Stronger incentives urged for farmers to help tackle ‘dire state’ of rivers

Farmers should get stronger incentives to reduce fertilisers, keep livestock and crops away from waterways and plant trees to cut river pollution, a report urges.

The report on reviving England’s struggling polluted rivers also calls for better regulation of sewage, particularly targeting failing treatment plants at river headwaters.

And it calls for connecting up rivers and floodplains, by removing barriers such as weirs and restoring ponds, canals and wetlands to improve the resilience of freshwater habitats,