Hello and welcome to our first Get River Positive newsletter – the place where we will share some highlights on progress as we strive to make our region’s rivers the healthiest they can be.

Back in March we launched Get River Positive to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to improving the health of the rivers in our region.

Over the last four months we have made strong progress against the pledges and have also recently been awarded the Environment Agency’s highest four-star rating for the third year running.

However, despite achieving this rating, we are by no means complacent, we know there is more to do, and we’re focussed on continually improving our performance.

Improving river health is a team game and we will do all we can to take leadership on many of the issues our region’s rivers face and to partner with others to make our region’s rivers the healthiest they can be for the communities and nature around them.

So, read on to find out what we’ve been doing over the last few months.

Regards,

Liv Garfield

From Norfolk to the Bristol Channel and Shrewsbury to Milton Keynes

Get River Positive was launched in March this year alongside Anglian Water and earlier this month Hafren Dyfrdwy became the latest company to sign up to the pledges.

Our Get River Positive Pledges

Progress on our Severn Trent pledges

Pledge 1

Ensuring storm overflows and sewage treatment works do not harm rivers

A reduction in our RNAGS

As part of Get River Positive, we’ve pledged that our operations will not be the reason for unhealthy rivers by 2030, based on Environment Agency (EA) measures called RNAGS (Reasons for Not Achieving Good Status).

According to data from the EA water companies are responsible for 24% of the reasons for rivers in England not achieving good status, while other sectors are responsible for the remaining 76%.

We’re really pleased to share the good news that we have submitted evidence to the EA for the next wave of RNAGS to be formally approved as complete – this equates to nearly 10% of our remaining target to zero. This puts us ahead of plan; however, we continue to work hard to improve our region’s rivers, both through our own activities and supporting others to improve and care for rivers too.

Our Network

Pledge 2

Create more opportunities for everyone to enjoy our region’s rivers

Diving into our bathing rivers project

We’re now officially halfway through bathing season, which runs from May to September, and we’ve so far managed to fit a lot in!

As a reminder, this project will see 50km of river improved, as we look to create two new trial bathing areas along the River Teme in Shropshire and the River Leam in Warwickshire by 2025.

So, what have we been doing?

We’ve launched one of the most extensive river monitoring and sampling programmes in the industry (monitoring over 50+ locations!)
Holding focus groups with local communities to understand the information they’d like about the water quality of rivers and how they’d like to receive that information
Running regional roadshows in Ludlow this month, in Leamington Spa in October and engaging with local authorities about the potential for the wider development of amenities at the proposed sites
We recently began site investigations across Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon, Rugby ahead of the start of our capital works next year
Later this summer we will begin our new programme, working with farm veterinary practices and livestock farms to help protect rivers from pollutions from farms, which will ultimately have a positive impact on the health of our region’s rivers
Exploring innovative, and new ways to treat wastewater – stay tuned for more on that!

Our Bathing Rivers project

Pledge 3

Support others to improve and care for rivers

Our new deal for farmers

In May this year we announced our Regenerative Pathway Package for farmers.

Nine thousand farmers in the Severn Trent region are being offered match funding of up to £30,000 to encourage environmentally friendly farming practices and protect water quality.

The package has been well received so far and builds on our brilliant existing scheme – Farming for Water – which we have been offering for over ten years.

Support for farmers

Pledge 4

Enhance our rivers and create new habitats so wildlife can thrive

Supporting nature in our communities

For us, the natural environment isn’t a bolt-on, it is a fundamental part of our core business, whether that’s planting trees to help filter our region’s wonderful water or re-introducing lost species such as beavers to regenerate healthy wetland habitats.

As one example, we’re incredibly lucky to have cuckoos breeding at a number of our Severn Trent sites and as part of our commitment to restoring biodiversity we work closely with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to understand and support these beautiful birds.

Last year Calypso the cuckoo was tagged at one of our sites and together with BTO we tracked his incredible journey to Africa and back.

Calypso’s 10,000 mile journey

Pledge 5

Be open and transparent about our performance and our plans

On track to 100%

One issue we know people are keen to keep updated on is the performance of our storm overflows. The rollout of our monitors has driven an acceleration of improvements along our wastewater network.

We are continuing to install monitors at all our storm overflows and sewage treatment works and track this weekly. Currently 92% of our sites have monitors and we are on track for 100% to be installed by the end of 2022.

We’re also working with environmental non-governmental organisations this summer to better understand the data that people want to see and the format that they want to see it in.

Our monitoring and latest data