Only 14.3% of England's waters meet good ecological status

Only 14.3 percent of England's rivers, lakes, and coastal waters are in good ecological condition, according to a comprehensive national assessment published on August 6, 2026. The data from the Environment Agency shows that more than 85 percent of the 4,658 assessed surface water bodies failed to achieve good ecological status, with 65.4 percent rated moderate, 17 percent poor, and 3.1 percent bad. A separate assessment for chemical pollution found that not a single water body met the required standard.

The ecological status measures a range of factors including fish, invertebrates, plants, oxygen levels, nutrients, pollutants, and the physical condition of habitats. Officials cautioned against directly comparing the latest figure to the 16.3 percent recorded as good in 2019, citing substantially changed monitoring methods, more available evidence, and increased targeting of locations where problems are suspected. The classification system also uses a "one-out, all-out" approach, meaning a water body fails to achieve good status if it falls short on just one measure. Approximately one-third of the failures were due to a single element.

Phosphates from sewage and agricultural...