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42 news articles

A blue tit looks at a bundle of animal hair it has collected

From our rivers to birds’ nests: how pet flea treatments are impacting the environment

  • The Rivers Trust
What’s the link between our waterways, our dogs, and the decline of our songbirds? Learn about pet paraciticides and chemical pollution with this guest blog by Emma Phipps from SongBird Survival 

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Pipe discharging sewage

Sewage Discharges: England and Wales’ 2025 Annual Summary Data released

  • The Rivers Trust
  • News
Even in a significantly dry year, water companies still discharged untreated sewage into rivers, lakes and seas almost 400,000 times in 2025, for over two and a half million hours — spelling continued disaster for our waterways.

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Three sewage pipe ends are open to a river, their grates filled with wet wipes and rubbish

5 things the Sewage Map can tell you about pollution in your local river in 2026

  • The Rivers Trust
  • Blog
With 6 years’ worth of annual sewage data, plus live discharge updates, find out what The Rivers Trust’s interactive Sewage Map can tell you about pollution in your local river.

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View across the Thames to Westminster, Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben

Government’s Water White Paper: Welcome signals, worrying gaps, and vital work still to do

  • The Rivers Trust
  • News
The long-awaited Water White paper contains some positive steps to reform water management, but without significant new government funding it will not be the radical, transformational change that we hoped for or that communities, our environment and the economy need.

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five smiling people stand on a bridge facing the camera

Environment Agency Chair, Alan Lovell, gets stuck in to citizen science with The Rivers Trust and Earthwatch Europe activities

  • The Rivers Trust
Alan Lovell takes part in the Big River Watch and Great UK WaterBlitz to contribute to a nationwide picture of river health.

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Waterfall on a river in Exmoor National Park, England

The Rivers Trust joins Campaign for National Parks in highlighting threats to iconic waterways

  • Rebecca Duncan
  • News
The Rivers Trust have partnered with Campaign for National Parks (CNP) to launch the Rivers at Risk report, which lays out the state of rivers across National Parks in England and Wales and identifies key changes needed to protect and restore them.

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Draining sewage from pipe into river pollution rivers

2024 Annual Sewage Spill Data: What does it tell us?

  • The Rivers Trust
  • News
This week, the summaries of the 2024 event duration monitoring on CSOs in England and Wales were released. Our technical experts dug into the data on raw sewage spills into our rivers so you don’t have to — and it’s not good news.

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A man happily lies on his back swimming in a shallow river

Have your say on the Bathing Water Rules Consultation: Our guide to submitting a response

  • The Rivers Trust
  • Blog
The consultation on Reform to Bathing Water Rules is open, and is an important opportunity to help make designation the powerful tool for improving river water health that it has the potential to be. To help you form your consultation response, we have set out our key thoughts on the main consultation questions.

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pollution in river

The UK: The ​‘dirty man of Europe’ once again?

  • The Rivers Trust
  • Blog
The European Commission’s recent revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive provides a roadmap for an innovative, resource-efficient and sustainable management of wastewater. In comparison, the UK is falling short on chemicals.

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A cardboard fish is shown positioned above a cardboard protest sign

Join the shoal: How-to make your own March for Clean Water Fish

  • Emma Brisdion
  • Blog
At the March for Clean Water, we’re coming together to form a shoal and invite you to join us. Use the guide below to add a fish to the top of your protest sign to show that you’re standing up for our freshwater species.

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