OEP watchdog criticizes government’s water treatment plans for England

The government’s efforts to clean up England’s rivers, lakes and seas have been criticized as ‘poor’ by a major environmental watchdog.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), a statutory body, said targets to improve water health would be missed by a “large margin”.

According to the report, the government’s plans lack detail, commitment and adequate financing.

A government spokesperson said this government has done “more than any other government” to restore waterways.

The OEP was established after Brexit to hold the government and other public bodies to account on environmental issues, as EU oversight no longer applied.

In this latest report, the OEP looked at whether the laws protecting England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters from pollution are sufficient, and how they are being enforced.

“We felt that the legal framework is good in principle. But the way it is being interpreted and implemented is actually being done poorly,” Dame Glenys Stacey, the chair of the OEP, told BBC News.

“That means it is very unlikely that the government will deliver on its ambitions for our waters. In fact, it is very likely that it will be wrong by a large margin,” she said.

Currently, only 16% of England’s waterways are assessed as being in good ecological status. The government’s goal is for this percentage to increase to 77% by 2027. But the OEP says reaching 21% is considered more likely.

“Unless things change it is a very bad situation,” Dame Glenys said.

The OEP criticized what it called the government’s “generic one size fits all” approach to improving waterways, saying more detail, commitment and funding were needed.

The Environment Secretary now has three months to officially respond to the OEP report.

But a spokesperson immediately commented, saying there had been a sharp increase in monitoring of sewage discharges in recent years and plans to invest billions of pounds in wastewater treatment infrastructure.

“This government has done more than any other to protect and restore our rivers, lakes and coastal waters, with record levels of investment, monitoring and enforcement,” the spokesperson said.

“We welcome this report’s recommendations moving forward and will consider them in detail.”

Most campaign groups contacted by BBC News said the report confirmed what they already knew.

“It is no surprise that, after years of under-investment, weak regulation and poor guidance on how to implement the plans, the government has missed most of its plans to improve the health of England’s waterways,” it said. Louise Reddy of Surfers Against Sewage. .

“The long-term health of our rivers depends on what we do now to support them,” Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Rivers Trust, told BBC News.

“This report proves our long-held suspicion that current policies and legislation are not enough: we must change course to save our rivers.”