Green campaigners have slammed the Government for dithering while England’s waterways slide into crisis—warning that the findings of the Independent Water Commission’s interim report must trigger immediate and radical reform.
The report, published yesterday, exposes a catalogue of failure: weak political direction, poor regulation, opaque governance and unchecked pollution from multiple sectors.
Environment charities say it confirms what the public already knows—that water companies have profited while rivers, lakes and seas have been trashed.
Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “This interim report is a clear signpost, not a finishing line. The public are rightly angry about pollution and regulatory failure, and nature is in crisis.”
Campaigners back the report’s call for a new Regional Systems Planner but warn it cannot become another long-term promise that’s kicked into the reeds.
“The Government must start work now,” Benwell said, urging ministers to “stop equivocating” and legislate for enforceable targets and public interest tests that “come with consequences for failure.”
Wildlife groups are calling for quick wins including a Catchment Delivery Fund in the upcoming Spending Review, a new Strategic Policy Statement for the water system and urgent funding boosts for regulators, so they can enforce pollution rules and properly monitor environmental harm.
Mark Lloyd, CEO of The Rivers Trust, said: “Water is fundamental for nature’s recovery, for the growth of the economy, for the health and security of communities and for life itself. We will press the Commission over the next month to shoot for the stars rather than the moon.”
Ali Morse at The Wildlife Trusts warned protections are under siege: “This doesn’t look like the actions of a Government that is serious about restoring our chalk streams or averting the extinction of water vole and Atlantic salmon.”
And Giles Bristow, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, didn’t mince his words: “Until [the system] is replumbed to prioritise public health and the environment over profit for investors, an angry public will continue to swim and surf in a deluge of sewage that is destroying our rivers, lakes and coastal waters.”
With public fury boiling over and nature on the brink, campaigners say the time for polite conversation is over.
