Water policy is getting a long-overdue shakeup. Small waters could deliver big wins, fast.
10th October 2025
In the coming weeks, Government will publish a white paper outlining plans for the new Water Reform Bill. This Bill will implement the recommendations of the Independent Water Commission.
In their final report, the Water Commission argued that ‘a comprehensive monitoring regime is necessary, with greater coverage across the whole water environment’.
This proposal needs to be implemented urgently. By doing so, Government could secure tangible improvements for freshwater biodiversity within this Parliament.
We call on Government to:
- Bring small waters into the statutory monitoring programme.
- Integrate small waters into River Basin Management Plans.
Together, this will create a consistent driver for the protection, restoration and creation of small waters, setting England’s freshwater biodiversity on a new course.
Small waters can quickly add clean water to landscapes, buying time to clean up our rivers and lakes.
Public outcry at the degradation of the water environment has given Government a mandate to fundamentally reset water policy. Campaigners have correctly identified that sewage effluent and agricultural pollution have left most of our rivers and lakes in poor condition. Addressing these problems is vital, but recovery of these large waterbodies will take decades, or centuries. This is time which freshwater wildlife does not have.
The current Government also lacks time: there’s less than four years until the next general election. If Government wants to have something to show the British public on this issue – tangible recovery of the freshwater environment – then it must focus on small waters.
Small waters – such as headwater streams and ponds – make up a large part of the water environment and are biodiversity hotspots, often supporting concentrations of rare and threatened species. Importantly, small waters have a unique advantage when it comes to ecosystem recovery. Their small size means they can be restored at scale across landscapes, quickly and at relatively low cost, in pockets of land which are free of pollution.
By directing a small portion of current investment towards creating and restoring small waters, the Government can ‘add clean water’ to England’s landscapes – delivering fast results which will boost freshwater wildlife while the difficult and slow work of fixing larger waters continues.
- In the Water Friendly Farming project, we worked with landowners to double pond density across a 10 square km area of Leicestershire, by adding 20 new ponds to the landscape. Within five years, this increased the number of aquatic plant species in all freshwaters across the landscape by 22% - and tripled the number of rare species.
To unlock their potential, small waters need full integration into statutory monitoring.
To capitalise on the benefits of working with small waters, these habitats need to be fully integrated into statutory monitoring. Suitable monitoring methodologies have already been developed, for example within Defra’s Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme. These methods are ready for cost-effective rollout. Formally integrating small waters in the statutory (i.e. Water Framework Directive) framework would support targeted and funded action, including through River Basin Management Plans.
Through action on small waters, Government can rapidly boost freshwater wildlife.
We urge Government to take on board the Independent Water Commission’s call for a monitoring regime ‘with greater coverage across the water environment’, and incorporate small waters into official Water Framework Directive monitoring programmes.
Small waters have long been overlooked, but they are pivotal to the health of the water environment. Of all the Water Commission’s recommendations to Government, this single change will deliver the greatest gains for freshwater wildlife.