In 2025, our members took part twice in The Great UK Water Blitz. This is a national campaign to sample fresh waters twice a year, all across the UK, and record the results in a publicly accessible map. These events are helping to build a national picture of water quality across the UK and it’s a great way to contribute to the pressure for cleaning up our rivers.
Results can be found here, and an inspiring video footage here:
The results for our local river, the Stour, and its tributary coming south from Wolverhampton, the Smestow, were not great. Most sampling points showed high concentrations of either phosphate, or nitrate, or both. We are not alone: 66% of datapoints across the UK show poor water quality, with unacceptable levels of nutrient pollution.
The good news is that, based on recent results, our rivers are getting cleaner. But it costs money, and further clean-up won’t happen without clear evidence that it’s urgently needed, and is supported by local people. That’s where citizen science campaigns like this help to keep up the pressure to continue to make even more progress, and bring the ecological status of our rivers back to where it should be.