23 Apr 2026
What’s the problem?
From sewage to invisible microplastics and chemicals, water pollution is plaguing our rivers and seas. It’s harmful to our health, and wreaks havoc on the natural world. Serious pollution instances rose by 60% in 2024.
The UK government vowed to get tough on water pollution. But it’s still letting the biggest polluters off the hook. Whether it's toxic slurry pouring out of factory farms or forever chemicals spilling into waterways, polluters are still poisoning our water with very little consequence.
After a huge public outcry the government did clamp down on some dodgy water company practices last year. People power made a difference. But big corporate polluters were still let off the hook in 2025.
Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen in 2026.
What’s the solution?
- Stop the polluters − crack down on sewage and intensive agricultural and chemical pollution.
- Fix the broken system − stop water companies putting profit before people and nature, with proper oversight and community involvement.
- Restore nature − bring rivers, lakes and seas back to life with cleaner water, healthier habitats and safe access.
We've joined together with more than 40 other organisations to demand Clean Water Now. Together, we put together a report setting out our urgent action plan for government, and launched this in Parliament on 3 March.
What Local Action Groups can do
- Promote our petition to the government for clean water now.
- Promote our email your MP action locally and support people in your community to ask your MP what they're going to do to help fix the water system this year.
- Share the Clean Water Now report with your MP by email or at a meeting, and ask them if they back it, and what they're going to do on the issue.
- If you are considering or carrying out water testing or other local campaigning on water pollution, let us know – we’re hosting regular online peer learning sessions and would love to have you along.
- Get in touch if your group would like to hear more about our analysis of what's wrong with the government's vision for water, and what you can do to help improve it over 2026.
The timeline
In January 2026 the government published its new plan to clean up our polluted rivers and seas. We've been calling for radical change - but the plan didn't deliver. In a nutshell, the changes it suggested are pretty limited and extremely vague.
Next up, we’re expecting a ‘transition plan’, it has a lot to do to set out the detail we need to see on the government’s plans. And when it comes, we’ll be reading it closely and supporting local groups to get to grips with what it means for you.
We'll keep working with other environmental organisations to persuade MPs and government departments to back our vision for a real clean water revolution, before the government sets these limited plans in stone through a new Water Bill in the summer.
Other resources
- The government's ‘Vision for Water’, published January 2026.
- Our water pollution testing guide.
- River Action have an incredible online toolkit to help groups testing local waterways and thinking about what to do with that information.
