Severn Trent Water has launched a new scheme called ‘Cash for Catchments’ which will provide funding to support water environment improvements.

The water company, which serves more than eight million people across the Midlands and mid-Wales, is looking for innovative ideas that could change the way the company works in partnership to improve the water environment across the region in the future.

Applications are now open to landowners, farmers, community groups and non-governmental organisations to submit ideas that could make a real difference in the future.

Zara Turtle, who is leading the scheme for Severn Trent, explained:

“We hope that the best of the ideas will be real game changers that can have a massive positive effect on the water environment right across our region. Submissions could cover anything from natural flood management and river restoration to improving river water quality and preserving the region’s biodiversity.

“We’re really excited that the window for ideas is now open and we’re looking forward to reviewing some really innovative projects that we can collaborate on in the future.”

The groups with the best ideas will be invited to Severn Trent’s Coventry HQ to present them to a panel of experts, ‘Dragons Den’ style. They will then be allocated funding to take the projects forward. The closing date for submissions is 5pm on Wednesday 30 May.

The new ‘Cash for Catchments’ scheme forms part of Severn Trent’s work on the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) partnerships introduced by Defra in 2011 to help achieve the Water Framework Directive initiatives.

The partnerships bring together a wide range of local organisations, including NGOs, water companies, local authorities, landowners, farming groups, academia, and local businesses to promote collaborative working at a river catchment scale.

CaBA partnerships aim to drive cost-effective delivery on the ground; resulting in multiple benefits including improvements to water quality, enhanced biodiversity, reduced flood risk, resilience to climate change, and greater community engagement with their local river.

Severn Trent said stakeholder engagement is essential for the implementation of a catchment management strategy and sees the CaBA partnerships as key to aiding the delivery of its strategy.

Over 36,000 people nationwide are currently engaged with CaBA partnerships, forming over 100 CaBA partnerships across England and Wales - 14 of which sit in the Severn Trent region.

The core of each partnership is made up of a host, Environment Agency Catchment Coordinator, and representatives from local River and Wildlife Trusts. The majority of the CaBA partnerships in Severn Trent’s region are hosted by the local River or Wildlife Trusts.

However, Severn Trent have the responsibility of sole hosting the Tame, Anker and Mease (TAM) CaBA group, making it one of the only water companies to sole host a CaBA partnership.

Click here for more information about the scheme