Clean and plentiful water

Figure 4 shows the proportion of indicator components for which ‘Clean and plentiful water’ is the primary goal that have been assigned to each assessment category, with the exact number of indicator components shown as a label on the bars.

The 7 indicator components recorded under B1 (Pollution loads entering waters) have not been assessed as further development is required to present statistical trends for the selected contaminants. The 6 indicator components recorded under B3 (State of the water environment) were not assessed as results are not presented as a time series. The 2 indicator components recorded under B5 (Water bodies achieving sustainable abstraction criteria) could not be assessed as the time series was not yet sufficient. B6 (Natural functions of water and wetland ecosystems) is still in development.

Of the remaining 4 indicator components, 3 showed an improvement over the short term and one showed a deterioration (principal salmon rivers at risk in England). Note that the assessment of ‘improvement’ for B7b Classification of fish in English rivers does not include more recent years where a new method was adopted; these new data will be assessed once a sufficient time series has been built up. The short-term time period covered the most recent 5 years for which an assessment can be made (2009 to 2014, 2014 to 2019 or 2015 to 2020).