Monitoring and Evaluation
The partnership aims to bring together a wide group of interested parties, working with organisations and individuals to improve water quality and biodiversity.
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Monitoring
The partnership meets regularly to exchange news, project updates and funding opportunities for river enhancement.
We work with a wide range of organisations and host the partnership to improve the cooperation and effectiveness of works undertaken.
We also look for opportunities to engage with the community and local groups to further promote the objectives of the partnership.
River quality and the environmental impact of untreated sewage has become a hot topic. It is now front-of-mind amongst politicians and activists across the UK. The partnership exists to harness that interest and to focus on the reality of the damage being done to our water courses locally.
Evaluation
The partnership is developing a series of SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) and a set of base-line data points. Budget cuts by central government for environmental monitoring means that much of the base data is out of date. There are very limited numbers of staff and resources to conduct fish population studies, water sampling throughout a watercourse, invertebrate studies and biodiversity measures. The last fishery survey on the Windrush was undertaken in 2014. Since then a significant deterioration in water quality has taken place. Point pollution incidents and untreated sewage discharges have gone unmonitored and unchecked.
The appointment of project officers for the partnership has enabled us to start a series of river walks and to recruit community activists to start the monitoring process. Together with training on water sampling and on riverfly sampling these citizen scientists will enable the partnership to better understand the underlying trends.
