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鈥淚t鈥檚 depressing. It鈥檚 something we should be able to put right,鈥� says Mark Purvis, standing next to a brook feeding the Evenlode, a river in the Cotswolds area of southern England that has been plagued with water pollution in recent years. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen declines in numbers of fish, insects and weed growth in the river. And terrible turbidity [cloudiness] in summer,鈥� he says.

The Evenlode鈥檚 problems aren鈥檛 unique. England鈥檚 rivers are 鈥渁 mess鈥�, , due to a lack of funding and monitoring and what was called 鈥渁 鈥榗hemical cocktail鈥� of sewage, agricultural waste, and plastic鈥�. But between local people, the water industry, farmers and others means that the Evenlode could hold the answers to how the country can clean up its rivers.

The pressure for action is growing: on 23 January, around in Oxford against sewage discharges in nearby rivers, in the wake of flowing from a sewage works in a catchment area adjacent to the Evenlode.

Follow the brook upstream from where Purvis is standing and you get to the Milton-under-Wychwood sewage treatment works, one of 19 in the river鈥檚 catchment area that have sometimes struggled to keep up with a growing population. There were 96 occasions last year when untreated sewage spilled into the brook as the works ran out of holding capacity, for a total of 1406 hours.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very high spilling site,鈥� says Andrew Scott at Thames Water as he overlooks a concrete storm tank at the works. The site is small, old and vulnerable not just to rainfall, but also to water 鈥渋nfiltrating鈥� through the ground. Keeping up with new homes is an issue as well, says Purvis, who is a local resident. 鈥淭he failure to keep the infrastructure up to to scratch as population has grown is unforgivable,鈥� he says.

Part of Thames Water鈥檚 answer is a 拢1.7 million upgrade due to take place by 2025, which should increase the volume of water the site can process per second by a third, meaning it doesn鈥檛 need to spill. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a myriad of challenges to cleaning up a river. Definitely a large part of that is investment in assets,鈥� says Helena Soteriou at Thames Water. But investment will always be limited by how much people are willing to pay for their water bills.

The Evenlode鈥檚 problem pollutant is phosphorus, rather than nitrogen as in some other rivers. Around two-thirds of the phosphorus comes from sewage treatment works, including Milton-under-Wychwood. Another 28 per cent comes from agriculture and land use, such as cow dung and phosphate-laden soil that has washed off farms. Other sources include road run-off and private septic tanks.

Over in wheat fields at the nearby Bruern Estate, farm manager Matt Childs points to his efforts to stop that phosphorus reaching the Evenlode. Fences have been erected to keep cows and their dung away from streams where land is prone to flooding. Most of the phosphorus is locked in the soil, so a big focus is keeping that from reaching waterways around the 5-square-kilometre farm.

The corners of some fields have been designated as buffer areas for flooding, while embankments have been raised around fields to keep water in and the soil is managed to help it retain water, such as by avoiding tilling in some fields. A series of ponds have also been created in one field to filter phosphorus out of the water. The estate鈥檚 biggest water quality issue turned out to be leaking septic tanks 鈥� now replaced 鈥� rather than food production.

Water quality can be a low priority for some farmers due to how it is regulated, says Childs. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very much, for me, a personal thing to do it properly. But you鈥檙e aware if you don鈥檛, there鈥檚 not much of a downside.鈥�

Instead of blaming farmers for river pollution, critics should engage with them, he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e quite open. Come and visit farms, talk to farmers.鈥�

to replace the European Union鈥檚 payments, set to begin this year, is intended to reward farmers for 鈥減ublic goods鈥� including better water quality. However, the new regime has created uncertainty over farmers鈥� future income, which complicates their decisions about whether to invest in measures like these, says Childs.

Back in the brook by Purvis, local volunteers are pursuing another route to cleaner rivers: getting a better handle on what is actually happening. Monitoring of England鈥檚 rivers is 鈥渙utdated, underfunded and inadequate鈥�, the EAC said in its report.

While community partnerships like the Evenlode catchment area鈥檚 one have , this is a new, enhanced version with serious resourcing: 拢3 million over five years from Thames Water.

That means it can provide serious equipment, such as the 拢25,000 metal cylinder that Charlotte Henderson at the charity Earthwatch pulls out of the stream. It gauges pH levels, biological oxygen demand and faecal matter 鈥� and it will soon broadcast its measurements online in real time. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about making the invisible visible to people,鈥� says Henderson.

Whether such beefed-up partnerships can be replicated nationally or even regionally remains to be seen, but Purvis is hopeful that a cleaner Evenlode is possible. 鈥淚鈥檇 like to see this river running clear through the summer, with children playing in the river safely, dogs able to swim without getting sick and with wonderful wildlife we should see on all our Cotswold rivers.鈥�

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