In his final speech on water, Sir James Bevan reflected on the debate around water quality over his seven years as Chief Executive, saying that more facts and not assertions are needed on water and warning that it will be “particularly challenging” to achieve good status for all rivers in England. 

Achieving clean and plentiful water is “easy to say but hard to do”, Sir James Bevan said in a speech yesterday at the World Water Tech Summit in London.

He told delegates:

“One of the most striking things from my time as Chief Executive has been the massive increase in the attention paid to water: debates in Parliament, public campaigning and huge media attention, particularly at the moment, all calling for action to protect and restore our waters and demanding more of the Environment Agency and the other regulators, of the government, and of the water companies and farmers…...

“All I would say is let’s have this debate on the basis of the facts not assertions – and there are some wild assertions, myths and outright untruths flying around. Let’s also be clear that we all want the same thing: everyone has an interest in clean and plentiful water.”

Commenting on what would success look like, the outgoing EA Chief said:

“The vision is simple, and set out in the Government’s 25 Year Environment plan: clean and plentiful water.”

 "Particularly challenging to achieve good status for all rivers in England"

However, he told delegates:

“That’s easy to say and hard to do. It will be particularly challenging to achieve good status for all rivers in England. That’s because there are multiple factors affecting our rivers, a lot of pressure from growing human populations who are using more water and producing more sewage, and from industry and agriculture which also need a lot of water.”

He reiterated that just because it is hard it does not mean that we can’t get there, with success requiring everyone to play a part.

It was Sir James’ final speech on the water environment as Environment Agency Chief Executive, a role he has held for seven years. He will be stepping down as Chief Executive at the end of March.

Sir James highlighted the facts behind improvements in water quality over the last few decades, including:

• Sewage treatment works now discharge 67% less phosphorus and 79% less ammonia into rivers.
• An increase in the number of salmon and macroinvertebrates (such as snails, worms and insects) in rivers, an indicator of improving river health.
• Otters have also returned to every English county.
• 72% of beaches and inland bathing waters met the “Excellent” standard in 2022, the highest since new stringent standards were introduced in 2015. The number of bathing waters classified as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ has also increased to 92.8%. In the early 1990s, just 28% of bathing waters met the highest standards in force at that time.

Currently “a very long way” from Government goal of getting 75% of our waters close to their natural state

However, Sir James warned that we are currently “a very long way” from the goal in the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan of getting 75% of our waters close to their natural state.

He went on to set out how and why the quality of our waters has flatlined, attributing this to two main factors as follows:

• growing pressure on the water environment - caused by a combination of development, a growing population and climate change;
• continued pollution of our waters from two main sources: water companies (largely in the form of pollution from sewage treatment works) and farmers (mostly point source pollution from things like leaky slurry tanks and diffuse pollution in the form of runoff from chemicals and fertiliser spread to land).

Sir James said:

“Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we can’t get there. Success will require everyone, and I mean literally everyone, to play their part.

“In tackling the problem, we need to start by recognising another deceptively simple truth, which is that the people responsible for the pollution in our rivers are the people who pollute them. So the first thing we need is for the main polluters – farmers and water companies – to clean up their acts.”

Regulators play a critical role and Sir James has welcomed the government’s recent increase in powers, resourcing and funding for the Environment Agency.

In 2021/22, the EA received £2.2 million per annum for water company enforcement activity so that action is taken against potential illegal breaches of environmental permits, and an additional £1.2 million to increase its agricultural regulation workforce.

Sir James set out examples of how the Environment Agency is tackling water pollution, including:

• Tough enforcement against those who don’t follow the rules. Since 2015, the Environment Agency have concluded 58 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies securing fines of over £142m. The Environment Agency welcomes the government’s upcoming consultation to make it quicker and easier to impose penalties through civil sanctions.
• Carrying out around 90,000 water quality sampling visits a year from 13,000 different locations, using the results of this monitoring to target polluters.
• Improving water habitats through planting trees and plants that support wildlife, removing barriers to fish and eel passage, and restocking rivers with fish.
• Working with farmers to secure better compliance with the rules and tackling inadequate farm infrastructure and poor soil and nutrient management.

Concluding his speech, Sir James said:

“The most important thing about water is that it gets everywhere. Let’s treasure it, look after it, protect it and enhance it.

“The Environment Agency is committed to doing so, because if we really are going to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it – an aspiration we all share – then the single most important thing we can do over the coming years is to ensure that we do have clean and plentiful water.”

The World Water Tech Innovation Summit, hosted in London, brings together water companies, regulators, engineering firms, technology businesses, investors, and innovators to tackle the critical issues of the decade ahead for the water sector.

Click here to read the speech Reflections on water: the good, the bad and the future in full

Click here to download the Government 25 Year Environment Plan