Water quality in Scotland’s rivers is good and getting better but a lot remains to be done to protect rivers as a whole, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Speaking at a seminar organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature today, Martin Marsden of SEPA pointed out that SEPA classifies over 4,000 km of rivers in Scotland as polluted. Sewage effluent and the agricultural sector are the most important sources of pollution, affecting 34% and 26% of rivers. SEPA says it will achieve a 20% reduction in the overall length of poor and seriously polluted rivers by the end of 2000 and will aim to increase this to a 45% reduction by the end of 2005.

Drawing for the recently published SEPA report "Improving Scotland’s Water Environment", Mr Marsden also emphasised the constraints which limit the extent to which SEPA can protect and improve Scotland’s water environment, including

· the need for increased financial provision for the treatment of sewage. This, says the SEPA report, is essential to improve water quality in Scotland and is dependant upon the level of charges which Scotland’s three Water Authorities can raise to invest in environmental improvements.

· on diffuse sources of pollution from the agricultural sector, SEPA firmly believes that reductions will only come about through further reform to the Common Agricultural Policy. It says that bad environmental practice should be reflected in reduced EC direct payments but farmers should be rewarded for delivering services that produce the environmental improvements.

· the SEPA report calls for regulation of water abstraction, stating that existing powers are inadequate to protect Scotland’s water courses. SEPA considers that a system of abstraction licensing should be introduced to allow specific management of the country’s water resources for the long term benefit of all users.

· SEPA says there are deficiencies in the protection of water habitats in Scotland, and there have been many examples of unnecessary damage to river habitats, for instance by river engineering for flood protection schemes or farm drainage. Together with a number of agencies, SEPA is currently promoting best practice in the management of the countryside.

Copies of the SEPA report are available from SEPA Public Relationsor on the SEPA website.