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Our rivers, lakes, streams and groundwaters are under pressure like never before. Pollution from farming, water companies, run-off water from roads and other urban spaces, chemicals and products we use in our daily lives are putting huge strain on water environments.

Our rivers, lakes, streams and groundwaters are under pressure like never before. Pollution from farming, water companies, run-off water from roads and other urban spaces, chemicals and products we use in our daily lives are putting huge strain on water environments.

Our freshwaters are in crisis. We need A Fresh Water Future.

Climate change means more extreme weather. Droughts that put strain on water supplies for people and river flows for nature. Flash floods wash more pollutants into receiving waters.

Hotter weather means more algal blooms feeding off nutrients from sewage and farming suck oxygen out of rivers and lakes, choking and smothering their ability to support life.

Only 14% of rivers in England are considered to be in ‘good ecological status’. None have good chemical status.

As we put ever-more pressure on the water environment we rely so much on to sustain our health, wellbeing, culture, food supplies and economic productivity, we have to manage it far better than we do now.

In the face of a climate emergency and nature in rapid decline, we need to bring our freshwaters back from the brink. We need A Fresh Water Future.

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of English rivers in good ecological status

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river systems in the UK

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miles of river in the UK

“We need food, we need housing, we need infrastructure. But above all we need a healthy environment – with freshwater as its lifeblood – to sustain us.”

Alastair Chisholm,
Director of Policy, CIWEM

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141 litres of water used per person each day

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4,000,000,000 litres more water needed per day by 2050

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Up to 10x more droughts by 2100

An independent assessment

Water touches so many things we do. It falls on our uplands and lowlands, our towns and cities. That means a huge range of different parties have a stake in what happens to it, and its overall health. Many interests, many agendas. Too often it’s the health of that water, the vitality it brings to our lives and livelihoods that takes a back seat. That’s why an independent assessment of what’s going on and what should happen to unlock a fresh water future is so crucial. No vested interests. This work is being facilitated by CIWEM – a Royal Chartered professional institute bound to advance the science and practice of water management for the public good. But that’s not enough. The project is overseen by a diverse steering group representing organisations from water campaigners to the water industry, farmers and land managers, local government, regulators, communicators and technical water management experts. It’s also independently funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. No-one is buying the findings.