this is bbc news. the headlines: russia has again targeted ukraine's energy infrastructure in a wave of missile strikes across the country — including the capital kyiv. the mayor says four out of five people have been without running water. ukraine says russia fired at least 50 missiles but it was able to shoot most of them down. lorry drivers in brazil who support the outgoing president, jair bolsonaro, have escalated their protests against his election defeat to luiz inacio lula da silva. they're blocking roads throughout the country and videos show some calling for a military coup to prevent lula being inaugurated injanuary. police in india have arrested nine people in connection with the collapse of a bridge in gujarat which resulted in the deaths of at least 140 people. they said those arrested

included employees of a private company involved in the maintenance and management of the bridge. now, bbc wales investigates: what's killing our rivers? you see herons and dragonflies. you see lots of little shellfish in the shallow parts. sometimes you will see a salmon jumping out of the water. you start to realise that how many people don't have stuff like this, particularly in lockdown, when we were very grateful to have it. these school friends have made the most of a record—breaking summer. like thousands of others. but there is something

wrong with our rivers. a sad sight to see. it's absolutely devastating what with finding out here today. in the water, look at this. just look at it. this is algae. it's taking over our rivers and waterways. and when human and animal waste gets into a river not only is it bad for our health it is also full of nutrients like phosphate which act as a kind of super food for the algae. and as algae gets into the river, it strips the river of oxygen, killing off other plant and animal life. one third of rivers

in wales are now failing phosphate targets. the river wye is a case in point. here more than 70% of phosphates come from rural land runoff. as our demand for cheap food has grown, farming production has intensified. and that has led to a growing mountain of muck. i'mjemma price, i'm 22 and i have lived on this farm all my life. me and my sisters would always help with the jobs, even when we were younger, we would always be amongst it. it's always been something that i knew that i would want to do, which is why i'm still here now and i'm wanting to carry on the farm.

jemma works on herfamily farm next to one of the rivers that feeds into the wye, along with her dad they raise cows, sheep and chickens. feeding them keeps gwen busy as does dealing with a mountain of manure. that muck is gathered underneath this barn. so what happens to it then? some of the manure is collected and they are but there's always a bit of runoff. where does it is a go? see the trench there? down that trench there, down through the grid there. there is a manhole there. it holds about 3000 gallons. you see that muck floating on the top of the water? in a month or six weeks, that'll run in. this muck is full of phosphates, vital for growing the crops we need. it goes by tanker, but it's

sucked up by tanker. actually, you go up on that dry hill there, it's dry, it is dry as a cork, there's no land drains, there's no nothing and we have the right, we have a licence to spread there. the prices can't see how muck could be getting into our rivers when there's so many rules and regulations governing how farmers like them can safely use it. we are just down the valley from the price's farm. which runs eventually into the river wye itself. we tested the water here for phosphates, and as expected, phosphate levels are very low. but further down river, they are too high. and that's putting wildlife at risk.

0tters have thrived in parts of the wye, along with other many rare species. it's one of the most protected rivers in britain because of this rich wildlife. all of our rivers in wales are now at risk of extinction from salmon and sea trout. gail has over 20 years experience in the water industry. she says that farming and sewage are having a combined affect. it's much more than that direct species and habitats within the river. so our river is the source of drinking water, it's used by farmers as crop irrigation, it's used to feed cattle. we've just reach a point where rivers cannot cope any more with how they are being used and what we are putting into them. 0ur agricultural land

use has changed. poultry units just did not exist at the top of that catchment 15 years ago. what we've seen is a huge burst of poultry units in a very short amount of time, which has saturated that landscape. there are startling figures on the number of intensive poultry farms that have sprung up. council only started keeping records from 2018. but we discovered the rapid growth in intensive farming started a decade earlier. since 2008, planning has been extended to dozens of poultry farmers and barn extensions every year. today, there are now more than 300 intensive poultry farms with the capacity for 9.6 million chickens.

many believe this rapid expansion is causing pollution in the wye. but with poor water quality monitoring across the uk, there is currently no evidence of a direct link. hi, how we doing? scientists here approach the problem from a different angle, looking at how much muck is being produced in the wye catchment. where you have these high areas of intensive livestock production, you end up with too much phosphorus are available in the manure there to go on to the land. they estimate that around seven and a half thousand tonnes of phosphorus gets into the soil around the river wye every year. much of that by spreading muck from poultry farms.

