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The Green Party and celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are calling for a ‘protection zone’ to be placed around one of the UK’s most beautiful but threatened rivers and are calling for ‘drastic’ national changes to the management and regulation of the water industry.
At a wild swim event on the River Wye on Wednesday, Fearnley-Whittingstall and Green Party candidate for North Herefordshire, Ellie Chowns, took the plunge, but only after measuring the level of pollution in the water.
Fearnley-Whittingstall, who is a member of the Green Party, said: “I love swimming in the rivers and the sea. It makes me angry that we have to check if it’s safe before we go in.
He said the Wye had become a “water desert” with toxicity levels sometimes “off the rocks”. “We must have long strands of ranunculus [weed] floating through the water with beautiful white flowers, dragonflies, swallows, rising fish. This river must be teeming with life. Is not.”
Studies have linked the decline of the Wye to intensive chicken farming in the catchment. Poultry produce large amounts of manure that contains nutrients, including phosphate. Much of this is spread over land, which can cause the phosphate it contains to enter the river.
Last year, Natural England has downgraded the river’s status from ‘adverse-improving’ to ‘adverse-declining’. Key species such as Atlantic salmon and white-clawed crabs are in decline.
The Greens want a water protection zone around the river to restore it. She said she would like to see support for farmers in the next five-year parliament nearly tripled to support the transition to organic farming.
Fearnley-Whittingstall said: “At the moment there are very few restrictions on how farmers dispose of animal waste mainly and what restrictions there are are essentially voluntary.
“In Wye, the big problem is intensive chicken farming. Some farmers are having a constructive conversation. Several have made this commitment to remove it from the site and process it. This involves a financial commitment on the part of the farmer and confidence that they can get something back from the end use of that material.
The Green Party’s plans for rivers also include nationalizing water companies, investing £12bn in sewerage and water infrastructure and giving the Environment Agency a £1.5bn boost to improve regulation.
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Among the local people who appeared to swim in the Wye off a rocky beach to Camping Tresek in the Herefordshire village of Hoarwithy was Lou Le Ray, who had bathed here for 12 years.
“We’ve noticed a huge change,” she said. “The main visible is the absence of ranunculus. In the summer you’d go down and there would be a beautiful web of leaves and white flowers all over the surface, and now that’s just gone. I think the turbidity of the water has worsened and the taste of the water has changed.’
David Gillam, Chairman of the the campaign group Save the Wye, said: “I think the water protection zone is definitely the way to go because we need a legal framework to allow us to deal with pollution.” He said farmers should not be “punched” but supported. “Farmers are in a difficult situation with changing regulations, a changing climate and supermarkets not paying them enough for their produce. They need to be helped to find better ways.”
As he emerged from the river, Chaunce noticed the slime on the rocks. And it was a good day – as it was dry, there would be little or no runoff from the fields. “It’s refreshing, but it’s an iconic river that we need to do more to protect. Access to clean water is a basic human right.”
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