The Environment Agency (EA) is failing its targets to make the water environment healthier, reduce serious pollution incidents, and cut numbers of high-risk illegal waste sites, a report has shown.
The figures in the EA’s corporate scorecard Q4 2018 to 2019 indicate it is successfully meeting its targets in five out of eight areas but falling behind in three.
The report coincides with a condemnation of the country’s rivers by the Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF), which described the UK’s waterways as “open sewers”.
The WWF said targets set out in the government’s A Green Future plan for UK rivers to be healthy by 2027 were “very unlikely” to be met unless more actions were taken to clean waterways.
The report aims to raise 75 per cent of rivers and bodies of water to the EU’s “good” status by 2027 up from 14 per cent that currently meet the target.
Within EA’s quarterly review its target to improve water environment health in 2,000 km of waterways has not been met, with only 1,719km improved over the year to date including tackling pollution in urban and rural areas.
Its targets for protecting the environment show the group has exceeded its target to create new habitats; reduce flooding risks; maintain flood and coastal management assets; train staff to respond to incidents; and successfully influence planning decisions by local authorities.
Meanwhile the target for number of serious pollution incidents was below 400 for Q4, but 493 were recorded. The target number of high waste sites was 196 for Q4, but the actual figure is 250.
As the group works to meet its targets the WWF has called on the government to do more to tackle pollution and protect waterways if it wants to meet the ambitious environmental goals set out for 2027.
Dave Tickner, chief adviser, freshwater at WWF said: “It is very unlikely that the Environmental Agency’s target of 75% can be achieved unless the government takes the actions we are advising.
“We know that fewer than 20% of our rivers are in a good state and that simply has to change. We must stop using our precious waterways as dumping grounds for sewage and farm pollution. And we need to be more efficient in our use of water so that rivers aren’t sucked dry.”
WWF’s Living Planet Report found that freshwater species globally have plummeted by 83% since 1970 and wildlife in rivers in England is struggling.
“As we prepare to leave the EU, the UK Government must fast-track flagship legislation to better protect and restore our waterways and invest in effective monitoring and enforcement to ensure water companies and agricultural industry can no longer use our rivers as open sewers,” Tickner said.
WWF is calling for ambitious measures in the upcoming Environment Bill, including nature recovery networks that would map habitats for protection and restoration.
It also suggests the need for “a strong and independent watchdog” to hold the government to account on the state of the environment.