The failure of the government to protect our rivers extends beyond the Environment Agency (The government is looking the other way while Britain’s rivers die before our eyes, 12 August).
Defra’s Clean Air Strategy 2019 focused on the need to control emissions from agriculture, notably ammonia, which is a precursor for small particulates (PM2.5). Ammonia is released from nitrogen-containing fertilisers, and manure/slurry spread on to fields, particularly during the spring. Releases of ammonia can be reduced significantly by choosing the right sort of fertiliser, and injecting the manure into the soil. This would also protect rivers.
Yet the list of financial incentives offered to farmers in the government’s current agriculture bill does not include air pollution. This is a glaring omission, as the government’s own data shows that the UK is set to breach the EU National Emissions Ceiling Directive for both ammonia and PM2.5.
The government’s solution to this dilemma is to leave the EU and create its own green watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, which will doubtless prove as toothless as the Environment Agency, and other similar government-funded organisations.
Dr Robin Russell-Jones
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
• Among the culprits identified by George Monbiot as being responsible for the parlous state of Britain’s rivers are the privatised water companies, which stand accused of extracting vast dividends and salaries, while not investing enough in sewage systems, reservoirs and pollution control.
In fact, the water industry across the UK consists of a diverse set of players. While the industry in England is run by privatised entities of the kind Monbiot appears to have in mind, Scottish Water and Northern Ireland Water are public corporations. Perhaps most interestingly of all, water supply in Wales is mainly in the hands of Glas Cymru, a single-purpose company limited by guarantee that owns, finances and manages Welsh Water.
Glas has no shareholders, and Welsh Water’s assets are funded by publicly-issued bonds and retained financial surpluses. This type of organisation merits closer attention from those seeking an alternative to fully privatised and nationalised industry models as vehicles for owning and operating utility businesses.
Ian Jones
Fownhope, Herefordshire
