Rivers are integral to human society. The earliest towns and cities were built on riverbanks, including Colchester, Britain’s first recorded city. Essex is home to many rivers, with some of our key waterways being the rivers Blackwater, Colne and Stour in North Essex, and the Thames, Crouch, and the Roding in the South.

In the UK, we have over 200,000km of waterways weaving through our landscapes. This has provided trade routes, power to drive mills, sanitation, and drinking water.

Railways and roads have long since become the dominant route of trade, and many mills have shut down, yet our reliance on freshwater rivers is ever growing. Between 1960 and 2014, global domestic water use increased by 600%. In Essex, the average household uses 140 litres of water every day.

Rivers are fundamental to our everyday lives and they play a similarly key role in our ecosystems. They drain the land, moving water from source to sea, and they transport and cycle nutrients as they go.

Rivers flow through our cultures just as they do our landscapes. In almost every recorded century, rivers and their landscapes have supplied an endless source of inspiration for artists and poets, as have river wildlife. 

Rivers are fed by their catchments and they can rise from natural springs underground or hill peaks. No two sections of river are the same, and within a river there can be huge habitat diversity. A fallen willow branch or a boulder can become a hotspot for biodiversity, creating slower currents and sheltered spots. Fish will take refuge in these areas, and some, such as Atlantic Salmon, undertake vast migrations from the open seas to spawn in shallow, gravelly waters. The gentle pace of wide lowland rivers attracts graceful swans, and the fast-flowing rockier habitats of upland waterways entice dippers to hunt from boulder to boulder.

Predators such as kingfisher and little egret feed on fish species in the water, such as minnow and dace. Swallows skim the water surface, hunting on the insects that gather near or even on the surface. Those with keen eyes and good luck might even catch a glimpse of an otter, a species whose Essex population has recovered dramatically in the last 40 years.

Healthy rivers are few and far between, with 0% of UK rivers meeting ‘good chemical status’ and 14% meeting ‘good ecological status’. Rivers face multiple pressures, such as agricultural and sewage pollution, in-channel barriers, and over-abstraction.

Helping to protect and restore our rivers requires a catchment-wide approach, working in collaboration with other organisations in the county to limit pollution inputs, restore river ecosystems, and raise awareness about the issues our waterways face.

Do you want to help protect and restore Essex rivers? Become a River Champion for the opportunity to help rivers, to encourage community action, or to take part in citizen science projects. 

Become a River Champion