Pollution, climate change are hitting Dutch fresh water nature

The quality of the Netherlands’ lakes, rivers and marshland is deteriorating again after decades of improvement, and that is hurting plants, fish and other wildlife, according to the Dutch arm of the World Wildlife Fund.

The latest edition of the Living Planet Report Nederland, published every two years, says that Dutch fresh water areas had been doing better, thanks to improvements in water quality and tougher pollution controls, news website Nu.nl reported.

This had allowed the otter and beaver to flourish, and boosted the presence of marshland birds such as the bluethroat. But that trend has now changed, the organisation says.

Researchers studied population trends in 176 different species which live in fresh water areas. They found a 60% improvement between 1990 and 2025, as new restrictions reduced chemical and waste dumping. By contrast, on land populations fell by some 30% over the same period.

However, most of the gains were made up to 2010, the researchers say. The current reversal is down to a loss of natural river bank habitats, changes in water levels and pesticide run-off in agricultural areas.

In addition, the researchers warn that medicine residue, PFAS and climate change are a “continual and growing threat”, and that native species are being eased out by invasive flora and fauna from other places, such as the American crayfish, which have few predators.

Next year the Netherlands is supposed to conform to European water quality rules and experts say the Netherlands is unlikely to make the deadline.

The WWF and other experts are calling on the Netherlands to develop a comprehensive and integrated package of measures to improve water quality.

“If you give nature the space, it will come back,” said WWF-NL director Jelle de Jong, in the report’s introduction. “Look at the sea eagle, otter and beaver. Dutch nature is resilient. But if we want fresh water nature to do well, we really have to get to work on it.”