you see herons and dragonflies. you see lots of little fish in the shallow parts, and then, sometimes, you'll see a salmon jumping out of the water. you start to realise 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's something wrong with our rivers. what a sad sight to see. it's absolutely devastating, what we're finding up here today. look at 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 water,

it strips the river of oxygen, killing off other plant and animal life. one third of rivers in wales are now failing phosphate targets. while in some areas, it's mainly from the sewage system, in others, it's largely agriculture. the river wye is a case in point. here, more than 70% of phosphates come from rural land run—off. 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. gemma 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. all right, chooks! feeding them keeps him 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 in there, but there's always a bit of run—off. where does it go? see this trench here? yeah. down that trench there, down through the grid there. 0k. there is a manhole there. the storage tank holds about 3,000 gallons. can you see that chicken muck floating on the top of the water? in a month or six weeks, that'll want emptying again. this muck is full of phosphates,

vital for growing the crops we need. it goes by tanker, it's sucked out by tanker. actually, you go up on that dry hill up 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 are so many rules and regulations governing how farmers like them can safely use it. we're just down the valley from the prices�* farm. this is the river irfon, 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 downriver,

they're too high. and that's putting wildlife at risk. otters have thrived in parts of the wye, along with many other 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 from extinction for salmon and sea trout. gail davies—walsh 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 the 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 reached 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. powys council only started keeping records from 2018. but we've discovered the rapid growth in intensive farming started a decade earlier. since 2008, planning permission has been extended to dozens of intensive poultry farms and barn extensions every year.

today, there are now more than 300 intensive poultry farms in powys, 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 available in the manure that's there to go onto the land. they estimate that around 7,500 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 excess. you're left with a difference of about 3,000 tonnes of phosphorus that's 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 have too much phosphorus in your environment, it's likely that you're going to have worse water quality. the data shows quite clearly, there are parts of the catchment where soil phosphorus levels are already high enough, if not even a little bit too high. so those areas do not need phosphorus input at the moment. they do not need muck spreading? no, they don't need any phosphorous inputs, they don't need muck orfertiliser 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 loads 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 were swimming and jumping off a 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 got a bit scared, so we kind of stayed on paddle boards and things, 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 1,100 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 in talgarth. 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 submission for 18 months or so. unfortunately, there is the current phosphate situation affecting the river wye, special area of conservation,

which means that developments like this can't currently proceed. last year, natural resources wales tightened phosphate targets for rivers with special protection. that meant all new developments in those areas were affected. the moratorium effectively 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. we felt that it was very much a sledgehammer to crack a nut. and here we are, 20 months on, and this site is still laying fallow. what we need is for all of the public bodies to work together with the development industry to come up with a solution together. we're not really seeing that. in total, 12 councils and all three national parks in wales are affected

by the new phosphate targets. we contacted all of them, and they estimated more than 5,000 new homes are impacted and could be delayed or even abandoned. if 5,000 homes aren't built, the loss to economic activity would be in excess of £700 million. this tough new planning guidance has also been brought in over the border, where an estimated 100,000 new homes across 7a planning authorities in england are affected. and the loss to economic activity here would be more than £15 billion. and it's become a hot political topic. the royal welsh show in builth wells is a major event on farmers�* calendars.

one of the big talking points is the ban on building in rural communities. the first minister has called an emergency summit here to try and reach a solution. the need to provide homes in those communities is urgent and a priority for us. when you put all those things together, this is an issue that has rapidly gained in public attention. it deserves that proper political attention, and that's what today's seminar was designed to create. the show is over and the crowds have left. but farmers are still dealing with a raft of changes facing their industry. nfu cymru president aled jones 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's a very complex issue, there are so many other contributors to the water failing in these rivers. there's no simple answer, i'm afraid. because obviously, population growth is such that there needs to be housing developments. at the same time, those people need to be fed as well. 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 part of the uk, they've been doing just this. it 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 that benefits are already being felt on beaches like this one because of the work they're doing 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. yeah, this is keyshill farm. we'lljust go in here and meet ian, the farmer. 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 undertake some regulatory improvements. compliance in this area has risen

from 34% in 2010 to 99% now. seeing a difference in nutrient concentration in the river course isn't going to happen overnight. it's going to take a number of years 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 staffjust checking water pollution from farms. so, what about in wales? natural resources wales are the environmental regulator, but while they do inspect some farms, they don't have a full—time, fully funded team like in scotland. in charge of water quality at nrw is sian williams. we know there are problem areas

in the wye catchment. have you done what the scots are doing? so, what we've done 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 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 by a third, i think, since 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's down 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's 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're looking for — this is a culvert, or gully, right on the edge of the field. and 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 goes then 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 and to enforce regulations around muck management. but 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're monitoring better now than we have done before. so it's important that we're using our evidence, that we're using the data, and we're 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 notjust about land spreading. have we got sufficient enforcement and regulations on sewer overflows and on 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's not what's being understood at the minute. ijust think i would like to carry on and i would like to stay- here, farming here. farmers like gemma continue to try and make a living, but decisions made by policymakers will have an impact on their future. 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 farms 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—led 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 here 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 the 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 need to look 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 that 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. and 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 ourfingers. hello again. we should get to see some sunshine tomorrow with the added bonus that it's going to be very mild still. now, today we've had stronger south—westerly winds pushing in all this cloud from the atlantic that's been bringing the rain from time to time. still got some heavier rain for a while across the hills of wales and also in scotland. that wetter weather around this evening and into the first part of the night. the worst of the rain pushed away by those stronger winds by the end

of the night with more broken cloud following on behind. very mild, mind you. temperatures remaining in double figures for large parts of the country. a bit colder in northern scotland where we've still got some rain to clear away from the north east of scotland. the rain soon moves away from the south east of england and then we get to see some sunshine. there will be a few showers around — most of the showers streaming into northern ireland, pushing into southern scotland and affecting northern parts of england. and in the southwest in the afternoon, the cloud could thicken to give a little rain here. quite windy once again for england and wales. very gusty winds actually over and to the east of the pennines. but it's still very mild, when you consider that average maximum temperatures at this time of the year are around six or seven degrees. we could reach 1a degrees in southeastern parts of the uk. it'll be quite windy though i think for many areas on wednesday. the winds will ease down a bit overnight but then if we look out in the atlantic, another area of low pressure is winding itself up to bring some wet and windy weather. for many places, though,

may well start dry with some sunshine for eastern areas on thursday. clouding over from the west, a few showers, though, ahead of the main rain band. and in the northwest, the winds picking up to gale force later on in the day. vut it's still very mild on thursday, temperatures actually but it's still very mild on thursday, temperatures actually reaching ten degrees in the central belt of scotland and 13 in south wales and southern parts of england. but it will get windy, actually, overnight. after dark, around that deep area of low pressure, we could find some very strong winds coming into scotland in particular, gusts 60, maybe 70 miles an hour. as that low pressure then tends to move away, we take away the worst the winds from northern scotland on friday morning. still some showers here for a while. otherwise, some sunshine to start the day and a lot of dry weather, too, before western areas again tend to cloud over more and we start to see a little bit of rain arriving here and there. but a drier day, perhaps a little bit cooler as well on friday with temperatures typically eight or nine degrees.

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