New documentary exposes dire reality of UK’s waterways

A new documentary by Bristol-based creative agency Tusko has revealed a bleak picture for the UK’s lakes and rivers.

SEVERN: The poisoning of Britain’s Amazon sees whistleblowers reveal the regulation neglect of rivers across the UK, delivering a searing account of the pollution problem in the UK’s rivers.

The documentary focuses particularly on the Severn Estuary, which flows into the Bristol channel between South West England and South Wales.

The Environment Agency’s latest assessment of the Severn basin, which is home to around 400 rivers, 29 lakes and 33 groundwater bodies, found that just 45 were found to be in good ecological condition.

The picture looks even less bright nationally.

SEVERN found that across England, just 14 per cent of rivers are in good ecological condition and none are in good chemical condition.

Many whistleblowers in the film are current or former Environment Agency officers, with one accusing the Environment Agency of “ignoring its duties and failing to hold water companies to account.”

Whistleblowers working at the agency explain that resources have been diverted away from water quality activities, which means they are unable to tackle polluters, such as water companies which discharge raw sewage into rivers and farmers, whose runoff can have catastrophic impacts on wildlife.

Environmental Agency whistleblowers told ENDS that resources have been diverted away from water quality activities, which means they are unable to tackle big polluters – photo: Tusko

“The Environment Agency leadership is currently congratulating itself in internal emails for shifting the focus of the water quality scandal from themselves to the polluters,” says one whistleblower.

Environmental Agency whistleblowers also reveal that although rules and laws are in place to enable the agency to tackle pollution, they are not being enforced and that dwindling resources is making this increasingly difficult.

The Environment Agency said it is in the “process of writing an action plan for the river Severn to address how we can help salmon in the Severn recover stocks to a sustainable level. This includes regulation, advice and actions for all sectors who have an impact on the river and its water quality”.

It plans to use its small budget uplift of £44m to “step up efforts to improve water quality” but cautions that “the cost of what we do and the number of tasks we are required to perform have risen much faster” than its budget and that is has to “make some difficult choices, including to reduce or stop activities for which we are not funded”.

The documentary is produced by ENDS Report, an intelligence platform for environmental professionals which delivers news, analysis and reference across the carbon, environmental and sustainability agenda.

Tusko produced the documentary for The ENDS Report. The agency specialises in exploring under-discussed topics.

The film is now streaming on the ENDS website.

Main photo: Tusko

Read more:

• ‘Education not prohibition should be the answer to wild swimming’
• Calling on the government to protect nature at all costs
• Winner of coveted ecological prize ‘thought it was a practical joke’

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast on Apple Music and Spotify: