Water is life: South Downs National Park

Published: 25 September 2025

It’s been said before, but worth re-iterating because this amazing liquid really is the lifeblood for all our wildlife, landscapes and local communities.

We’re an island nation of rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands and all our watercourses should be in good condition.

But we particularly expect them to be so in our Protected Landscapes.

And yet they are not.

The South Downs National Park reflects a national picture of waterways that are crying out for better custodianship and management.

We recently published our own “Water in the Park” study – the first of its kind for us – showing that 90 per cent of our rivers and lakes are not in good ecological condition. Some 55 per cent of groundwaters are also not achieving good status. This is particularly important in the South Downs, where our aquifer supplies drinking water to over 1.2m people.

The causes? There are many – sewage discharges, nitrates and phosphates, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, physical barriers on watercourses, invasive species and urban pollution from roads.

Because it’s so complex, there’s no silver bullet to fixing this. For instance, our study found that up to 14 per cent of businesses are not connected to the mains sewer, while 82 per cent of consented licences for sewage discharges are not from water companies.

Otters on the River Meon

Campaign for National Park’s own excellent report this month delves deeper into the water crisis and we really welcome their analysis, fortifying our own commitment to sort this once and for all.

So how do we turn the tide? The power to solve this, I believe, lies in that age-old human skill – collaboration.

Alone as a National Park Authority, there’s only a limited amount we can do.

But by strong and innovative partnership working we can start to fix this.

We need everyone – government, landowners, farmers, water companies, local councils, highways agencies, charities, communities and individuals – to come together to effect real change.

Did you know that the River Ouse and Adur in the South Downs flow through over 2,000 landholdings? This gives us some sense of the scale of collaboration required.

There are six Catchment Partnerships in our National Park and they desperately need more funding to be able to deliver. There’s some extraordinary work already underway, but we need more of it and with greater resources.

It doesn’t always have to be complicated or cost lots of money, though. It could be as simple as picking up your dog’s poo when out walking, or ensuring your septic tank meets legal requirements and is emptied regularly.

For all these reasons and because we know how transformative partnerships can be, we’re making clean and plentiful water a central pillar in our forthcoming five-year Partnership Management Plan.

So, let’s use the rather grim data as a launch pad for something different, working together in a new, re-energised way to find real, tangible long-term solutions. I know it can be done.

We’ve seen some green shoots of recovery in the South Downs National Park.

Partnership working in places like the River Meon and Cockshut Stream has been so impactful and wildlife is returning.

When you watch grainy nighttime footage of an otter mum swimming with her cubs, or a marsh harrier soaring over a wetland after decades of absence, you know why we need to go on this journey together and why it’s worth it.

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