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The Pie Chart of Shame revealed
As promised, I bring you more on the
Pie Chart of Shame, that names the pollution culprits doing such damage to
our rivers and coastal waters. I include the latter, notwithstanding the
fact that most of the bad water that reaches the sea arrives via rivers,
but because it is important to form as large an alliance as possible with
the inshore sea fishing industry and leisure users as passionate as
ourselves.
Though clearly not pollution, the
largest existential threat to our rivers, and chalkstreams in particular is
abstraction taking a 35% share of the blame. In short but explained further
in the You Tube video of the talk I recently gave in Nether Wallop, the nub
of the issue is that we have a water provision system designed at a time
when our population was 50 million and household water consumption was 60
litres a day. Today, a generation later, that consumption stands at close
to 150 litres and the population 65 million.
Strangely, for most of the year and
in most of the UK, we have plenty of water to meet even that increased
consumption. But, in those critical months, generally July-October in many
parts of the country our rivers are being sucked dry. I can take you to
villages that surround the fast growing Hampshire towns of Andover and
Basingstoke, once picturesque for being beside the tiny headwaters of the
River Test, where the village pond has dried to nothing and bubbling brooks
a long distant memory.
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The solutions lie in water storage -
no new reservoir has been built in 30 years. Water movement – a national
grid of water so the water rich may supply the water poor at times of
greatest need. Desalination - literally the only way we can ‘make’
water at times of drought. And finally, a la Singapore, take our sewage
treatment works to a new level so the water can be reused.
Next up is farming, the single
biggest polluter by some considerable margin. In just about every aspect of
modern day farming the processes and practices have a negative impact on
rivers. The dire effect on the River Wye due to intensive chicken farming
is well known. In Dorset, the dust that percolates into the River Frome
from the many thousands of acres of water-hungry maize is smothering salmon
eggs to death. Pesticides (there is a clue in the name) are wiping out huge
swathes of riverine insect life. I could go on, but I do wonder if anyone
in government is listening such is the power, and public sympathy, for the
farming lobby in the name of cheap food and food security, though whether
our food is either cheap or the supply secure is debatable.
The answer lies in a generational
change to farming practices that should be predicated on a ‘no harm’ basis.
In our society we have fairly clear social contract that the actions of one
person should not have a detrimental impact on the life of another. Why
should farmers be any different? Frankly, we do not need more legislation
or regulations. Simply enforcing those we already have on the statute book
would be a good start. As a farmer you will statistically likely have an
inspection from the Environment Agency once every 235 years – quite the
deterrent to bad practice – would that speed cameras be so sporadic! But it
is worse than that; the perpetuation of doing harm is institutionalised.
Take banned neonicotinoids that do such harm to bees, insects and birds.
Well, they are not really banned at all thanks to the fourth year in a row
that sugar beet farmers have given emergency approval for their continued
use. This reminds me so much of the organophosphates that nearly wiped out
British otters. It took thirty tears, despite a mountain of evidence
against the derivative of DDT, for them to be banned due to the powerful
farming lobby and a government that went along with the selfish arguments
for their continued use from the 1950’s to 1980’s.
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The 20% of pollution from other
sources is more complicated including our feeble water companies of which
we know plenty, aided and abetted by appalling oversight from regulators
and government and a public that rails against the aforesaid water
companies but without taking a hard look in the mirror. We are what we use.
Look under any modern kitchen sink and you will see an array of toxic
chemicals unheard of 50 years ago, that go from plughole to stream largely
unimpeded. We have become obsessed with cleanliness e.g. wet wipes. at the
cost of nature. We have even transposed this obsession to our pets. Flea
treatments that are largely unnecessary but plugged by a veterinarian
industry that knows an opportunity when it sees one, are wiping out insect
life. Did you know the chemicals in flea treatments, fipronil and a
neonicotinoid banned (sic) in farming but legal for pets, remain on the pet
for 4 weeks? So, when you stroke your cat or dog then wash your hands
no prizes for guessing where the chemicals end up. And heaven forbid what
happens when you let your dog swim in a stream or give it a bath.
The built environment at 15% largely
speaks to the funnel effect of modern building: more houses, more roads and
fewer green spaces sees the washings from roads (brake asbestos/tyre
rubber/petro-chemicals and detergents) head straight into drains then rivers.
In the past twenty years we have built a million homes on land once
designated on flood plain, a buffer and filter, with one in ten of those in
designated flood zones. To repurpose the Kevin Costner quote from the film Field
of Dreams, build them and they will flood.
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Finally, I have given 5% to climate
change though I do wonder whether this might be an overestimate. The first
thing you need to know about British rainfall is that the annual average
has barely budged over the past 300 years. The Environment Agency have
extensively modelled UK rainfall for the coming 50 years and concluded that
we might have slightly wetter summers and slightly drier winters, or
possibly the other way around. The fact is they are not really sure. As for
flood events, they are certainly no more frequent or extensive than in the
past though most certainly less fatal. A flood of the Wallop Brook in the
1830’s accounted for two deaths something that is hard to conceive today.
Also flooded homes today might just have something to do with the fact they
are built on land our forebears deliberately avoided for good reason. And
as to whether we will run out of water due to lack of rain, forget such
alarmism. We only need 6 inches of our annual 32 inches to supply our
needs.
But ultimately, I give climate change such a low score
because, in the end, we are going to destroy our rivers and coastal waters
by our own localised misdeeds long before global warning gets us. You
may watch and hear more in my talk The state of our rivers and
how to save them on You Tube.
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Taking the pledge
I made a pledge to myself many years
ago that, if I complained about a lack of rain I could not, in all
conscience ever complain about too much. It must be said the last 12 months
have tested that pledge to its very limit.
As you will have read February was
the wettest in 250 years, the rainfall two and a half times the average for
the second month of the year. The past six months are over one and a half
times the average and the past twelve months almost the same. It is an
unprecedented run and different to the winters of 2013/14 and 2003/4 when
we had extreme floods interspersed with dry months. This has been
relentless: our river restoration programmes for October-December were
abandoned without a sod turned.
So, what will it mean for fishing?
Firstly, you may have noticed some of our rivers scheduled for opening in
April will not open for until either later in the month or May. This is
often as much about protecting the banks, a few of which are currently impassable,
rather than the fishing prospects though it will certainly be harder to
spot fish in turbid water. Likewise, anticipate less than placid, gin clear
waters early on along with soggy margins. Wear boots or waders, go
carefully and take a long handled net.
On the plus side we have more than
enough water in reserve to carry us through the season and winters like
this are amazing for the trout and salmon breeding population with egg
survival rocketing; expect a significant spike in the numbers of juvenile
fish when you visit the chalkstreams in 2025.
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