Water Resources West has published A thirst for collaboration, a new survey to understand the water resources issues faced by businesses with water abstraction licences. This is the first ever survey of its kind and highlights some real issues, but also a desire from abstractors to work together locally to improve water resources. Key findings […]
United Utilities Water Limited have been fined £800,000 after illegally abstracting 22 billion litres of water from boreholes in Lancashire following a prosecution by the Environment Agency. The Guardian reports that the company breached three-year rolling limit on abstraction licence at Fylde aquifer in 2018.
Interesting piece in The Guardian The government has “no idea” how much water is being taken from rivers and groundwater, according to an Environment Agency (EA) whistleblower, as swathes of England remain in drought despite recent heavy rainfall. The whistleblower told the Guardian that the EA’s regulation of water abstraction points for farms, small businesses and private […]
From Defra The Government has unveiled proposals to improve water quality and regulate activities that affect water supplies which are intended to: modernise the system of licensing water abstraction – when water is taken from the environment for use in farming, food manufacturing and public water supplies – by giving businesses and other licence holders […]
EA ‘The Environment Agency’s 12 week consultation on changes to the way organisations and individuals are charged to abstract water from the environment has been launched. These changes are to help better manage and protect our water resources. Based on recent projections, more than 3.4 billion additional litres per day will be needed in England […]
A group of water companies have pledged to invest millions of pounds to protect the country’s chalk streams by reducing the amount of water they abstract from them for public drinking supply and cutting pollution. The pledge was made at an online Chalk Stream Summit organised by the Chalk Rivers Action Group (CRAG) and attended […]
This blog by Alan Woods has also coincided with the announcement by Thames Water to reduce abstraction to help protect the River Wye near High Wycombe Call for Defra to develop a Chalk Streams Strategy Alan Wood writes ‘The Cam Valley Forum’s Let it Flow! report highlights the damage suffered by Cambridgeshire Chalk streams […]
In the latest set of natural capital accounts for the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has described current levels of water abstraction are unsustainable in some regions – as abstraction in England continues to rise. The amount of water being abstracted for public water supply declined by 12%, to 6,443 million cubic metres, from […]