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In an age when the state of the UK’s waterways are making depressing headlines, there is a refreshingly good news story developing in one corner of England’s green and pleasant land.
The Wessex River Trust is now halfway through a 10-year programme restoring some of Hampshire’s globally-renowned chalk streams – including the River Test and its tributaries.
So far more than 20 sites have been restored, improving miles of river habitat and strengthening resilience to drought, climate change and poor water quality.
“The FReSH (Flow Resilient Sustainable Habitat) Water Programme is an ambitious, multi-year effort to improve the resilience of Hampshire’s chalk streams in the face of drought, climate change and water quality pressures,” says the Wessex River Trust.
“By restoring natural processes and habitats, the programme aims to return to rivers the ability to regulate themselves through high and low flow conditions, improving long-term ecological performance of these globally rare ecosystems.
“Wessex Rivers Trust is bringing a joined up, catchment-scale approach to this work. Because the Trust is already active across the county’s river systems, we can connect FReSH delivery with existing restoration programmes, local priorities and long-term management, ensuring each site contributes to wider river recovery, not just isolated improvements.”
The programme began in 2019 when Southern Water – the region’s water supplier – approached Wessex Rivers Trust to take on the role of lead delivery partner for the compensatory river habitat improvements required by law.
“The programme represented a rare opportunity to deliver transformational, landscape-scale environmental improvement for Hampshire’s chalk streams,” said Wessex. “As an independent charity with specialist expertise, Wessex Rivers Trust was best placed to ensure the programme remained focused on environmental outcomes rather than commercial interests.”
“The project brings together a really energetic team of regulators, Southern Water and deliverers like the charity sector and – critical to this – the landowners,” said David Rumble, CEO of the Wessex Rivers Trust. “Without the landowners it would not be the success that it has been.”
Paul Vignaux, Executive Director of the Test and Itchen Association, said “The work has brought resilience and biodiversity to our rivers and is also helping save salmon and eels, providing year-round habitat for them to survive and thrive.”
