How strategically creating clean water ponds can boost freshwater wildlife across a landscape
1st May 2026
Freshwater Habitats Trust CEO and Newt Conservation Partnership Director Jeremy Biggs says clean water ponds being created by the Newt Conservation Partnership are boosting biodiversity across landscapes.
Freshwater wildlife depends on clean water, free from toxic pollutants like heavy metals and with low levels of nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates. These are the chemical conditions that freshwater plants and animals evolved in, and which they still need today.
Sadly, pollution is now widespread across the UK. Agriculture, urban runoff, sewage inputs and road drainage have polluted almost every freshwater catchment. Even small levels of pollution can damage freshwater habitats and prevent wildlife from thriving.
The good news is that we can halt and reverse the decline of freshwater species by creating new, clean water ponds in the right places. And the latest monitoring results from the Newt Conservation Partnership shows what a difference this is making to landscapes across England.
- Newt Conservation Partnership pond creation in action
Restoring small waters: a solution to the pollution crisis
The conversation on freshwater pollution typically focuses on sewage pollution in rivers. While cleaning up rivers is essential, creating and restoring small waterbodies offers a quicker, more affordable solution to bring clean water back to our landscapes in the short term.
Small waters such as ponds, headwater streams and habitats like small fens make up an estimated 80% of the freshwater environment. They are also the most biodiverse part, often acting as strongholds for populations of rare and threatened species. Because they have small catchments, they are more easily protected from sources of pollution.
Ponds in particular provide a golden opportunity to bring back clean water. By creating new ponds in areas away from sources of pollution, it is possible to minimise future risk of contamination. Taking a landscape-scale approach by creating networks of ponds or placing ponds close to other types of waterbodies can make them even more valuable. The new ponds act as ‘stepping-stone habitat’, improving connectivity between biodiversity hotspots and creating a network supporting wildlife to spread out across the landscape.
Strategically creating ponds to bring back clean water
As part of the NatureSpace Partnership schemes, our work with the Newt Conservation Partnership – the schemes’ delivery body – focuses on creating and restoring clean water ponds for Great Crested Newt to compensate for habitat lost or degraded by development, with four ponds created or restored for every newt-occupied pond lost.
Sites for compensation ponds are carefully selected, located close to existing Great Crested Newt populations or where they will connect existing habitats. Before habitat creation or restoration takes place, detailed on-the-ground assessments of substrate, hydrology, water quality and surrounding land use helps ensure that ponds remain clean, resilient and valuable for wildlife over the long term. By prioritising clean water inputs and buffering ponds from pollution, we can maintain good water quality in these habitats into the future.
- A Great Crested Newt - each has a unique pattern.
Now, the latest monitoring has found Great Crested Newts present at 90% of mature sites, outperforming regional and national benchmarks.
These results are obviously very encouraging, but it is equally exciting to see the transformational effect of these new clean water ponds on the wider landscape.
The strategic, landscape-scale approach has proved effective at bringing clean water back to the countryside, with 95% of NCP ponds showing no evidence of nitrate or phosphate pollution. 91% of the scheme’s ponds are now classed as Priority Ponds – the national designation for the highest-quality ponds – or have been given provisional Priority Pond status.
While the ponds are clearly working for newts, other species also benefit from this high-quality habitat. Regionally or nationally threatened wetland plants were identified at 58% of the ponds surveyed to assess the wider benefits of the scheme and the recent monitoring report reveals some remarkable finds. These include rapidly declining plants, such as the extremely uncommon Lesser Water-plantain, and the nationally Vulnerable Red Pondweed, which was recorded in five Newt Conservation Partnership ponds in Northamptonshire. Pondweed Leafhopper, an exceptionally rare invertebrate, was found at a Newt Conservation Partnership pond in Sussex, and Common Toad, a Priority species undergoing severe declines, was recorded at many of the new and restored ponds.
- Newt Conservation Partnership CEO Dr Pascale Nicolet carrying out a plant survey at a site in Sussex. (c) Newt Conservation Partnership.
Working together to build the Freshwater Network
Partnership working will be key to building the Freshwater Network and bringing clean water back to our towns and countryside.
The Newt Conservation Partnership’s work is a prime example of how creating and restoring clean water ponds in the right places can extend and link existing biodiversity hotspots into a network of habitats, delivering measurable gains for freshwater wildlife and making a significant contribution to nature recovery.
The Newt Conservation Partnership is a collaboration between Freshwater Habitats Trust and Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, and fully funded via NatureSpace Partnership’s Licensing schemes. Read the latest monitoring report.
Find out how Freshwater Habitats Trust is bringing back clean water by building the Freshwater Network.