How hopes of an end to drought went down the plughole
IN 1973, the Water Resources Board published its report on water resources in England and Wales, a report criticised at the time as having greatly inflated the predicted rise in demand. The strategies for satisfying demand were valid, what was arguable was the speed of implementation necessary to develop the new resources. The plan suggested a national water grid, including a huge new reservoir in Northumberland — Kielder Water. The case made at the public inquiry highlighted the need to build this storage as the first stage of the national grid. It was built following compulsory purchase and the drowning of a village. The objective was to supply Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside in the first instance and then to build a tunnel connection to the Swale to supply the Yorkshire region as well as South into East Anglia. The 1974 Water Act created ten water authorities and catchment control. To bring water across catchment boundaries would result in water quality and reliability of supply being outside the control of the receiving authority. Due to slower than predicted development of water demand and progressive squeezing of funds from the government due to cuts and recession, the Swale transfer was not implemented by the time of water privatisation. Although the National Rivers Authority published a report in 1994 recommending implementation of the transfer of water to the River Swale and the development of a national grid, the proposal was against government policy which was to create more competition through privatisation. In 1989, this resulted in the formation of water companies and the dismantling of total catchment control to be replaced by a watchdog (Ofwat), and the National Rivers Authority (NRA) to control the new private supply companies. As a result, each of these water companies was even less willing to accept water from another company whose activities were outside its control. Government proceeded to write off in the region of £5 billion of water authority debt in order to make the authorities attractive to prospective purchasers. Kielder made Northumbrian Water a particularly attractive candidate for takeover, though this massive water resource should have been available for Yorkshire and East Anglia. Yorkshire Water Company faced the result of this mishandling in 1995 when water had to be tankered from the Tees to Swale. This would have been entirely unnecessary had the tunnel link been built as planned in 1974. Now, in 2012, the threat of drought across the eastern part of the country is causing the Government to consider ways of forcing co-operation between water companies, but too late to prevent great inconvenience to the customer in this Jubilee year. As one of the wettest nations in Europe, when will we learn the lesson and implement proper water management? JOHN PETERS, Chief Biologist of Water Resources Board and Head of the Water
Quality Division of the Department of Environment Central Water Planning Unit
1974-79), Kingsbridge, Devon.