Stressing concerns over water stress
Posted: Friday 19th June 2009
British Water will be urging new European Parliament members to put water stress at the top of their agenda when they make their first appearance in Brussels.
Forecasters are predicting a hot, dry summer forBritainand that could result in hosepipe bans for up to 25 million people.
A report last year by the Environment Agency stated that at least 10 million people in the South East have less water available per head than those living inEgyptorMorocco.
British Water’s Sustainable Drainage and the Sewage Treatment Plant Focus Groups have been working with regulators, Government and with the European Parliament to try to encourage a better management of water resources. The recent election results have prompted the Focus Groups to press for immediate action to improve the situation especially here in theUK. Indeed a new European Standard for water reuse is in the pipeline for the future.
With 72 MEPs making their way toBrusselsover the next few weeks, many of them for the first time, British Water believes now is the time to look at radical solutions to a growing problem.
MikeNorton, the chairman of The Focus Group for waste water treatment said: “When people think of water shortages, they think ofAfricaand other hot countries, but in fact half the households inEnglandandWalesare in danger of running out of fresh drinking water. Basically the eastern half of the Country has a much lower annual rainfall than the west. These new MEPS could really bring the subject to the top of the agenda.”
He is hoping that MEPs will put more emphasis on rainwater harvesting and grey water treatment and recycling - which he believes could save between 37% and 74% of fresh water.
The European Environment Agency recently confirmed that water use is unsustainable in many parts ofEuropeand emphasized the need to minimise demand rather than increasing supply.
There has been a growing emphasis on how we use our water in theUKsince the floods last summer killed 13 people and damaged 48,000 homes. Since then, the Government’s Future Water Strategy, the Pitt Report and the Floods and Water Bill have all set out measures to improve how we deal with water and wastewater.
In water stressed areas the amount that has to be extracted from rivers, streams and lakes is greater than in regions with a higher rainfall. In parts of Lincolnshire, the Midlands, East Anglia and the South, more than 22% of water for supply is taken from these natural sources of fresh water rather than reservoirs compared with 10% in other parts of the country.
But Alex Stephenson, who is chairman of the British Water Sustainable Drainage Focus Group, added: “It will take a pan-European approach to make a difference in how we use our water. To make a difference, we all have to cut our daily usage of water by 18 litres a day. Water can no longer be treated as something that can be flushed down the drain; it is a valuable and increasingly rare, resource.”
