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The Department for Environment, has announced today that 98.3% of bathing waters in England met the tough standards for water quality in 2017.

Although there is no new legislation on water expected from the EU this year, there are some very significant reviews of existing directives either already underway or about to start.

Water UK considers that reducing the overall amount of slug pellets containing metaldehyde applied to land will be the most beneficial way of significantly reducing the risk of treated water metaldehyde exceedances.

The UK government has stated that it will consider a ban on plastic microbeads in personal care products such as face scrubs and shower gels. The beads are designed to exfoliate the skin, but as some are less than a millimetre wide, they can be missed by water filters after being rinsed off and travel into the sea.

The water industry has invested billions since the 1990s on measures that protect the UK’s bathing waters. The latest results from the European Environment Agency show that the UK is close to the top of the list for bathing waters that comply with the EU standards.

Water companies have practical concerns about the suitability of disposing of many of these so-called 'flushable products' into public and private drainage and sewerage networks rather than as municipal solid waste.