EU awards €20m to improve north-west England rivers

摘要

The Environment Agency (EA) has been awarded €20m (£15m) from the EU's Life fund to improve water quality in northwest England. The aim of the money, announced as part of the EU's new Integrated Projects programme, is to help boost compliance with the Water Framework Directive, which required all water bodies to achieve 'good ecological status' by 2015. The project specification notes that the north-west England river basin district includes one third of the poorest quality rivers in England and Wales. Even its latest management plan, published in January, is not ambitious enough to drive full compliance; 74% of water bodies in north-west England will still fail to meet 'good' status by 2021 under current plans.