Rivers Wye and Usk, UK: Water Roadmap Collective Action Project

The challenges in the Wye and Usk rivers  

The River Wye and River Usk are some of the UK’s most loved waterways. Flowing through busy food-producing areas, these rivers have become vulnerable to ecological decline. They're facing multiple threats from more frequent flooding, droughts, sediment build-up, acidification, algal blooms and invasive species. Both rivers include Special Areas of Conservation, but the status of their health has been downgraded in recent years to ‘unfavourable’ and ‘unfavourable-declining’.

The causes are complex. But because these are rural catchments, land management practices, rather than heavy industry or water company discharges, are having the greatest impact.

Research shows that fields in the region have received surplus nutrients for the last 150 years from livestock manures on farms supplying us with beef, chicken, eggs, lamb, milk, pork and poultry, as well as bagged fertilisers. Many producers in the region are already working hard to tackle this, but they need more support to go further, faster.

Restoring the rivers and the land that surrounds them needs action across the food supply chain. That’s what our Collective Action Project is here to do: working with producers and food and drink businesses to return these iconic rivers back to good health.

What we’re doing to protect the Rivers Wye and Usk

In partnership with Wye & Usk Foundation, we’re restoring the rivers’ ecosystems by improving water quality and enhancing the natural habitats across the region. Together we are:

• Using nature-based solutions to tackle challenges by implementing solutions like farm wetlands that slow the flow of water and trap nutrients before they enter the rivers
• Helping food and drink businesses plan strategic interventions to engage local producers and reduce water pollution through the Recommended Key Practices, which have been developed through extensive cross-sector engagement to guide producers in implementing practices that will have the greatest beneficial impact on the rivers
• Bringing NGOs, regulators and business partners together at a dedicated Wye Agri Food Partnership Roundtable to share updates and plan activity.

Whether your business grows or sources from farms around the River Wye or River Usk, you have a role to play in protecting their water.

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

Our impact for the Rivers Wye and Usk so far

The Wye and Usk Collective Action Project is already convening sector-specific groups, such as poultry, to help producers overcome barriers to sustainable water management and explore different ways to reduce nutrient pollution from reaching the rivers.  

We’ve supported farm visits in the area to offer advice and discuss practical solutions, and through a combination of project funding, third-party grants and farmer contributions, 230 hectares of maize (that’s around 320 football pitches) was undersown in 2024, which minimises soil disturbances and nutrient runoff after crops have been harvested.    

Two wetlands have also been introduced on farms to filter nutrient runoff from fields. One has been installed on a site with high phosphorus levels, which leads to water pollution, and the other on a poultry farm to prevent manure from harming aquatic life. While the installation funding came from other sources, our project supported staff time, expertise and ongoing monitoring to understand how to learn more about how farm wetlands can support cleaner, healthier rivers.

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 Rivers Wye and Usk 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 from or work alongside these rivers 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. Expansion into new sectors such as horticulture and potatoes to reduce soil loss from more high-risk fields  
2. A stronger evidence base for nature-based solutions through research and monitoring of more farm wetlands
3. The development and launch of the Recommended Key Practices for different farming sectors in the area, encouraging the consistent use of high-impact practices to improve water management
4. Learnings and solutions that can be implemented in other current and future Water Roadmap projects.