‘Deeply concerning’ – regulations to protect water bodies in England are not being implemented effectively. Read the OEP report here: bit.ly/3UT7Tds

CIWEM The Office for Environmental Protection ✍️ This isn't good enough. Our rivers are vital spaces for communities, wellbeing, wildlife and climate mitigation.

Rivers have no voice of their own. Use our tool and draft template to email your local representative and tell them to act for rivers: theriverstrust.org/take-action/wr…

CIWEM 2️⃣ Released today, The Office for Environmental Protection finds Government & EA are not on track to meet Environmental Objectives, and finds concerning failures in the delivery of regulations designed to protect rivers, warning key improvement targets in England will be missed ❌
theoep.org.uk/report/oep-fin…

Two damming reports for our #rivers released this week (a 🧵 )

1️⃣ @ciwem and Stormwater Shepherds’ Highway Runoff and the Water Environment finds toxic pollution washed from roads into waterways is a widespread issue and inadequately treated.

stormwatershepherds.org.uk/2024/05/08/bol…

📢 News from SHOAL

We've launched an ambitious new initiative to mobilise conservation action for 1,000 of Earth’s most threatened freshwater fish species by 2035 🐟

Read The SHOAL Blueprint for Conservation Action for 1,000 Freshwater Fishes by 2035: shoalconservation.org/shoal-blueprin…

We are hiring in Southeast Asia. Please pass on to your friends and colleagues.

The fish need a new best friend in the region.

Contact me if there are any questions.

Love this from Jeff Opperman💧🐟🎸. Musical abstracts for #freshwater conservation.

🎵🎸💧🦆🐠🐸🦦🦟🐊🌾

WWF UK

The headline stats in this report from Sustain are startling.

'One of the agribusinesses we analysed creates more faecal waste than the human population of Wales and Scotland combined.'

Much of it ends up in our #rivers .

sustainweb.org/news/apr24-10-…

Extraordinary work by the Green Finance Institute today shows that damage to nature is slowing the UK economy and could lead to a 12% reduction in GDP - that's £150-£300bn - as early as the 2030s.

All political parties serious about the economy must invest and regulate to #RestoreNatureNow .

Fishes that live (swim?) in leaf litter! Barely believable #freshwater biodiversity
Kathy Hughes 💧🐟 Stuart Orr 🐟💧 Jeff Opperman💧🐟🎸

If the system is that shareholders take money out when times are good, but refuse to put money in when times are tough, then that's a pretty 💩system.

My taxes should not be used to remedy Thames Water 💧 failings.

Time for root and branch reform. Ofwat Defra UK Steve Barclay

🔦 Spotlight on #NewSpecies2023

🐟 Indian Cave Mahseer
📍 Caves in the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, Northeast India

The world's largest cavefish ate cookies straight from cavers' hands 🍪

Read all about this species, and the 242 more described in 2023: buff.ly/3iGq5CU

My local river. The Wey.

It has seen nearly 1000 sewage spills in the last year.

It is one of the LEAST polluted in the country!

Sort it out Steve Barclay Damian Hinds Defra UK

📢River Action launches the #LocalCharterForRivers !

🗳️With local elections on the horizon in 2024, this is your chance to ask political leaders to take urgent action to clean up our rivers.

Lend your voice to your local river and call for change TODAY 👉 riveractionuk.com/local-charter-…

Our rivers are in crisis. ⚠️

Horrifyingly, the Environment Agency reports sewage spills into England's rivers & seas doubled last year.

It's shocking. We're destroying vital habitats and threatening the wildlife that relies on them.

We need urgent action to #SaveOurWildIsles .

⚠️ Environment Agency publishes storm overflow spill data for 2023...

💩 464,000 sewage spills for over 3.6 million hours.

💩105% increase from 2022 in number of hours.

💩 54% increase in the amount of sewage spills.

gov.uk/government/new…

🚨2023’s #sewage deluge: new data highlights the urgency of our fight for better rivers.

Last year in England:

‼️ Raw sewage was discharged 464,056 times
‼️ For a total of 3,606,170 hours (double 2022)

It's vital we #EndSewagePollution .

Read more👇
theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/…

Important new correspondance published in Nature last week: Global swimways on free-flowing rivers are essential for protect key migratory fish species nature.com/articles/d4158…
michele thieme 💧Marc Goichot🌎💦 Jeff Opperman💧🐟🎸 💧🐟 Stuart Orr 🐟💧 David Tickner

Tomorrow we celebrate #WorldWaterDay to raise awareness and inspire action to tackle the water crisis. In this interview, WWF's Michele Thieme discusses the new “High Cost of Cheap Water” report and its impact for business.
Watch the full video here: worldwildlife.org/blogs/sustaina…

ICYMI: a round-up of recent freshwater news from around the world

🐘 Bizarre fish can extend its mouth to make a kind of trunk: buff.ly/3TkIgjx

📽️ ‘We’re going to become fish’: how a ‘natural history fantasy’ found its way to the Baftas: buff.ly/49WHbW8