CRY ME A RIVER: How to save the UK’s rivers

In its first King's Speech, the Labour government said that "greater devolution of decision making is at the heart of a modern dynamic economy and is a key driver of economic growth."Historically, why has the UK been so insistent on hoarding power centrally? And what's the potent ...  Show more

Ed has departed for government, and Geoff is left as custodian of the archive. As the Labour government makes its first raft of announcements and appointments, we delve into our back catalogue to find the ideas which might have influenced them. In this episode, we look at Rachel ...  Show more

"The sign of a healthy economy should be a drinkable river," these are the words of Li An Phoa, an environmental activist and our guest for this episode. In 2005, Li An Phoa canoed the full length of the Rupert, a river in Canada. All along the way, she was a ...

River health has captured the public imagination, particularly as overspills from sewers have been getting more attention in the media. But the condition of a river is so much more complicated than what flows into it from our water treatment systems. Agriculture, roads, how we us ...  Show more

In the farming community of Los Negros in rural Bolivia, the river is their life and livelihood. So when that river started to dry up, it made life very hard. They blamed the villages upstream for not looking after their precious water.This conflict could have turned ugly. But wi ...  Show more

There was public outcry when MPs voted against stricter penalties for water companies dumping raw sewage into England’s rivers. But following a U-turn, the Government has now passed a new Environment Bill it says will reduce the amount of raw sewage polluting our waterways. Bu ...