Wiltshire's leading environmental organisation wants the Government to pay farmers to help them prevent local rivers and streams from being polluted.

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust argues that this would be both a common sense and cost effective measure.

Trust director Dr Gary Mantle said: "If, instead of wasting money on cleaning up rivers after they have been polluted, we spent the money upstream, paying farmers to manage their land in a way that would help rivers and wetlands perform their natural functions, the benefits for wildlife and people would be stunning.

"It's time to recognise the value of high-quality water and healthy rivers in Wiltshire and across the world."

The Trust, which sent its own briefing document to delegates attending the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development, made it clear that they were not too disappointed with the way things had gone.

Dr Mantle said: "The Johannesburg Summit hasn't gone as far as we wanted on crucial environmental issues. But we are encouraged by the commitments made on areas such as energy and water, and the environment has moved up the political agenda.

"The summit's final declaration includes a pledge to ensure access to clean drinking water. It also commits the world to reducing biodiversity loss, and to phasing out the use of toxic chemicals.

"We could address several of these issues at once by paying farmers to produce clean water and halting subsidies to the practices that pollute it."