Ten years to cure 'water crisis' (1 Viewer)

Ten years to cure 'water crisis'

The plan advocates allowances for water use and metering
Britain's water systems are in crisis and the government has a decade to put things right, according to a coalition of conservation and angling groups.

They are setting out a 10-point plan to make UK water systems sustainable, including fair pricing, slashing waste and upgrading sewerage facilities.

People should have personal allowances and homes should be metered, they say.

EU regulations require member nations to have plans for restoring natural watercourses in place by 2009.

The European Water Framework Directive prescribes that the ecology of rivers, lakes and wetlands should be restored by 2015.

For too long, we've taken water for granted

Fiona Reynolds, National Trust
"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity," the coalition's report announces.

"With the Blueprint for Water we, a coalition of leading environmental organisations representing some six million people, are calling on the government to act now."

Going with the flow

It is perhaps unusual to find conservation groups such as the Wildlife Trusts, WWF and the RSPB in league with angling associations.

But on water, they find common arguments, namely that Britain should:

waste less water
keep rivers flowing and wetlands wet by barring damaging abstraction
price water fairly
stop pollutants entering watercourses and make polluters pay
upgrade sewerage and drainage systems to avoid fouling of human population centres and sensitive ecological areas
support water-friendly farming
restore and maintain rivers, wetlands and floodplains

"It's clear that adequate supplies of clean water are essential, not only for our lives but for the health of the habitats, species, landscapes and soils we depend on," said Fiona Reynolds, Director-General of the National Trust.

Calculate your consumption

"For too long, we've taken water for granted - we hope the Blueprint will mark the beginning of a concerted effort to put this right."

While advocating better management of natural watercourses is standard fare for conservation groups, they step outside their conventional boundaries in advocating fair pricing and metering.

Within two years, their report says, the government should publish a plan for metering every home. The meters should actually be installed throughout England at least by 2020.

It wants the government to set a consumption ceiling of 125 litres per person per day in most areas, and 100 litres in areas of scarcity.

By comparison, a bath uses about 80 litres, flushing the toilet about 5-10 litres, and a hosepipe 500 litres per hour.

The coalition will present its report to environment minister Ian Pearson in Parliament on Tuesday.

Blair warns homeowners to cut water consumption

Blair warns homeowners to cut water consumption

By Andy McSmith, The Independent

Published: 28 November 2006

British homes are using too much water, Tony Blair and the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, have warned. As climate change hits the UK, people will either have to adjust their habits or face severe and expensive restrictions on how much water they consume.

The average British home uses 150 litres of water per person per day, while the Germans, Belgians and Dutch - with similar living standards and climate - manage on 130 litres each or less. Mr Blair and Mr Brown want Britons to bring their water consumption down to European levels, and they warn that the Government may resort to "metering, price structures and demand management programmes" to ensure it happens.

They want householders to think twice before they turn on the tap or flush the lavatory, as the combination of rising demand and decreasing rainfall will mean a summer drought every few years, particularly in the south, with its rapidly rising population.

Their comments were included in a Treasury document published yesterday, in which they set out the long-term political challenges. The document is seen as part of the handover of power by Mr Blair to his successor.

The document covers issues such as the UK's ageing population, technological change, the rise of economic competition from China and India, and global terrorism. The chapter on climate change warns that average summer temperatures could be 5Chigher in the south of England by 2080.

They add that, by the 2050s, the sort of summer heatwave like the one that caused 2,000 extra deaths during the summer of 2003 could become "commonplace", and that unless building designs are altered in London, people could suffer uncomfortable heat for almost a quarter of each working day in the summer. But on the plus side, the number dying of cold every year could drop from 80,000 to 60,000.

Mr Blair and Mr Brown singled out water use and supply as one of the most important pressures on the country's natural resources. Droughts that now occur once every 10 years are likely to happen every four or five years by the 2050s, and every two or three years by the 2080s.

The crisis will be worst in the South-east, where water companies are already barely able to meet demand. The number of households in England is expected to increase from 20.9m in 2003 to 24.8m by 2021, with most of the increase concentrated in the South-east. Yet figures released separately by the Department for the Environment yesterday show that Londoners contribute less to global warming, per head of population, than anyone else in the country. The North-east, which is one of the few regions with more water than it needs, emits 13.1 tons of carbon per head of population every year, compared with 7.1 tons in London. The gap is partly caused by industrial plants on Teesside, but Geordie householders are also responsible. The Teesdale district emits 4.2 tons per head, compared with 1.7 tons in the London borough of Camden.

The Treasury scornfully rejected a carbon tax discussed yesterday at the CBI conference by the shadow Chancellor, George Osborne. It said this would have no impact on the carbon totals emitted in Europe.