The UK is full of beautiful breath-taking landscapes that are home to crisp, refreshing natural bathing waters. For hundreds of years they have been a source of inspiration for artists and a place of recreation and enjoyment for millions of people. But now Britain’s waterways face pollution and safety challenges from many different directions.

From sewer discharge to new emerging contaminants and the looming threat of antibiotic resistance, the UK’s wild swimming comunity face a barrage of potential threats, and restoring these waterways to a more natural state requires a multifaceted approach encompassing rigorous monitoring, innovative technology, stringent regulation, and active participation from all stakeholders.

Emerging Chemical Challenges

Tessa Wardley is Director of Communications and Advocacy at the Rivers Trust, one of her main concerns is the pressing need for legislative updates to tackle emerging contaminants.

“I think one of the really big concerns is the chemical pollution that we maybe haven’t focused on a lot, and there hasn’t been a lot of monitoring in the past. And some of those are sort of particularly emergent pollutants that we’re just really beginning to realise that they’re there. And they’re actually potentially causing quite a big problem.”

Chemical contamination of these waterways come from a variety of different sources. One is from household products we all use, but also from pharmaceuticals and pesticides. 

This emerging threat is not being monitored widely enough and it’s causing the regulation surrounding chemical pollution to be woefully inadequate.

Wardley explains, “One of the biggest points is that the monitoring for chemicals in the environment is actually really poor. So there isn’t good geographical coverage and not many chemicals are actually monitored for. But the worrying thing we’ve found is that when we look for chemicals, we find them, and we will find them in really quite high levels”

Wardley and the River Trust conducted their own surveys across 1,000 river sites and found 81% had harmful chemicals present. They also studied 1,000 groundwater sites and found 74% of those to have the same chemical contamination, “That’s worrying for wildlife, but it’s also worrying for our water supply,” says Wardley.

Vera Jones, Global Technical Authority for Water Quality at AtkinsRéalis, underscores the role of citizen science in enhancing monitoring efforts. According to Jones, “Citizen science offers invaluable insights into water quality,” highlighting the importance of community-driven initiatives in supplementing official monitoring programs.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

Antimicrobial resistance is considered by many important multinational organisations to be a major global threat. In 2019, 1.27 million deaths were attributed to drug resistant illnesses but one study suggests that could rise to 10 million by 2050 if antimicrobial resistance continues to develop.

Vera Jones, is Global Technical Authority for Water Quality at AtkinsRéalis, and she has been working with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency (EA) to look into the presence of antimicrobial resistance in UK’s waterways.

Jones explains, “So antimicrobial resistance or AMR arises when microorganisms develop resistance to antibiotic substances.”  

This is still an emerging field of study and like other forms of water pollution the first hurdle remains better monitoring of the condition of our waterways. This problem has been exacerbated by cuts in funding, as Wardley explains, “The Environment Agency has a statutory duty to keep an eye on our rivers and water bodies, but they’ve been very starved of funding over recent years. So their monitoring programmes have been cut quite dramatically and we don’t have as much information on what’s going on in our rivers and water bodies as we would like”

Technological Innovations

Monitoring the entirety of UK waterways is a tremendous challenge, even with well funded agencies. However there is hope that technological innovations can provide low cost solutions to improved monitoring.

One of those emerging technologies is eDNA. Wardley explains the potential benefits eDNA could unlock for monitoring. “Right now you can have a look and see that there’s bacterial contamination in a river, but you don’t necessarily know where it comes from. eDNA will tell you what the source of that pollution is. So it will tell you if it’s from livestock, if it’s from dogs, if it’s from human sources. So that’s a really exciting area that’s kind of developing, which will tell you a lot about your sources of pollution.”

New monitoring technology will be a huge boost for understanding our water quality but it’s not just machines and technology helping better our understanding. Water quality has been a huge area of interest for thousands of citizen scientists.

“The great thing about citizen science is we have people all over the country who are interested and fascinated by what’s going on in their rivers. You get particular interest groups:, anglers, rowers, swimmers, paddle-boarders, as well as just local residents, dog walkers, people who like to be by the river who are interested and want to know what’s happening there,” says Wardley.

However, with tens of thousands of rivers and lakes across the UK, collecting data is only one part: analysing and understanding it is a whole other challenge. But AI offers a potential solution.

“There’s also a lot of potential for the use of artificial intelligence in the field of water quality, as there is in all different aspects of life. There’s a lot of interest in using AI to provide that real time information but we’re also exploring a predictive element there, being able to predict when there might be a pollution event or a deterioration in water quality.”

A place for community

Britain’s waterways are used and enjoyed by millions across the country and it’s in everyone’s interest to ensure we deal with the many pollution threats they face. But it’s this passion people have for spending time with nature that gives hope to improving our water quality.

From advocacy groups to passionate individual volunteers, the future of our water quality relies on citizen science and public pressure for improved regulations.

Wardley and Jones remain positive that this challenge will be met. “I’m really hopeful,” says Wardley. “There are so many people that are interested in solving some of the problems. There should be more investment, there’s much more awareness, and these problems should be solvable.”

Jones concludes, “Making the most of that local knowledge that stakeholders have, the enthusiasm, the passion that people have—bringing that together with all the developments in technology, could be really powerful in helping us protect the water environment into the future.”