About

Every year one million holiday-makers are attracted to the Isle Of Wights dramatic coastline and chalk downs. These visitors, the resident population as well as intense agriculture and horticulture are putting pressure on the islands water quality and quantity. Even though all homes have been metered since the late 1980s and average consumption is low, over a quarter of the islands consumption needs to be piped from Hampshire. Most water is abstracted from the aquifers of the central ridge and southern downs, and the greensand of the south east. Water quality problems inland, in estuaries and along the coast are caused by large numbers of domestic septic tanks, pressure on the sewage system from rural and urban areas, and fertilizer and pesticide run-off from farmland. Over 65% of the catchment is farmed and more than half of this is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Medina, Eastern Yar and smaller rivers on the island flow north into the Solent across this intensively managed chalk, greensand and clay except for the unusual chine gullies on the south west coast. Most of the rivers have been dredged and straightened for land drainage, railway lines, growing towns, or flood defence, and some have become silted-up with sandy soils washed from fields in the catchment and unstable river banks.