THE crisis of pollution in the River Wye is thankfully coming to widespread public attention.

Citizen science groups involving, anglers, rowers, conservationists and others are monitoring the water quality along the river's length and generating alarming data.

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The problem is two-fold - frequent discharges of raw sewage into the river caused by inadequate water treatment infrastructure and extremely high phosphate levels starving the water of oxygen.

Phosphates are caused largely by animal fertiliser.

The presence of 20 million intensively reared chickens in the Wye catchment seems to have contributed substantially to the problem.

As most Herefordshire residents know, the majority are raised for cheap meat in a six week growing cycle - appalling for many reasons - and the rest used for egg production.

What can we all do to force a political solution? Don't eat chicken.

Matthew Hall

Welsh Newton Common

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