Just 14.3% of England’s rivers, lakes and estuaries are in good ecological condition, according to the Environment Agency’s latest six-yearly assessment of the nation’s waters.
The new classification found 65.4% of surface waters were in moderate condition, 17% were poor and 3.1% were bad. Only around 0.1% achieved the highest classification.
Ecological status measures more than simply whether water looks clean.
The Environment Agency assesses factors including fish, invertebrates and plants alongside oxygen levels, nutrients, pollutants and the physical condition of rivers, lakes and estuaries.
A water body can only achieve good status if all the relevant elements meet the required standard, meaning failure in a single area can pull down its overall classification.
The previous full assessment in 2019 found 16.3% of surface waters were at good ecological status or better.
However, the Environment Agency has warned against directly comparing the two figures because monitoring methods have changed, more evidence is now available and sampling is increasingly targeted towards places where environmental problems are suspected.
The chemical picture remains particularly poor, every assessed surface water body failed to achieve good chemical status, largely because of persistent substances which accumulate in the environment and can remain for decades.
These include mercury, PBDE flame retardants and PFOS, one of the group of so-called forever chemicals. The widespread chemical failure does not mean every individual test failed.
Many waters pass most chemical assessments but the Water Framework Directive system uses a “one out, all out” approach, meaning exceeding the limit for one substance results in the entire water body failing chemical status.
Pollution from several sources continues to hold back ecological recovery.
Wastewater and sewage discharges remain significant pressures while agriculture contributes nutrients and sediment through runoff from fields.
Roads, towns and cities add further pollution as rainfall washes oil, tyre particles, metals and other contaminants into drains and waterways.
Physical modifications such as weirs, culverts, flood defences and altered river channels can also prevent waters reaching good ecological condition even where pollution levels improve.
Groundwater is assessed separately for chemical condition and the amount of water available, adding another dimension as England deals with drought and increasing pressure on supplies.
The new classifications will be used to shape the next generation of river basin management plans and determine where regulators, water companies, farmers and other sectors need to intervene.
They arrive as the Government promises more than £100 billion of water infrastructure investment and stronger enforcement against pollution.
But the latest assessment shows the scale of the task remains enormous, with more than 85% of England’s surface waters still failing to reach good ecological status.
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