Medway, UK: Water Roadmap collective action project

The challenges in Medway’s waters

Often called the UK’s "Fruit Basket," the Medway region in South East England is a prime area for growing strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and other soft fruits in polytunnels, as well as top and stone fruit from orchards. Around one third of the UK’s strawberries are grown here, and with high demand for home-grown fruit, pressure on local water supplies continues to rise. Without action, the region is expected to need an additional one billion litres of water every day by 2050 just to meet demand.

Too much water is already being taken from the River Medway, and the river’s natural flow has been altered to keep pace with land use and a growing population.

Our Collective Action Project in Medway is critical in supporting growers to put in place practical, future-proof water solutions while protecting the long-term health of the region’s rivers and catchments.

What we’re doing to protect water in Medway

In partnership with South East Rivers Trust, we launched the Holistic Water for Horticulture as part of the Water Roadmap to support soft fruit and orchard growers across the Medway. The project is balancing the need for reliable supply chains and food security with nature restoration and healthier water supplies. Together we are:

• Providing free plans for farms to scope opportunities to make water improvements, such as implementing rainwater harvesting, using a nature-based solutions or accessing funding
• Testing, developing and showcasing best practice in water management, such as polytunnel rainwater harvesting & storage and nature-based solutions at demonstration sites across the Medway.
• Promoting a water planning tool for growers to make simple, informed decisions about rainwater harvesting, storage and use
• Developing water risk and resilience maps to identify high-priority areas for intervention using remote data and aerial photography  
• Engaging with growers through the Environmental Land Management Test and Trial to gather insights and ambitions for environmental measures and nature recovery
• Connecting with the Joined Up Landscapes initiative to identify how nature-based solutions can support climate adaptation, flood management, and biodiversity with other land uses such as food production.

Whether your business grows or sources fruit from the Medway, you have a role to play in protecting the region’s water.

You don’t have to go it alone – join the Water Roadmap to access guidance and help support this important project.

Our impact in the Medway so far

Across the Medway catchment, there’s already been strong engagement at the demonstration sites, where we’re testing and showcasing practical solutions for harvesting and storing rainwater, using new generation polytunnels, and using wetlands, floral plots and tree planting to prevent pollution from running off into waterways.  

On the banks of the River Teise, we’re working with a top fruit grower to design and deliver a new reservoir to store water over the winter coupled with reedbeds and wetlands to boost water quality and biodiversity.

We’ve also supported growers to use real-time water mapping tools like SCALGO and SCIPMAP to identify site-specific solutions, with interest continuing to grow.

Progress is only possible thanks to the support of Water Roadmap members and partners who are helping fund on-the-ground delivery and promoting sustainable water management in their supply chains.

Scaling up: action still needed

The Medway’s watercourses should be a thriving lifeline for nature, food production and local communities. Now is the time to restore it. We need more businesses that source fruit from or work in South East England to step up, champion water stewardship across their supply chains, and fund the next phase of this critical work.

By joining the Water Roadmap, your participation will drive:

1. Agriculture water resource research and planning across the South East to identify the environmental impact of high water use as well as future water needs, in collaboration with Water Resources South East
2. Project expansion into the top and stone fruit sectors by enabling higher reach, more farm visits and free water management plans
3. Continued improvements for water risk and resilience tools for growers to use
4. Further engagement with farmers and the Environmental Land Management Test and Trial schemes, ensuring growers are involved in conversations and workshops
5. A stronger dialogue through working groups and steering group meetings around carbon, water replenishment, and biodiversity net gain benefits
6. Learnings and solutions that can be implemented in other current and future Water Roadmap projects.