Friends of the Rib & Quin

Friends of the Rib & Quin (FORQ) is a community based organisation dedicated to improving the plight of our local chalk streams, which like the other rare and precious chalk streams across Hertfordshire and the south east of England are in crisis due to over abstraction and pollution.

Our objectives are to raise awareness of these important and rare river environments through events throughout the year, benchmark and monitor the river landscape, wildlife and biodiversity through citizen science projects and campaign, with other river groups to reduce and stop the over abstraction of the chalk aquifer which has been slowly depleting this environment for decades.

About the Chalk Aquifer Alliance

Chalk streams can be found across the East and South East of England, from Dorset, to Wiltshire and Hampshire in the south, through the Chilterns and into Lincolnshire and Yorkshire in the north.

We have 85% of the world’s chalk streams in England. These unique freshwater ecosystems are at risk from pollution and over-abstraction that are causing significant damage to this precious
habitat.

Many of the chalk streams in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and south-east England do not even have enough water flow to function properly. Over-abstraction from the groundwater is the main reason. Too much water is pumped out of the chalk for our domestic supplies and in some areas for agriculture to the detriment of the health of the rivers.

Numerous river groups are collaborating to bring about a change as they feel that the Chalk aquifer systems are being over exploited in favour of public water supply.