South to pump water from the rainy North
BRITAIN’S water companies are working on new plans to pipe water from the mountains of Wales and the rainy North of England to densely populated regions in the South.
The plans could help to avoid expensive infrastructure investments such as building new reservoirs or desalination plants, which experts say will be needed to keep taps running in the South East. An alliance of southern water companies, including Thames Water and Southern Water, told a committee of MPS this week that it is in talks with two other regional groups to transfer supplies from the North to the South via the river Severn.
Trevor Bishop, who organises the Water Resources South East (WRSE) group, said the project is designed to tap water in the relatively wet North, but could also draw from Welsh supplies. Currently the UK trades less than 5pc of its water resources to balance supplies between neighbouring regions, according to figures from the regulator. Ofwat estimates that the industry could save almost £1bn by opening the floodgates on more trading between regions.
The plans for large-scale interregional water sharing were raised by the National Infrastructure Commission last year in a report that warned England faces a one-in-four chance that the taps will run dry within the next 30 years unless the industry creates a new national water system. The WRSE said that prolonged dry spells are reducing what water companies can abstract from them to water crops and supply homes and businesses.
The Environment Agency has agreed to grant a drought permit to Severn Trent. The FTSE 100 water company, which serves the Midlands, said it needs permission to draw extra water supplies from its reservoirs due to lower than average rainfall over the last eight months.