Poor water quality is threatening our freshwater habitats including rivers, lakes, wetlands and all that depend on them. Pollution in UK rivers is caused by a variety of sources including industrial and agricultural runoff and untreated sewage. Factors like climate change, heavy rainfall and changing land-use patterns further exacerbate the problem. 

There is mounting pressure from across the whole community to improve the quality of water in our rivers. Raised public awareness through high-profile press attention, has added pressure on those responsible to improve our water network for all who benefit and use it. Whilst there are limited numbers of monitoring points throughout the water network, there are still extensive “dead-zones” where monitoring is difficult to obtain either through lack of communications network, remoteness  or economic non-viability.

By producing an affordable and trusted platform, expanding and facilitating wider adoption of monitoring for the community will effectively “democratise” the data. Special interest groups  such as leisure users  including anglers and wild water bathers can share water quality data in their specific regions. Better understanding of ecological impacts protecting the biosystems, like wetlands, for agencies such as the RSPB, The River Trust  and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, will enable deeper understanding of the ecological and chemical health of the nation’s water bodies.