but only some of that is absorbed by crops. the rest is extra. you're left with a difference of about 3000 tonnes of phosphorus that is above the crop requirement of what we would call a surplus. which is nationally very high, it's about 60% greater than the national average. fundamentally, if you have a surplus, you are too much phosphorus in your environment, it is likely that you are going to have worse water quality. the data shows quite clearly, there are parts of the catchment where soil phosphorus levels are very high, if not a little bit too high. so those areas do not need phosphorus at the moment. they do not need muck spreading? no, they don't need muck or fertiliser or any phosphorus input. scientists here are clear, to start fixing the problem muck spreading should be stopped completely in some

parts of the wye. there's a lot of algae. ew, you don't have to go in, it's all slimy. for those who get out on the river regularly, the current state of the wye is having a real impact. ew. we like swimming and jumping offa rock and stuff when everything looked 0k. i think about a year- and a half, maybe two years ago, the whole river went . green in the water. then one of their friends became ill. we all get a bit scared so we kind of stayed on paddle boards rather than going in and accidentally consuming the water. as well as driving people out of the water, pollution from animal and human waste is having a wider impact.

we estimate that we've got around 1100 houses that are held up in the planning system currently. housing at this site has been put on hold. the plans that have been prepared for this site show 25 affordable homes. we've got quite a lot of people on the housing waiting list here. barry davis helps developers and housing associations to build new homes. so this is a brownfield site? what is holding this development back right now?

the planning application is ready for submission and it has been ready for 18 months or so. unfortunately, there is the current phosphate situation affecting the river wye, special area of conservation, which means developments like this can't currently proceed. last year phosphate was tighetened for special protection for that that meant all new developments in that area were affected. the moratorium affectively came in overnight with little or no consultation with the development industry. which we found to be very frustrating, particularly given that the amount of phosphate that new development contributes to this phosphate issue is relatively low and we felt that it was very much a sledge hammer to crack a nut. and here we are 20 months on end this site

is still laying furloughed. what we need is for all of the public bodies to work to gather with the development industry to come up with a solution together. the show is over and the crowds have left. but farmers are still dealing with a raft of changes facing their industry. and president alexjones wants more proof that farming is causing pollution before asking his members to invest in costly solutions. i feel it is part of the problem. it is very complex issue, there is so many other contributors to the water failing in these rivers. there is no simple answer, i'm afraid. because obviously population growth is such that there needs to be housing development. at the same time, those people need to be fed as well and we need to go with the evidence. and when that evidence is clarified clearly, then we will respond. it certainly seems to be on the agenda but could authorities work more closely to find answers? in another parts of the uk, they've been doing just this. you can of course take years to completely turn around a polluted river. but here on the west coast of scotland, locals and scottish environment officials say the benefits are already being felt on beaches like this one because of the work to do with farmers on the river eyre. ian watson is one of three brothers who all have dairy farms in this part of ayrshire.

water runs off this farm straight into streams that feed the nearby river. but unlike most farmers in wales, he is regularly inspected by officials, checking how he stores and spreads his slurry. this is my farm. we willjust go in here. these inspectors are from sepa, the scottish equivalent of natural resources wales. they started noticing problems with phosphates in their rivers as far back as 200a. farmers always say they want to be compliant and comply with rules and regulations. it's only when you show them where they're not compliant, will they take some regulatory improvements. compliance in this area has risen from 34% in 2010 to 99% 110w. seeing a difference in nutrient concentration on the river course isn't going to happen overnight. it's going to take a number of years for

for improvements in reductions in nitrate and phosphate levels, but it can be done. but it's something that probably has to be started sooner rather than later. scotland's environmental regulator spends £900,000 a year on a dedicated team of 12 inspectors and support staff, just checking water pollution from farms. so what about in wales? natural resources wales of the environmental regulator, but while they do inspect some farms, they don't have a full—time, fully—funded team like in scotland. speaks welsh. in charge of water quality at nrw is shan williams. we know there are problem areas in the wye catchment. have you done what the scots are doing? so what we've done is a lot is targeting different kinds of farms, so we had a dairy project that we ran for a couple of years, which we're now

