We’ve all put off jobs until tomorrow that we should do today: the pile of ironing that just keeps growing, the squeaky hinge that is getting louder, the recycling bin that needs emptying but with a little pressing can just accommodate another newspaper. Imagine what state your house would be in if you put those jobs off for 40 years.

That is what the Government is doing with our rivers.

According to the Government’s own data, our rivers will not be clean and healthy until 2063. We can’t wait 40 years. We must act now.

Among the glorious rivers we have in our three counties are some of the country’s most beautiful chalk streams - including the Letcombe Brook that runs through our Letcombe Valley nature reserve (above).

These waterways are a particularly lovely type of lowland river characterised by clear water and diverse flora. When they’re healthy, they’re home to salmon, otters, water voles and kingfishers.

The reason they’re so special is that they emerge from the chalk aquifer, so the very pure water is rich in minerals and remains at a fairly constant temperature year-round. This lets diverse aquatic plants grow such as water-crowfoot and water star-wort.

How old will you be in 2063?

Sadly, like many of our native habitats, pollution, drought and over-abstraction are pushing them to the brink.

Increasing development and a growing population leads to a greater demand for water: our water companies are draining our chalk streams to satisfy our growing thirst - but our chalk streams are facing the double threat of over-abstraction and more extreme heatwaves. This leads to longer periods of drought so their water is not replenished.

Not only are flows reducing, but the water that is left is at risk of pollution. Agricultural run-off, new developments and sewage discharges all pollute our rivers.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, another threat to our rivers emerged this summer when the Government announced plans to try to scrap our valuable Nutrient Neutrality rules which protect all waterways from pollution.

This bit of law states that housing developers cannot allow any of their developments to increase the amount of certain nutrients (such as nitrates and phosphates) in nearby rivers and streams.

These nutrients can cause algal blooms in waterways that absorb large amounts of oxygen from the water and block out sunlight, killing off other plants and animals.

The Government says the current law forces developers, many of them huge companies that make hundreds of millions of pounds of profit every year, to go through an ‘unavoidably burdensome process’ of making sure that their housing estates don’t kill wildlife. We think, and many MPs agree, that developers can afford to make the changes needed.

Thankfully, on Wednesday last week, the House of Lords blocked the Government’s attempt to scrap these rules – but ministers could try again. We will remain vigilant to this threat and continue to fight it.

All this goes to show that we need to change our ways. We need to stop putting off dealing with the problems until tomorrow. We need to act today. That’s why we are campaigning for new protections for all chalk streams to make polluters pay, hold water companies to account and make sure we can rapidly repair our wonderful chalk streams.

The good news is, you can help.

You can join us in calling on the Government to create new protections for chalk streams. If you have a chalk stream in your constituency, we’ve set up a web page where you can quickly and simply send a letter to your MP asking them to back our calls.

Here are the Parliamentary constituencies in our three counties that have chalk streams in them:

Oxfordshire: Wantage and Henley.

Berkshire: Newbury, Wokingham, Reading West, Maidenhead and Reading East.

Buckinghamshire: Chesham and Amersham, Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Aylesbury and Buckingham.

Send a letter to your MP at: wtru.st/SaveChalkstreams