Save our Chalk Streams

MPs who have already committed to championing chalk streams:

Dame Maria Miller, MP for Basingstoke

Caroline Nokes, MP for Romsey and Southampton North

Flick Drummond, MP for Meon Valley 

If your MP is not on this list, we still need you to email them through our e-action! Already emailed them? Tell us how they responded and let us know if you need support writing a response, by emailing campaigns@hiwwt.org.uk 

With only around 220 worldwide, these cool, fresh, oxygen-rich waters provide the perfect habitat for rare British species like water vole, souther chalk stream Atlantic salmon, brown trout, southern damselfly, water crowfoot and white-clawed crayfish.

Over 85% of the 220 chalk streams in the world are found in the south of England, truly one of the most rare habitats on the planet. They are also incredibly rich in life; home to more species of plants than any other English river and include species found nowhere else. They are England's equivalent to The Great Barrier Reef or the Amazon Rainforest, a special heritage and our responsibility

Currently, only 16% of waters in England are in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards. Staggeringly, this means that none of England's chalk streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries or seas are currently in an overall healthy condition as they would need to be in both good chemical and ecological health.  

Previous targets required the government to get our rivers in good overall health by 2015 and 2021, but both have been missed! But the Government’s new ‘river basin management plans’, launched in December 2022, now state that the government predicts all of our rivers and streams won’t be in good overall health until 2063 – four decades away!  

You can find out more about these plans here: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/ali-morse/are-delayed-water-plans-too-little-too-late  

Our rivers are facing multiple pressures from pollution, over-abstraction, invasive species, and climate change. Pollution from agriculture and sewage is causing algal blooms that suffocate life in the water. Over-abstraction reduces the flow and level of water in rivers, affecting wildlife and increasing the risk of droughts. Invasive species can outcompete or harm native species, disrupting the balance of the ecosystem. Climate change can cause more extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, that damage river habitats and wildlife. 

Find out more about pollution

Find out more about drought and abstraction

Find out more about the climate crisis

Currently only 11 out of 220 British chalk streams have any legal protections as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). These are the Hampshire Test, the Somerset Frome, Dorset Bere Stream, Wiltshire and Berkshire's Kennet, the Norfolk Nar, Yorlshire's Hull headwaters and Greater London's Crane.

Worse stilll, only 4 are protected fully at the highest level as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). These are the Wiltshire Avon, Hampshire Itchen, Norfolk Wensum and Berkshire Lambourn. 

This patchwork of limited protections show we need a bespoke protection specifically designed to ensure the health of all our 220 chalk streams across the country. 

We are demanding a new legal status to give chalk streams the chance of recovery.  This must protect them from further damage through pollution, over abstraction and other pressures. It must drive investment in restoration and ensure that our chalk streams can return to good ecological and chemical health. 

This protection should:

• Force water companies to invest in sewage-treatment works on all chalk streams.
• prevent water companies from taking too much water from chalk streams, especially during droughts.
• Give chalk streams planning protections to ensure developers build homes in a way that doesn't harm our streams and provide a green buffer around them
• Drive investment into restoration of our chalk streams, for example through the new 'Local Nature Recovery Strategies', enviornmental farming subsidy schemes and Biodiversity Net Gain.
• Increase monitoring and enforcement of standards for chalk streams bu government agencies.

We need nature more than ever. At the Trust we work with nature to help restore and replenish our local environments and provide benefits to people. 

In a changing climate, drought and flood events are becoming an increasing occurrence, and are exacerbated by ageing water infrastructure and increased population. When implemented well, nature-based solutions can be used alongside more carbon-intensive and expensive grey infrastructure not just to reduce the risk and impact of floods and drought, but to generate additional benefits including improved water quality, biodiversity, and community health and wellbeing. One example of a nature-based solution to tackle flood events is Natural Flood Management which uses nature, including wetlands, beaver dams or woodlands, to slow the flow of water, reducing the chance of flash flooding, as well as increasing water storage throughout the landscape. We believe that nature-based solutions can be a cost-effective way to build resilience to key challenges we are facing, such as flooding or droughts. Nature-based solutions also provide numerous other benefits to people and nature in the process, such as carbon storage, cleaner water and health and wellbeing benefits. 

Water and sewage utilities are the single largest players in the UK water sector. They have some of the largest impacts on the quantity and quality of water in rivers through the abstraction and discharge of treated and untreated wastewater. They control important engineered infrastructure impacting rivers, and (almost) every household and business are connected to them as paying customers for water supply and/or sewage. 

Given the scale of operation and impact of water companies on rivers, The Trust needs to work with them at a strategic level to accelerate the recovery of our rivers, including our chalk streams. Any system for solving the complex problems facing our rivers will have to involve water companies as part of the solution. 

Currently, the Trust works directly with water companies in the following ways: 

• We manage land that water companies own, delivering amazing places for people and nature. 

• We work in partnership with them on projects, such as our flagship rivers programme Watercress and Winterbournes which brings together 16 partners including Southern Water. 

• We are funded by them to deliver nature-based solutions to improve our rivers and their catchments. 

• We are part of boards and partnerships alongside water companies, including Catchment Partnerships and the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Local Nature Partnership.

But we also play a role in holding water companies to account for their impacts. We engage with them at a strategic level to push for change and respond to their consultations, including the recent Draft Water Resource Management Plans and Water Resources South East Regional Plans. We campaign against water companies’ poor decisions, for example, the previous plans for a desalination plant on the Solent. We also support people and our Team Wilder groups to take action to revive our rivers, including taking action to hold water companies accountable.