Your Tidal Thames
Background, Tidal Thames Catchment, Enhancement projects, Contact us
- 20% of all surface water in the EU is seriously threatened with pollution
- 50% of wetlands have endangered status
- Is this situation getting better or worse?
Nearly half the EU population live in water-stressed countries where demand for water can at times be greater than the available supply. Additionally, natural habitats are increasingly threatened by pollution or the demand for land, and hence biodiversity will certainly be affected. Environmental legislation seeks to limit or reverse these trends.
- What is Your Tidal Thames?
- What is the European Water Framework Directive?
- What can you do to get involved or get more information?
This page focuses on the issues and challenges that the tidal Thames faces. The aim is to develop an effective, deliverable and sustainable Catchment Plan to help achieve the Water Framework Directive (WFD) objectives for the tidal Thames by engaging the wide range of communities, residents, river users and interest groups and utilising your experience, concerns and expertise. We want you to be involved.
Background
- What are the Water Framework Directive and the Catchment Based Approach?
Water Framework Directive We have historically under-valued the economic benefits of properly functioning ecosystems, and the services that they provide (such as fisheries, erosion control, leisure amenities, pollution cleansing by salt marshes, etc.). Water is of course crucial to the functioning of all ecosystems. By several measures the UK is often far from the worst case, but the demand for water is growing here too, recent droughts and flooding indicate climate-linked risks, and water bodies may contain transient or more permanent pollutants, and may display associated ecological degradation.
By the mid-1990s nearly half of EU respondents were worried about ‘water pollution.’ There was no shortage of legislation, with previous waves based on setting limits dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, but compliance had not always been good. Reasons varied but it was believed that common threads were that the public perceived a lack of ‘ownership’ of the legislative process and that existing legislation was overly-complex. The Water Framework Directive was introduced to overcome these, and associated, challenges. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is European legislation which came into force in December 2000 and became part of UK law in December 2003. It requires member states to make plans to protect and improve the water environment. The Directive applies to all water bodies; these are defined as: Surface freshwater bodies (including lakes, streams, canals and rivers), Groundwater bodies, and Transitional (estuaries) and Coastal water bodies (TraC).
The Directive seeks to tackle both diffuse and point sources of pollution. Diffuse pollution originates from a variety of activities over a large area, for example urban and agricultural land use, domestic release into sewers, transport including road run off, ports and harbours, and industry. Point source pollution comes from a single, identifiable source for example a combined sewage outfall (CSO). As well as affecting water quality, diffuse and point source pollution has detrimental ecological effects and can affect the abundance and distribution of plants and animals, profoundly changing the characteristics of the ecosystems upon which they depend.
In 2009 as part of the Environment Agency’s (EA) implementation of the Water Framework Directive, the first River Basin Management Plans were produced – these set the environmental objectives for each body of water and summarised the programmes of measures needed to make improvements to water bodies.
The Environment Agency is now reviewing and updating the plans for England, and will publish revised plans in December 2015. In developing these plans, the Environment Agency holds formal consultations at three points in the river basin management planning process, details of these consultations can be found on the Environment Agency website.
Link to the Your Tidal Thames guide to the Water Framework Directive – 0.19MB
Case studies in Tidal Thames
Upload files
Supplementary Information
Edit Supplementary Information
Additional links and references
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| http://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/portal/ho/wfd/water/choices | The Challenges and Choices consultation (launched June 2013) describes the significant water management issues in the river basin district. There is also a consultation on the nationally significant water management issues called England’s Waters: Challenges and Choices |
| http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/140092.aspx | Additional river basin district specific information to support the “Challenges and Choices” public consultation document |
| http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33106.aspx | Information about river basin districts, catchments, water bodies and the river basin management planning process |
Link back to the main England country page: England
Link back to the main England background information: Country info:England - background information