The world's rivers have never been under such stress. Even in the UK and Ireland, rivers are under huge pressure from human activities.

The UK Rivers Network brings people together to create a better future for rivers and inland waters in the UK and Ireland.

How this website works

It's really easy to get involved in helping your local river. Here are five simple things you can do:

Our website has been bringing you the latest UK river headlines, at least once a week, since 1999. If you use RSS (a way of automatically being notified when websites you follow are updated), why not try our new river news RSS feed. Feel free to serve news on your own website using our feed, but please would you be kind enough to make a link back to this page if you do so (it helps other people to discover us too).

Thu, 2 Jul 2009: Pollution: one hidden cost of cheap meat: Campaigner Tracy Worcester's new film Pig Business, which points the finger at industrial meat production, is causing something of a stir. One of the impacts she's drawing attention to is noxious lagoons of pollution: "A factory farm with 5,000 pigs produces about 25 tons of raw faecal waste every day. In the US and much of Europe this is disposed of in huge open lagoons or sprayed directly onto fields." Inevitably, runoff finds its way into watercourses sooner or later.

Sun, 28 Jun 2009: 25 river events happening in July!: Thanks so much to all those of you who've added river events to our new list. For July, we're currently listing 25 events, including river festivals in Stratford, Evesham, York, Maidstone, Colne Valley, Glasgow, and Cheshire. National Fishing Week starts on 24 July and runs until 2nd August. Other interesting events include the Summer Rivers Course on 25-26 July 2009 organized by The Westcountry Rivers Trust. Take a look at our page and please do add any more events you know about. It's very easy to do.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009: Pontcysyllte aqueduct is *officially* a world wonder: The marvellous 200-year-old aqueduct near Wrexham has been added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009: Going Mad in Vermont: A nice little piece in The New York Times about fly-fishing and other vacation activities in this (apparently) unspoiled quarter of Vermont.

Fri, 26 Jun 2009: Vacancy: Stepping Stones for Wildlife Project Officer: Can you make space for rare invertebrate species in south Essex by taking a lead on this exciting new project? Buglife is seeking an enthusiastic person with knowledge of habitat creation and management (closing Date: 22 July 09).

Fri, 26 Jun 2009: Climate change: time for mitigaton?: Gordon Brown marks a major shift in climate politics by proposing a fund for dealing with the effects on developing country. But what about the causes?

Thu, 25 Jun 2009: Watching sharks give birth in Cornwall: According to the Wildlife Trusts: "Snorkellers have today witnessed basking shark behaviour never before seen anywhere in the world. Up to five basking shark pups have been born to two females during a mass gathering of the world's second largest fish, off the coast of Cornwall."

Thu, 25 Jun 2009: Legal challenge to fluoride in water: A Southampton resident is judicially reviewing a decision by South Central Strategic Health Authority (SCSHA) to add fluoride to tap water in her area.

Wed, 24 Jun 2009: Air your views on the River Aire: People across West Yorkshire are being asked to have their say on how flooding risks could be managed for the next 100 years.

Wed, 24 Jun 2009: Seaton Burn gets three tonne clean up: Three tonnes of rubbish were removed from Seaton Burn in Dudley by volunteers. The cleanup day, on Friday 19 June, was organised by Living Waterways, a partnership with the Environment Agency.

Tue, 23 Jun 2009: England's most amazing wild spaces line up for a summer of family fun and adventure: Celebrate the summer holidays with Natural England's special programme of family days out on National Nature Reserves. Discover butterflies, lizards, fossils, seals and even otters. Take a picnic, learn to make a bird feeder or go on a bog safari. These are just some of the adventures on offer at as Natural England rolls out its summer programme of family days out at National Nature Reserves.

More river news...

What's new?

Here are some new things on our website and elsewhere...

• Forthcoming river events: From pond dips and canal walks to litter picks and full-on river festivals, there are dozens of river-related events coming up in the summer of 2009. Our new events page tells you all about them—and lets you add more events of your own.
• Introduction to rivers: A simple new guide to the basic features of rivers from Explain that Stuff!
• If you're concerned about dwindling fish stocks in our seas (and if not, you jolly well should be), take a look at the brilliantly helpful MCS Fish Online website. It lists fish you can eat and fish you should avoid.

Don't forget these older pages:

• We're continuing to develop our educational pages. New for 2009, we've collected together a page of climate change and global warming photos to add to our very popular pollution photos and river photos for students and researchers.
• Need to find out about water pollution? Check out our ever-popular Pollution page. Explain that Stuff! also have a good introductory article about water pollution.
• Want to get involved with local river conservation projects? Take a look at our ever-popular Network page. We've now (finally) got an interactive map of all the UK river groups we know about. The page is now in wiki-format so you can add or change details of groups yourself.