Frogs; newts; small fish such as minnows and sticklebacks; dragonflies; water boatmen and water snails: these are just a few of the hundreds of animal species that make their homes in Britain’s ponds alongside diverse wetland plants, some of which are endangered. Yet while small bodies of water are cherished by hobbyists as well as scientists, they have startlingly few protections – even at a time when the polluted state of rivers, lakes and coastlines is a key focus of environmentalists.

With a clean water bill expected soon, this official neglect of ponds should soon be consigned to the past. While rewilding projects have overseen the rediscovery of older “ghost ponds” as well as the creation of new, and householders are encouraged to create miniature ones in their gardens, charities including the specialist Freshwater Habitats Trust point to the growing body of international research that testifies to their ecological importance. In 1996 the first-ever national survey estimated that there were 228,900 ponds in Britain. Thirty years on would be an apt moment to grant them enhanced status.

The decline of ponds is part of a wider story of damage to the UK’s waterways by a combination of intensive agriculture, building development, pollution and the failure to manage it. One local study in Leicestershire has found an average 1% species loss every year for 15 years. But unlike rivers, many of which disappeared underground when they were culverted by the Victorians, around two-thirds of ancient ponds in England and Wales have vanished altogether either through drainage or infilling for farmland. When horses were replaced by tractors, it was wrongly thought that these pools had served their purpose.