Our Charter
The River Cam Charter
The River Cam and its tributaries are suffering badly from over-abstraction, agricultural run-off and sewage discharge leaving them in poor condition with very low flow levels and dirty water.
We believe this vital chalk stream river system, so integral to the character and nature of the Cam landscape, must be helped to recover to a cleaner and more natural state. The climate emergency makes a bad situation worse.
We pledge therefore to:
1/ Declare the River Cam and its tributaries as endangered chalk streams which need to be restored as globally important centers of biodiversity.
2/ Resist all new growth projects in the wider Cambridge area which depend on further abstraction, both surface and groundwater, from an already-depleted river system.
3/ Ensure the Environment Agency publishes a strategy and timetable detailing how the Agency will oversee the restoration of these rivers so as to achieve ‘High Surface Water Status’*, as defined by the Water Framework Directive.
4/ Ensure the Environment Agency provides timely and regular updates as to its progress towards achieving that objective.
5/ Ensure Cambridge Water and Anglian Water publish monthly figures on water usage and raw sewage discharges and what actions they are taking to reduce both.
*Surface water status is a composite measure that looks at both the chemical status and the ecological (including biological and habitat condition) status of a body of water. No water body in England currently has high surface water status.