Only a small fraction of England's surface waters have achieved high environmental standards.
Just 14.3% have reached good ecological status, according to the latest Water Environment Regulations classifications which cover 4658 water bodies, including rivers, lakes, and estuaries.
The Environment Agency said that 14.3%of surface waters met the benchmark for good ecological status, with only 0.1% reaching the highest standard.
Meanwhile, 65.4% were judged moderate, 17% poor, and 3.1% bad.
Alan Lovell, chair of the Environment Agency, said: "The results show that too many water bodies are still not achieving the standards we want to see.
"We share the public’s ambition for faster progress, which is why we are transforming our enforcement work with better data, stronger powers, and our largest ever enforcement workforce."
The Environment Agency is planning to boost annual farm inspections from around 4000 to 6000 over the next three years to step up compliance monitoring.
Some water bodies failed the good status threshold due to just one element under the assessment system’s 'one-out, all-out' rule.
For example, the River Foss was judged moderate overall despite meeting good standards except for phosphate levels.
82% of individual ecological indicators were rated good or high.
However, all surface waters failed to achieve chemical status mainly due to legacy pollutants that persist in the environment.
Groundwater quality showed improvement, with 41% achieving good status compared to 37 % in 2019.
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