England’s Rivers Risk Running Dry

A quarter of England’s rivers are at risk of running dry, with devastating consequences for wildlife, according to data obtained by WWF under freedom of information rules. Fish are most obviously affected when rivers slow to a trickle, particularly those that migrate upstream such as salmon, trout, eels and lampreys, the Guardian reported.  Rules governing how much water can be taken from rivers have not been updated for more than half a century and take no account of the water needed to sustain the ecological health of rivers. The driest October-to-March period for 20 years this year was followed by an extremely dry April and below average rainfall in May, and has left much of Britain with low river and groundwater levels and facing the possibility of drought. England hosts most of the world’s chalk streams, but these are particularly vulnerable and 50% of them are now at risk of drying up.