The Rivers Trust have been campaigning to end sewage pollution in rivers and lakes, and today welcomed proposed amendments to the Environment Bill, as announced by DEFRA. You can read the Rivers Trusts full response to this here.

This includes a fantastic story map which highlights the issues at a local level, showing the risks of sewage pollution in rivers and lakes.

As local Rivers Trust and catchment partnership, we have been working across South Cumbria for a number of years to reduce pollution to our rivers both by working with United Utilities, our local water company, and also with local residents and other septic tank owners. Additionally, as catchment partnership we are currently reviewing our priorities against a number of themes, including water quality. These will be published here shortly.

Do you swim in your local river or lake? Are you concerned by the state of the water quality? If you’d like to find out more about how you can help us monitor water quality please get in touch.