Environment Agency has nearly halved water-use inspections in last five years

A stretch of the River Ouse running through Lewes in East Sussex. A 67% drop in inspections was found in the Kent, south London and East Sussex area. Photograph: Peter Cripps/Alamy

The Environment Agency has slashed its water-use inspections by almost a half over the past five years, it can be revealed.

Environment Agency (EA) officers visited people and businesses with licences to abstract, or take, water from rivers and aquifers 4,539 times in 2018-19, but this dropped to 2,303 inspections in 2022-23, according to data obtained by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations.