Norfolk residents given tips on improving local water quality

Residents in Norfolk have been given advice on how they can help boost the water quality in their area.

The Environment Agency has produced a booklet for householders in the region about local rivers.

It gave homeowners advice on how they can help 90 per cent of the water streams in the area achieve 'good status' under a new European classification.

Tips it offered were to avoid putting cooking oils down the sink but take it to a recycling centre.

Households should also avoid connecting waste pipes from their homes into gullies as this flows into rivers.

Homes with septic tanks were told not to have a pipe leading to a waterway and to remove the sludge from the container every two to three years to avoid overflow of sewage.

The agency states that if waste is left to seep into rivers, it spreads over the waterway like a blanket, which causes the oxygen levels in the water to drop, endangering the lives of fish, insects and animals that live in and around the stream.

Posted by Claire Manning