Environmental Land Management Scheme in letters to the Prime Minister, and Defra, respectively. On the green recovery, the CCC’s recommendations […]

12 May 2020

Tweet from Water UK, 11 May Earlier today, PM Boris Johnson mistakenly referred to COVID-19 being in the #water supply. It’s not, and No. 10 has now issued a correction. Your tap water remains perfectly safe.  Earlier, Mr Johnson told MPs that people should exercise “good, solid, British common sense” in adapting their lives to […]

12 May 2020

Among the ongoing programme of CIWEM events is a free webinar series on ‘Nature-based solutions & the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme’. Defra has paused its consultation on proposals and ideas for its Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs) which will usher in a new approach of public money paying for public goods, such as nature […]

12 May 2020

11 May The EU Water Alliance is proud to release today its new Manifesto which aims to highlight the pressing water challenges Europe faces and to set out the key actions required to overcome them. Water issues are set to become the most pressing challenge for Europe in the coming years, as underlined by the recent 2020 UN […]

05 May 2020

The government has issued (1 May) new guidance on access to green spaces. Recognising that exercise is still important for people’s physical and mental wellbeing, the government has said people can leave their homes for exercise once a day. Please use the following guidance in order to stay safe: stay local and use open spaces […]

05 May 2020

From a recent Technical Brief from  the WHO (World Health Organisation) “There is no evidence to date that COVID-19 virus has been transmitted via sewerage systems, with or without wastewater treatment. Furthermore, there is no evidence that sewage and wastewater treatment workers contracted SARS, another type of coronavirus that caused a large outbreak of acute respiratory illness […]

05 May 2020

Last week, the Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), Philip Dunne, wrote to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) warning that parts of UK could run out of water and calling for Government action, requesting an update on measures such as leakage targets and managing water consumption. Read the letter here. […]

28 Apr 2020

Severn Trent Water and United Utilities are among the companies reminding people that visitor centres are closed and not to swim in reservoirs. In a powerful piece reported in the BBC, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres argues that, despite the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the world mustn’t forget the “deeper environmental emergency” facing the […]