UK Ministers have been making plans to remove the EU’s water framework directive from legally binding targets, which legislates to clean up dirty rivers and seas from agricultural, chemical and sewage pollution.
Under the EU’s urban waste water treatment directive, micropollutants and microplastics are set to be further regulated in the EU, which means England, Scotland and Wales will fall farther behind. The EU also plans to further regulate groundwater pollutants including PFAS “forever chemicals”, some pesticides and pharmaceuticals. The UK has no such plans.
So our rivers and seas already among the most polluted in Europe, would be allowed to be more polluted. Does this count as some kind of leadership role?
