A partnership of key organisations formed in 1998 by the Mersey Rivers Trust is improving the water environment of the Quays at the head of the Manchester Ship Canal.

To increase oxygen levels in the waters of the Manchester Ship Canal’s turning basin near Media City, air is being pumped deep into the water. It allows the fish and many aquatic species to breathe in these waters where, without aeration, they would not survive. There is a lack of the vital oxygen as a result of decades of pollution.The aeration, which began in 2012 as a trial for the ship canal, follows on from over ten years of pumping liquid oxygen into the water.

Link: The Manchester Ship Canal and Salford Quays

The decade of oxygenation brought back aquatic life so much that life in the water began to sustain itself without needing pure oxygen. But without the aeration, conditions would now revert back to days before oxygenation.

The aeration will be needed for a few more years yet and for the system to be applied to the rest of the ship canal.