UK water quality best for over a century

Water quality in England and Wales has improved for the 19th year in a row, the Environment Agency announced yesterday.

More rivers are therefore becoming home to species that were once thought to be in terminal decline, such as salmon, eel and otters.

Figures from the agency's annual General Quality Assessment - which the public body has been using for such measurements for the past 20 years - show that 70 per cent of English rivers and 90 per cent of Welsh rivers achieved very good or good chemical and biological water quality in 2008.

Investment by water firms, tougher action on polluters, changing farming practices and local projects are thought to have been the main instigators of the improvement.

The agency also revealed its new plans to revitalise and transform more than 9,000 miles of river within the next six years.

This news may take on new significance in light of evidence from 50 years ago, that showed no salmon were present in the river Tyne, but the agency have already recorded more than 10,000 migrating up the river in 2009.

Written by Joseph Hutton