looking at how we can evolve that dairy project into looking at different catchments and looking more around nutrients and phosphates as well. it's key having people on the ground to deliver it is so important. and as i said, that's why we are looking into notjust external—funded programmes that are temporary, but we're also looking at our baseline funding with welsh government. your budgets have gone down about, by a third, i think, since its inception. does it sometimes come down to resources? we would like to do more. we will do more. we can work with others as well. the welsh government has been phasing in new laws to tackle water pollution from farms, and is currently talking to nrw about resources. nrw told us they have yet to receive any funding to enforce those new rules. this is a simple

solution around investment and funding into that. scottish government have invested in that and we need to look at how we can achieve that in wales. we can put in as much change in policy and legislation as we like. it is only as good as the strength of our regulation and enforcement against that policy. if there is little enforcement of the new regulations in wales, it would stand to farmers to follow the rules as best they can. this chicken farm rears birds for their meat. this year it was granted permission to double its capacity to 180,000 broiler chickens. once that new shed is built, this farm's muck will be taken off—site to an anaerobic digester.

he is following the rules. that digester is licensed to take animal waste from farms, and after producing energy, it sends the phosphate—rich leftovers to be spread on the land. we've followed some of that waste product. it's being spread on this field. but as we were filming, we noticed that, on this occasion, muck appears to have been spread here, around two metres from the water in this culvert. legally, this gap should be at least six metres. i took a walk in the field a few months later. it's been a bumper summer. crops have been planted, harvested and taken away already. and over there is the culvert that runs down the edge of the field, and it finishes just over here.

and this is what we are looking for. this is a culvert or gully right on the edge of the field. this is where we saw, apparently, muck being spread far too close of the edge of the field to the culvert itself. and the concern is that whatever is in the culvert, water and muck and goes down here into the riverjust there, and then three miles downriver to the big old river wye itself. so who was responsible for the questionable spreading? we asked the digester company but they didn't respond. the farmer whose land it is didn't want to comment. we followed muck to just one farm and found that rules appeared to be broken. the question is, could this also be happening elsewhere? who is actually responsible for inspecting this? powys council says it isn't

them, unless there's been a breach of planning conditions. and it's actually nrw�*s job to check in and to enforce regulations around muck management. when it comes to muck spreading itself, they've told us they don't proactively check how it's done. if you're not inspecting the actual spreading of muck, isn't that an obvious loophole in the system? well, as i said, it's about how we can be better at doing a lot of this stuff, so, you know, monitoring will pick up issues in catchments. we are monitoring better now than we have done before. so it's important that we're using our evidence, using the data, and responding to that and targeting our visits in the right places. but even if monitoring finally improves, is that enough? we have failure on lots of different parts of the system at the minute. it's not just about land spreading, have we got

sufficient enforcement and regulations on sewer overflows and waste water treatment work discharges? it's a huge cumulative impact to the river wye and i think all of our rivers. and perhaps that is not what's being understood at the minute. ijust think, i would like to carry on and i would like to stay farming here. farmers like gemma continue to try and make a living. but decisions made by policymakers will have an impact on theirfuture. and at the moment, the messages are mixed. you can't go far without being not very far from a chicken shed. if they stopped giving planning permission for chicken farmers in this area, if they supposedly thought we were the main contributors, i think it would have an impact on the families around here who are wanting to diversify, who are wanting to make more money, and it's slightly unfair.

