The river water quality indicator is one of 68 indicators of the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Strategy, published in March 2005. It is also one of 20 indicators outlined in One Future – different paths: The UK’s shared framework for sustainable development, which is shared by the UK government and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It separately measures biological and chemical river water quality on an annual basis and the indicator for each represents the proportion of river water, in terms of river length, which is considered to be of “good” quality. A summary of the results is given below
In England:
- 72 per cent of river length was of good biological quality in 2008, the same as in 2007 and 2006.
- 79 per cent of river length was of good chemical quality in 2008, up from 76 per cent in 2007.
In Wales:
- 88 per cent of river length was of good biological quality in 2008, up from 87 per cent in 2007.
- 95 per cent of river length was of good chemical quality in 2008, the same as between 2005 and 2007.
In Northern Ireland:
- In 2006, 54 per cent of river length monitored was of good biological quality, compared to 56 per cent in 2005 and 62 per cent in 2000.
- The length of rivers monitored increased greatly between 1995 and 2000, but there was a fall in river length of good quality over this period in those rivers that were monitored in both years.
In Scotland:
- 88 per cent of monitored river lengths were of good quality in 2006, up slightly from 87 per cent in 2005, which was the same as for 2004 and 2000.
- Changes in river length allocations and the extent of monitoring between 1990 and 2005 mean that it is difficult to draw conclusions about longer term Scottish trends.
Further details can be found here.
