Water Care Catchment Partnership
Why is the project needed?
Water is important in Cambridgeshire, but it’s under increasing pressure with many competing demands. Issues like water supply, quality, declining biodiversity, and flood risks are concerns for both organisations and local communities near our waterways.
The Water Care Partnership is a Catchment Partnership that brings together various groups and local people to improve the water environment in the Old Bedford and Middle Level catchment area. Led by Cambridgeshire ACRE, the partnership includes organisations like the Middle Level Commissioners, Angling Trust, RSPB, and many more. Catchment partnerships are funded by the Environment Agency.
The Partnership helps address local concerns, resolve issues, and influence the strategies of large organisations like the Environment Agency and water companies. The group meets regularly and develops and delivers projects that benefit both people and wildlife. For more details, visit out the Water Care Catchment Management Plan.
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How can you get involved?
If you have an interest in the water environment and would like to learn more, meet the organisations managing it and contribute towards improving it, then please contact us (see details below).
What impact has our work had?
Some of the Partnership’s achievements include:
- Ramsey River Care (ongoing): the partnership leads the Ramsey River Care group who work to tackle litter, monitor water quality, and enhance biodiversity around Bury Brook.
- Eels in the Classroom (2022 & 2025): this project gives primary schools students the chance to care for juvenile eels, in a tank, in their classrooms, gaining first-hand knowledge about caring for them, the challenges they face, and the importance of conservation in the Fens.
- Community engagement to save water (2024): this project focused on engaging the community to save water by visiting groups and events on behalf of Anglian Water. The initiative shared messages on water conservation, climate change, and environmental issues, specifically targeting gardeners, families, and caregivers.
- Floating Pennywort Prevention (2022): a partnership project with the Middle Level Commissioners which promoted the reporting of Floating Pennywort in the Middle Level to protect navigation, reduce flood risk and protect biodiversity. Watch a short film about this project.
- Low Dissolved Oxygen in the River Delph (2019): partners worked with the Environment Agency to commission a report and then develop actions to solve this problem – increasing water quality, reducing fish kills and biodiversity decline in a SSSI site.
Testimony
In 2019 partners were asked what difference they felt the partnership had made. Some of the comments received are shown below:
“The difference that we make is positive, as we bring together interested parties, and bring together a wide range of stakeholders. This highlights that there are mutual issues and shared values.”
“We have made an important difference in helping to bring together wide-ranging stakeholders to identify and start to address key issues facing the Old Bedford catchment.”
“I think the partnership has made a difference. It has given the Ouse Washes a voice that is well heard.”
Useful links
- View a map of the Old Bedford and Middle Level Catchment area
- Read the Guide to Good Ecological Potential in Fenland Waterbodies
- Visit the Catchment Based Approach website
- Read our Catchment Management Plan
- Visit the Ramsey RiverCare Facebook page
