A coalition of river guardians in the Wye catchment have co-created a Manifesto for the Wye which is being unveiled at the Hay Festival as part of an exhibition on the site.
Save The Wye, Friends of the River Wye, CPRE Herefordshire and Wye Salmon Association, with support from Herefordshire Wildlife Trust and Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, have outlined key actions required to restore the river to health.
The manifesto calls on the governments of the UK and Wales to establish a single, cross-border approach to tackling the pollution crisis across the Wye catchment. It also demands the establishment of a Water Protection Zone, enforcement action against polluters, financial support for farmers to transition to river-friendly farming and action to empower consumers with honest labelling.
The authors of the Manifesto have criticised the government’s recent ‘River Wye Action Plan’ for failing to tackle the pollution of the Wye, and put forward their own people-powered plan.
The River Wye is increasingly plagued by algal blooms and has lost much of its water crowfoot, which used to carpet the river and provide habitat and food for other species. The Wye is the victim of agricultural pollution, with around 72-74% of phosphate pollution coming from the farming sector.
Last year the official status of the River Wye was downgraded by Natural England to “Unfavourable, declining”. Urgent action must be taken to prevent further decline, which requires stopping pollution and tackling legacy nutrients in the soils.
Former Environment Agency Area Manager Dave Throup has said that a proposal for a Water Protection Zone for the Wye was first taken to Defra ten years ago and that “it’s the only answer”. Throup continued, “There’s been ten years and millions spent on pursuing all existing voluntary measures, incentives and attempting to apply ineffective and inadequate legislation. They haven’t and won’t work”.
In 2022, Herefordshire Council wrote to the government requesting a Water Protection Zone for the Wye. The leader of the council at the time, David Hitchener, said “I do not want to be known as a politician who sat on their hands while an ecological disaster unfolds.”
In 2023, a roundtable at Hay Castle chaired by the Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trusts, Craig Bennett, brought together a wide range of stakeholders, including supermarkets, agribusinesses, farming representatives, government agencies and environmental groups. A summary of the meeting records that, “if the Wye were a school or a hospital, we would be calling for it to be placed into ‘special measures’”. The meeting also proposed that solutions for the Wye should be framed around the “RePhoKUs recommendations”.
The academics behind RePhoKUS (The Role of Phosphorus in the Resilience and Sustainability of the UK Food System) carried out a landmark study into phosphorus in the Wye catchment. They recommended reducing animal numbers, exporting manure out of the catchment and reducing fertiliser use. The Manifesto is built upon these recommendations.
Last month, on 12 April, Defra published its River Wye Action Plan. It has been heavily criticised for lacking scope and ambition. It was written with scarce consultation with local groups and experts. The Wye Catchment Nutrient Management Board has expressed its concern that Defra didn’t consult it or the Wye Catchment Partnership. Nor did Defra reach out to any of the dedicated citizen science groups which know the river intimately.
The Defra plan primarily applies to England, not Wales, which makes it of limited use for a cross-border river. It is largely a list of actions already being taken, including measures (such as payments for river buffers) that apply England-wide under the new Sustainable Farming Scheme. One novel aspect is that it allocates “up to £35 million in grant funding for on-farm poultry manure combustors” to help tackle the mountain of manure created by over twenty million chickens in the catchment. Whilst burning muck can make it easier to export, the authors of the Manifesto believe that such a policy must, at the very least, be accompanied by a moratorium on all new intensive livestock units and a progressive plan to reduce the amount of animals in the catchment.
David Gillam from Save The Wye said, “The government’s ‘Action Plan’ is really an ‘Inaction Plan’. It falls far short of what is required to stop the pollution of the River Wye, let alone restore it to health. Fortunately, we know what needs to be done and our manifesto represents the people’s plan for the Wye, created in response to all the evidence we’ve gathered over the last few years.”
Christine Hugh-Jones from Friends of the River Wye said, “We are astonished that the long-overdue government plan for the Wye only applies to England, neglecting much of the river. We’re calling for Defra to work with the Welsh Government to tackle the pollution on the Wye. This will require radical cross-border action to enforce the law against polluters, reduce animal numbers in the catchment and reduce the amount of fertiliser applied to land”.
Andrew McRobb, the Director of CPRE Herefordshire, said, “CPRE Herefordshire are deeply disappointed in the lack of ambition in the Defra plan. We need action to immediately stop a worsening pollution issue. This means stopping manure spread and nutrient infiltration in water courses. This can most effectively be achieved by designing and implementing a Water Protection Zone. Long term planning is fine but only in conjunction with effective short term action.”
Stuart Smith from Wye Salmon Association said, “Wye salmon have declined by 95% over the last few years. We need serious ambition to restore their population to abundant levels once more. We believe this Manifesto embodies such ambition for the river and we’re proud that our volunteers have played a part in creating it”.
James Hitchcock, CEO of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, said, “This manifesto offers a set of reasonable, practical and achievable actions. In just a few points, these passionate groups of local river guardians have summarised a practical path forward in a way that hundreds of hours of official meetings and government intervention have simply failed to do. Perhaps we will see this adopted. Better still funded. This would drive meaningful change, improve livelihoods and wellbeing within our beautiful river catchment".
For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact David Gillam - david@savethewye.org / 07974 770212
Notes:
Manifesto for the Wye:
We call on the Governments of the UK and Wales to establish a single, cross-border approach to tackling the pollution crisis across the Wye catchment.
This must:
1. Develop and implement a Water Protection Zone to stop all forms of pollution.
We need a new approach to protecting the river from agricultural and sewage waste. The current system has manifestly failed. The science tells us that the Wye needs to be put into “special measures” to solve current and legacy pollution issues. This includes a reduction in animal numbers, responsible sourcing of feed, the reduction of sewage releases and reduced application of fertiliser and chemicals. A Water Protection Zone is the right mechanism to deliver this at pace.
2. Establish a Wye Recovery Fund to resource a fair and fast transition to river-friendly farming and nature-based solutions.
To rescue the river will take concerted efforts to move to less intensive and more nature-positive farming. This means no more intensive livestock units, a transition to lower stocking levels, protection of the riparian zone and the reduction of imports of feed, fertilisers and pesticides. English and Welsh farmers will need the backing of significant funding to make this happen.
3. Strengthen regulations and resource the agencies to enforce against pollution.
We need better regulations and significant extra investment in enforcement to bring the standards up to a common level that will protect the river and establish a level playing field for all farmers. These actions need to be backed by proper data collection to ensure pollution is under control. Regulators on both sides of the border need to have appropriate powers to ensure infractions are quickly resolved, including on the spot fines for pollution.
4. Ensure supermarket pricing rewards river-friendly farming and that consumers are empowered with honest labelling.
Farmers are businesses and need to sell their produce at a price that reflects the care and attention paid to the river and does not allow them to be undercut by environmentally damaging competitors. This needs supermarkets to become part of the solution and reward suppliers for practices that protect the environment and the river. Clear, mandatory method-of-production labelling must be displayed on both domestic and imported goods, to allow consumers to choose river-friendly food.