With you on the River Rich, but the problems of the Sow are long standing I am afraid.
Stafford stands on a marsh and its history is one of a battle against flooding. Of course the town grew up because it was a strategic crossing point of the Sow.
After the chronic floods in the 1946 (If memory serves me right
) the attempts to tame the river were pepped up, the latest ones coming after the floods of winter 2000.
We have ended up with the weed strewn stream we have now, through flood prevention, increased water abstraction for agricultural purposes, and the draining of marshes upsteam. Natural weirs, and artificial ones have been removed, and this has lead to a significant reduction in the volume and depth of the river.
Now whether the flood relief work has been a success is a moot point, but I assume it is totally irreversable.
The water quality of the Sow still looks good to me, judging by the amount of life in it, and while I would love to see it deeper, less weedy, and capable of being used for water sports, I don't think it will happen. Every summer they have to send street scene operatives in with chest waders and strimmers to cut the weed, otherwise it would completely cover over, and so add to the flooding potential!!!!
An indication of the way the Sow has changed can be judged by the fact that its main tributary, the Penk, now looks like the main river, and seems to me to have retained its flow much better.
Staffordians have messed around with its river for centuries, helped by the expert advice of outsiders, always no doubt thinking they have been improving it. Whether it is less likely to flood I can not judge, but I do know it is far less attractive, and far a less useful resource.
But apparently now we have the River Walk the Sow is being bigged up, and hailed as Stafford's best kept secret. (I'm shaking my head vigorously) Some of us have been aware of it for years, walked along it, fished it, boated on it, swum in it, accidently swallowed it (3 days of leaking excessivley at both ends!) cleared litter from it, and planted new trees along it, we know its worth and what we have lost!