Observations

Water Quality on the River Yare

1. The petition of residents of the constituency of South Norfolk,
2. Declares that the water quality on the River Yare is deeply concerning, putting wildlife and people at risk.
3. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to clean up British waterways, call upon Anglian Water to uphold the highest possible water quality levels, and for the Environment Agency to provide residents with the information they need so they can enjoy the River Yare all year round.
4. And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Ben Goldsborough, Official Report, 22 April 2025; Vol. 765, c. 1020.]
5. [P003056]
6. Observations from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy):
7. We want to assure you that cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas is a top Government priority. The unacceptable destruction of our waterways should never have happened. We now have record levels of illegal sewage dumping in our rivers, lakes and seas. This is completely unacceptable.
8. Within days of coming to office, we ringfenced money earmarked for investment in water infrastructure, so it cannot be diverted for bonuses or dividends. Where this money is not spent, it will be returned to customers.
9. Our landmark Water (Special Measures) Act became law in February. This gives stronger powers to the water industry regulators, so they can better hold water companies to account. It gives Ofwat new powers to ban unfair bonuses when water company executives fail to meet high standards. It introduces stricter penalties, including imprisonment, where water company employees obstruct investigations by environmental regulators, and it enables the regulator to impose automatic and severe fines for wrongdoing.
10. We have expanded powers so the environmental regulators can recover costs for a wider range of enforcement, and introduced mandatory monitoring of emergency overflows. Water companies must now publish annual pollution incident reduction plans and implementation reports to outline progress.
11. But we went even further by announcing the independent commission. Sir Jon Cunliffe is currently undertaking the biggest review of the water sector since privatisation to ensure we can attract the major investment needed to clean up our waterways and boost water supplies. The commission concluded its eight-week public call for evidence on 23 April, receiving over 50,000 responses. The commission plans to publish an interim report in the coming weeks, focused on five key themes: 1. strategic direction, 2. legislative framework, 3. regulatory reform, 4. company structures, ownership, governance and management and 5. infrastructure and asset health. The commission is due to provide its final report to Government in the summer.
12. In addition to the Government’s measures, Ofwat has announced £104 billion of private sector investment in the water sector over the next five years. This will build and upgrade water infrastructure in every region of the country, cutting sewage spills, improving water quality and giving us a reliable future water supply. It will create tens of thousands of jobs around the country, help us build 1.5 million homes, support major infrastructure projects and power new industries. This is regional economic growth in action—the cornerstone of our plan for change.
13. The current status of water quality in the River Yare, e.g. latest monitoring data or classification.
14. The table below summarises the water quality monitoring that is being done on the River Yare for the monitoring year April 2025 to March 2026.
15. All the Environment Agency’s monitoring data is available on the online water quality archive, which can be accessed here: https://engageenvironmentagency.uk.engagementhq.com/data-publications-water To search for an individual site, add the “point code” into the “Sampling point name or ID” field but prefix with AN—i.e. YAR003 becomes AN-YAR003.
16. Summary of Environment Agency water quality (chemistry) monitoring in the River Yare April 2025 to March 2026

    Monitoring reason and monitoring summary

    Agency Chemical strategy monitoring

    Locally commissioned issues monitoring

    Oslo Paris convention monitoring

    Monitoring for water company periodic reviews

    Point code

    Point name

    NGR

    Frequency

    PBT substances, i.e. metals, pesticides, solvents, PFOS etc

    Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphate), phys chem (temperature, pH. conductivity, dissolved oxygen)

    Phys chem, nutrients, metals, PCBs

    Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphate), phys chem (temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen)

    YAR003

    Blackwater River US Shipdham

    TF94822OG562

    Monthly (12 times/year)

    X

    YAR110

    R.Yare Earlham bridge

    TGI890008200

    Monthly (12 times/year)

    X

    X

    YAR120

    R.Yare Cringleford old bridge

    TGI998505957

    Monthly (12 times/year)

    X

    YAR180

    R.Yare Trowse Mill

    TG2430006800

    Monthly (12 times/year)

    X

    YAR200

    R.Yare Bramerton woods end

    TG2910006200

    Monthly (12 times/year)

    X

    YAR230

    R.Yare Buckenham Ferry

    TG3500004400

    Monthly (12 times/year)

    X

    X

    X

    YAR230

    R.Yare Buckenham Ferry

    TG3500004400

    Quarterly (4 times/year)

    X

    X

17. River Yare WFD classification
18. The latest classification information available is the 2022 classification, which can be viewed on the catchment data explorer here: https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/OperationalCatchment/3553
19. An overview of any known sources of pollution.