Water Week and the South Downs

Water Week and the South Downs

August 26, 2016

A shocking 650 million people across the world live without safe water and one in every three people don’t have access to adequate sanitation. World Water Week, from 28 August to 2 September, focuses on new thinking and positive action toward water-related challenges across the globe.

In our part of the world it’s very easy to take clean tap water for granted – did you know that the average person in the south east of England uses 150 litres of water every day? That compares to 12 litres per day for the average person in the developing world.

We never forget the importance of water in the South Downs. The chalk that makes our white cliffs at Seven Sisters and Beachy Head so famous runs under the length of the National Park. This chalk is full of tiny holes that capture and store rainwater before releasing it at springs and chalk streams.

Our hills provide drinking water for 1.2 million people.

Many different species of plants and animals rely on the wide range of wetland habitats in the South Downs. Freshwater streams, marshes, lakes, reed beds, ponds, canals, wet woodland and wet grassland provide homes for mammals such as otters and water voles, fish such as salmon, brown trout and the European eel and birds like the kingfisher.

While the Itchen and Meon rivers in Hampshire are two of the finest chalk streams in the world, 40 per cent of rivers and streams in the National Park remain in poor ecological and chemical status under the water framework directive. This is due to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus – usually caused by run-off from farmland – or chemicals such as metaldahyde found in slug pellets and physical barriers to fish movement such as weirs and dams.

The Arun and Rother Connections (ARC) project is just one place where action is being taken to improve things. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, ARC is bringing together local communities and encourage people to care for and value the importance of these two rivers and their catchments.

By training and developing volunteers and working closely with landowners and local communities, ARC is empowering local people to tackle complex issues like flooding, poor water quality and invasive non-native species. The project will end this November and has already delivered significant results, including major engineering works to remove weirs and improve fish and eel passage, the restoration of wetland habitats like chalk streams, floodplain meadows, wet heath and fen and major visitor improvements at three local nature reserves. With more than 1,000 volunteers now involved with the project it’s not surprising that they’ve been shortlisted for the Campaign for National Park’s ‘Park Protector Award’.