Cleaning up Polluted Rivers – A Lesson from England

The concerted efforts to clean up polluted rivers and improve their habitats in England have started paying off. The number Sea trout and salmon found in some English rivers have gone up by leaps and bounds.  According to Environment Agency rivers are at their cleanest for over a century

In river Tyne no salmon and trout were seen 50 years ago. The picture has taken a complete turnaround. More than 15,000 salmon and sea trout have already been recorded migrating this year up the river Tyne.

River Thames was declared biologically dead in the 1950s. Now record numbers of sea trout have been recorded in the Thames.

The river Mersey, once rated as the most polluted river in Europe, is very clean now. The cleanest it has been for a century.

The remarkable turnaround was achieved through investment by water companies, tougher action against polluters, reducing discharges from industry into waterways and changing farming practices. Building fish and eel passes and creating shallows which shelter fish from predators along rivers have also contributed to the improvement