30/11/09
The Environment Agency has made progress with River Basin Management Plans for England and Wales (due for publication on 22 December) but major sectors and challenges have not been addressed.
In draft plans sent to Defra in September a lack of substantive measures dealing with diffuse pollution from urban and agricultural sources could mean another set of plans (catchment level) will be needed to deliver high-level aspirations.
Stakeholders whose participation is essential to the solution are still conspicuously absent in certain cases. Recent work in the Humber basin (see figure below) shows that some 75% of phosphorus comes from rural and urban diffuse sources.
There is a clear need for practical measures, new arrangements and structures to deal with diffuse pollution. Continuing over-reliance on water companies will not give us the answers we need.
| Sources of phosphorous in the Humber basin |
 |
| STW = sewage treatment works
(Yorkshire Water, 2009) |
Published in The View from Water UK, 30/11/09
