The government is already on course to miss its legally binding target of restoring 77% of England’s waters to good ecological status by 2027 – a goal the environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, has warned will be missed by a “considerable margin”.

It’s now investigating both the government and the Environment Agency over possible rule breaches.

Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said the figures “underline the need for wholesale change across the water sector”.

She pointed to new laws the government has introduced to hold water companies to account and record investment. “We will drive forward a system that puts the public interest first,” she said.

Much of the debate about the state of England’s waters has centred on water companies and the sewage they release into rivers.

But campaigners and scientists also point to agriculture as an equally large source of pollution – one that attracts far less public attention.

Erica Popplewell, of the campaign group River Action, said some farming, particularly intensive poultry units – vast sheds housing hundreds of thousands of birds – were a growing threat to rivers such as the Wye and Severn.

“There’s a lot of poo that comes out of the chickens,” she said. “If it goes straight into a river, it causes eutrophication. The whole ecology of the river is damaged, and the river is dying.” She called on the government to tackle sewage and farming “with the same urgency”.

The National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales has been approached for comment.

Other types of pollution affecting England’s bodies of water, the Environment Agency pointed to, include petrol, garden pesticides and contaminated water running off roads picking up microplastics.