Western Morning News (Saturday)
Water firms have shown no foresight
Previous lessons from droughts have not been learned, argues Ian Handford
WITH Covid entering our lives in 2019 and becoming a precursor to two dreadful years for humanity, now we seem threatened by drought. Drought threatens fresh water at the tap while increasing the threat of more disease as pollution through sewage and land run-off waste make its disposal more difficult. Pollution may result in disease which like Covid can then threaten life itself.
Those of us living in the Westcountry for decades have been fortunate in not having to suffer the worst consequences of drought, mainly due to Dartmoor and Exmoor being able to continually produce fresh water to cope with the growing demands of residents, visitors and our farming community. Weather experts still use the drought years of 1975-76 as a benchmark being “the drought the worst experienced in the UK for 150 years”.
But we have since witnessed enormous growth in new property with new towns at Cranbrook Exeter, Nansledan at Newquay and Sherford in the South Hams being merely symptomatic of the hundreds of thousands of new homes established across the region as every local authority struggles to meet Government housing targets.
Newly built housing and associated businesses for employment purposes, all require additional water supply and sewage facilities. Yet water officials right across Britain seem oblivious to the dangers of climate change in the short and long term scenario.
In the Westcountry we have witnessed one new reservoir in three decades at Roadford Lake, in Mid Devon. This took more than ten years to complete before opening in 1990, due to local opposition and environmentalists opposing all new reservoirs. In joining the pro-reservoir lobby in the 1980s we always knew the site’s damming of the River Wolf was a highly controversial situation. Fortunately after many of years of lobbying and campaigns the arguments were won and Roadford was built. Today it stores upwards of 34,500 megalitres of water for SW consumers as well as offering added public leisure facilities on the water and some magnificent scenic walks around its edge.
Roadford proved to be an essential part of the SWW supply and you might have imagined that lessons would have been be learned about future attitudes to “drought”. Yet recent headlines confirm that little has changed at any of the national water authorities as they have all been found “wanting” in what is called our driest summer in 50 years. Reports of sewage disposal in rivers and the sea are little more than an absolute disgrace which signifies to me that reactionary officials must never benefit financially, they should be dismissed. Surely it is time we employed people with foresight, able to be ahead of climate change, not just reacting to its agenda.
One authority has seen fit to cut back on its sewage investment by 20% during the last three decades, yet continues to reward bonuses to Directors. Presumably the “excessive dirty water” now pollutes open water of rivers and the sea. As Southern Water draw most of their clean water from aquifers and rivers we also know both of these resources are currently in “drought condition”. At Thames Water they have decided to construct a desalination plant at
Fawley while at Southern Water they are merely “investigating the possibility” of a desalination plant being established at Southampton.
As there is no competition between water companies in essence their directors operate like oligarchs and with hotter summers and less summer rain being forecast even they must appreciate this can only reduce river floes and bring longer periods of drought.
Today, hosepipe bans already threaten consumers with a £1,000 fine for using water in the garden, filling a pool or washing a vehicle etc. Strangely, history confirms noone has ever yet paid such a fine. But water companies (not directors) have suffered huge fines from the Environmental Agency for their continual leakage of sewage and also for clean water issues not being addressed seriously. Spokeswoman Alison Hoyle (Director of Risk and Compliance at Southern Water) is reported as saying “with river floes already down to 25% of normal, ....... we are now working with the Environment Agency to ensure that we act responsibly to protect our environment”.
Yet its not the environment she should be concerned about, but the lives of her consumers as any lack of fresh drinking water at the tap and water for sewers, will daily threaten lives and at best – lifestyles.
With virtually half of the UK population already under a hosepipe ban, it seems the Environment Agency is discussing similar bans in Yorkshire, Severn Trent and Thames water authorities.