the labour—lead welsh government has made much of its plan for a greener wales. but amid all the targets and regulations, is there an effective plan to support farmers and to protect our rivers? we know we had an issue around too many poultry farms, for instance, being put in the same place. so we need to work with our local authorities... do you agree there are too many poultry farms in hree for wye? we saw certainly in the powys area, in the previous administration there, we saw a lot of planning permissions allowed. but that — it was your government that gave the grants for those poultry farms. but what i'm saying is, you've got to make sure that the local authority needs to know the cumulative impact of all these poultry farms. so you blame local authority? no, i'm not! i'm not trying to blame anybody. what i'm saying is, it's about working together to make sure that, where you can get, perhaps, quicker wins, i see that

obviously it's a long—term issue, but we look for for quick gains too. nrw, which oversees much of this, has had its funding consistently cut. if nobody�*s policing things like muck spreading, are you prepared to tell farmers that they can't spread muck on their land because there's too much phosphate in the river already? well, we have to look at the regulations. we have to look at the individualfarmers, and one of the things we are bringing forward in relation to delaying the one regulation, is a licensing scheme. now if a farmer wants to apply for a licensing scheme and we think it's not pertinent for that farm, we can do that. but that's from here going forward. a lot of this is legacy phosphorus. that is part of the problem. we are where we are now. and if that's part of it, obviously we can look at it. do you take responsibility for what's happening to our rivers? well, of course i'm part of the solution, just as other people are. we all have to take responsibility, each and every one of us. the scale of the problem is daunting. there is a sewage as well as a slurry problem to fix. so is there still time for the wye and other iconic welsh rivers to be saved?

yes, it is salvageable, but it is going to take a huge amount of working together, and it's going to require all of those sectors to play their part in this. what we see at the moment is actually quite a lot of delays in that happening. and we cannot wait any longer. quite simply, if it carries on as it is now, that river ecosystem will just collapse. gemma hopes to be the next generation of her family to make a living from the land. and the friends hope that they, once again, will be able to get out on the water. the pace of modern life is killing our rivers. the situation is retrievable, but the longer we leave it, the more likely it is to slip through our fingers.

hello. well, 0ctober has finished on the same note that much of the month has continued on, a very mild one. but things will change through the rest of this week. notice how the warmer orange colours start to disappear on our temperature chart. the whites, and then the blues indicate temperatures at, if not below average, the first time we have seen that in a while, as we go towards the end of the week. so, that gradual trend turns to things turning cooler, but with it still some further spells of rain and also much windier at times. a windy night will take us into the first day of november across the english channel coasts, that is on the southern edge of that area of low pressure, which is easing away,

with it the heavy overnight rain to start the day. still a bit wet across parts of scotland, north eastern england, a few showers in the south and west, and it will be a case of morning changing skies across england and wales as some brighter moments are punctuated by occasional showers. and then the showers become more frequent, heavy and thundery across southernmost counties and into the midlands and wales later on. brightening up across much of scotland through the day, southern scotland, northern england and actually northern ireland after some morning rain, nota bad afternoon, plenty of sunshine around. the winds easing here, but strong to gale force winds continue across the south, making it a cooler day than we have seen, but still with temperatures a degree or two above where we should be for the first stage in november. then into tuesday night, showers quite widely to begin with, easing temporarily in the west, only ahead of this approaching area of more persistent rain into northern ireland by dawn. because we will see those clearing skies, light winds for a time, but it will be a cooler start on wednesday morning, a bright start for many, but this developing area of low pressure could bring a bit of travel disruption through the day across some northern and western areas.

the day starts off fine for much of scotland, england, eastern wales, but cloud, outbreaks of rain will gradually push their way eastwards, heavy at times, some squally winds with it, maybe some parts of eastern england will stay dry for longest, but in the west, even if it does brighten up, we could see some potentially disruptive winds, as winds widely gale force could hit 60, 70 miles an hour, those strong winds transferring across scotland through wednesday night and into thursday morning. winds ease a little bit on thursday but after a spell of rain for most, they could linger through much of the day towards east anglia and the south—east. sunshine and showers elsewhere, temperatures by this stage back to where we would probably normally expect for this stage in november. they will hold at those levels, around ten to 1a degrees, through friday and the weekend. friday looking bright and more rain returns on saturday.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm lucy grey. our top stories: . ukrainian rockets attack russian positions as moscow targets more of the country's infrastructure. we have a special report from the frontline. look at it, desolation. this is what months of attritional warfare does to a town. still no concession. jair bolsonaro keeps a low profile after his defeat in brazil's presidential election. police in india arrest nine people in connection with the collapse of a bridge in gujarat in which at least 140 people died. and as the us midterm elections get ever closer, we'll be assessing the current political mood.