The Water Net Gain (WNG) project, funded by the Ofwat Innovation Fund, has engaged with farmers to answer a key question: Would they participate in a programme to create ponds for water resources, and if so, what would they need?
The WNG project is exploring the feasibility of a catchment-scale approach where farmers are paid to store water on their land, and how this could improve their farm’s resilience as well as the resilience of wider society and rivers. The project aims to demonstrate that cross-sector collaboration between water companies and farmers can deliver resilience benefits at catchment scale, while also generating positive outcomes for nature.
The survey was conducted between September 2025 and January 2026 to understand farms’ water resilience challenges and opportunities, and to assess farmers’ attitudes toward participating in a Water Net Gain scheme. A total of 109 responses were collected across England: 63 through in-person interviews and 46 through an online survey platform. Most respondents were distributed across four key catchment areas, with particular focus on the South-West and especially the Tamar catchment (Westcountry Rivers Trust), the Colne in Essex (Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust), the Idle (Trent Rivers Trust), and the Downholland and Dean (Mersey Rivers Trust).
The results of the survey are now online, with a full report and visual summaries for each participating local Rivers Trust and summaries targeted to the different key stakeholders:
- Willingness to Accept Study – full report
Visual summaries have been created to provide a snapshot into the results:
- Summary for the Farming community
- Summary for Rivers Trusts
- Summary for Water Companies
- Summary for Westcountry Rivers Trust
- Summary for Mersey Rivers Trust
- Summary for Trent Rivers Trust
- Summary for Essex & Suffolk Rivers Trust