Anglian Water to create wetlands to improve river water quality

Ingoldisthorpe Wetland in Norfolk is seen as a successful way to clean treated water before it enters rivers

A water company plans to create 26 new wetlands across the East of England to help improve river water quality.

Anglian Water, which admitted dumping sewage in the River Stour 389 times last year, said the scheme would help protect rivers and chalk stream habitats.

The project follows a pilot set up in 2019 in Ingoldisthorpe and managed by the Norfolk Rivers Trust.

But one campaigner said the scheme was "green washing" the public.

Anglian water said £50m would be spent on the wetlands by the end of the decade.

The first three wetlands in Charsfield and Cotton in Suffolk and Stagsden in Bedfordshire would get under way in 2023.

Final stages of feasibility work to identify the most suitable locations for the remaining 23 wetlands were still being carried out, the water company said.

Ingoldisthorpe Wetland in Norfolk was created by Anglian Water as part of a test project

Treatment wetlands work by taking used, but treated, water from water recycling centres and passing it through a series of interconnected ponds planted with native wetland species such as iris, sedges, rush, marsh marigold and watercress.

The wetland plants "naturally clean the water, removing ammonia and phosphate before it goes back into the nearby river", Anglian Water said.

Dr Jonah Tosney, technical director for the Norfolk Rivers Trust, said: "What it's doing is taking the treated effluent from the sewage works and instead of putting that directly into the river, it's giving it a final clean.

"We've seen the water quality in the River Ingol improve quite dramatically, from the point when it was rated as bad for phosphate, to the point where it's edging towards good now."

Mr Tosney said as well as making "a massive difference to the quality of the water in the river", it had also proved a haven for wildlife.

Wetland planting at Ingoldisthorpe in Norfolk in 2019

According to Regan Harris of Anglian Water, ammonia and phosphate chemicals were a "particular challenge" for rivers.

"This way of treating water is a really great way of making sure we are meeting the right standards of water quality for our rivers," she said.

However, clean rivers campaigner and former frontman of punk band The Undertones, Fergal Sharkey, said the project was another example of a water company "green washing" the public.

"To say that it cleans the water raises very big question marks," he said.

"There's simply not enough data to confirm that."