Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 78
78
Paragraph: 374
Policymakers across Government should aim to cultivate a culture of water citizenship to foster greater...
Conclusion
Policymakers across Government should aim to cultivate a culture of water citizenship to foster greater awareness and change behaviour that risks causing blockages in the sewer network and increasing levels of water pollution. Awareness of what should not be disposed of down toilets and drains appears to be low. Many householders are still unaware that flushing anything other than the ‘three Ps’ (‘pee, poo and paper’) can create a risk of blocking sewers leading to a pollution incident.
Paragraph Reference:
374
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
We agree that citizen science can play an important role, including in assisting the Environment Agency with monitoring, particularly through Catchment Partnerships. Citizen science builds local awareness beyond that of specialist water managers and can drive a move towards the design of new indicators for catchment condition. This is already happening through the Catchment Monitoring Cooperative which obtained £1.7 million in funding from Ofwat’s Breakthrough Water Challenge fund last year to kickstart the scheme in eight catchments. The Environment Agency is also working with the Association of Rivers Trusts to support their Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo) initiative. The CaSTCo project will establish a more focussed and better supported toolkit of methods and approaches that are interoperable and can be shared through common platforms. Over a three-year period, the CaSTCo project will develop and implement their proposal in eight demonstrator river catchments across the country which we will engage with and support.