The Briefing Room - Britain's Dirty Rivers

According to campaigners, Britain has some of the dirtiest rivers in Europe. Sewage, slurry from farms and chemicals are all a problem, too often ending up in our rivers. The parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee estimates that the discharge of raw sewage accounts for 55% of rivers in England and Wales failing to reach good ecological status. Not one river has good chemical status. So what's going wrong and what can be done to fix it?
Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room are:

Olivia Rudgard, Environment Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph
Peter Hammond, retired Professor of Computational Biology at University College London
Rachel Salvidge, Deputy Editor of ENDS Report
Steve Ormerod, Professor of Ecology and Co-Director of the Water Research Institute, Cardiff University

Producers: John Murphy, Kirsteen Knight, Soila Apparicio
Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Jasper Corbett

Photo: Chemical Pollution from Industrial Outfall Pouring into River Mersey UK. Credit: Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Published on Thursday, 7th October 2021.

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