John Russell, Senior Director of Strategy, Finance, and Infrastructure at Ofwat, has warned the water companies that it is “not acceptable to hide behind regulation or say they can't do anything until the next price review” to tackle current levels of pollution and wastewater discharges from their networks.

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) is warning today that poor water quality in English rivers is a result of chronic underinvestment and multiple failures in monitoring, governance and enforcement - not a single river in England has received a clean bill of health for chemical contamination.

The past year has seen the spotlight fall on the environment and the rapidly growing impact of climate change like never before. The water sector stands ready to meet the challenge, says Anglian Water CEO Peter Simpson, but not all the answers come from within.

The Government has published details of a new project to plant extensive woodlands along England’s riverbanks launched to improve water quality, manage flood risk and boost biodiversity.

The Salmon & Trout Conservation has submitted a formal complaint to the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) on the failure of OFWAT and Secretaries of State to enforce law on sewage pollution of English rivers.

The Environment Agency is consulting on a proposal for HMNB Devonport naval base to change the way it disposes of rainwater contaminated by trace amounts of radioactivity at its Plymouth dockyard.

The Government is due to be presented with evidence that unlawful discharge of raw sewage into rivers is at least 10 times greater than Environment Agency prosecutions suggest, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper.

New research by experts from The University of Manchester has found that the poor management of untreated wastewater and raw sewage by water companies is the main source of microplastic pollution in the UK’s rivers.