The water levels have dropped at Tottenhill Lake in west Norfolk. Picture: Ian Burt

Defra minister Caroline Spelman discusses East Anglia drought at summit

Monday, February 20, 2012
8:22 PM

Following the driest five-month period on record in East Anglia, a government minister said domestic households must join the battle now to help water companies cope with an impending drought. Rural affairs correspondent CHRIS HILL reports.

East Anglia is emerging from its second dry winter in a row, and its driest five months ever recorded.

This is the time of year when precious underground reserves of water should be replenished, and rivers returned to their optimum flow.

Instead, the extended lack of rainfall has drained the reservoirs and boreholes containing the supplies we need to drink, cook, wash and grow food.

None of this comes as any surprise to farmers and water companies, who are already taking steps to cope with what they predict could be the worst drought in living memory.

But now Defra minister Caroline Spelman has said it is time for the public to get the message too – and play their part in saving precious water now before a parched spring and summer arrive.

“It is not just the responsibility of government, water companies and businesses to act against drought,” she said. “We are asking for the help of everyone by urging them to use less water and to start now.”

Mrs Spelman was speaking after hosting a crisis summit with the Environment Agency, Natural England, British Waterways, the Met Office and representatives from the farming industry in London yesterday.

The aim was to discuss the water shortages, listen to what measures are already being implemented, and decide upon actions needed to mitigate against future problems.

West Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire are already in drought, officially joined in that classification yesterday by the south-east of England.

The Anglian region saw 74pc of its average rainfall in January, leaving groundwater levels “exceptionally low” with soils not wet enough for a “recharge” to take place.

Only a widespread, prolonged deluge of above-average rain will correct the balance, but the Met Office has forecast only a 15pc chance of the next three months being abnormally wet – making water restrictions a possibility from the spring onwards.

At the summit, water companies at high risk of drought agreed to reduce water losses through leakage and co-ordinate temporary restrictions such as hosepipe bans where necessary.

Anglian Water spokesman John Clare said: “We have made a lot of effort to combat leakage, with £14m invested this winter, and 60 additional staff. It is an enormous task but we have upped our game.”

“We believe that the solution to this problem is efficiency. It is about using less, but also making better use of what we have got. Water companies are doing everything we can. Government can lead and cajole, but when it comes down to it, everybody has to play their part.”

Mr Clare said that the idea of a national water grid would be too expensive, but more localised solutions were being investigated like the 40-mile pipeline across Lincolnshire from Covenham to Boston, due to be completed in 2014.

“Water, unlike electricity or gas, is a heavy commodity so to pump it across mountains would be a mammoth expense,” he said. “But we are looking at opportunities to do that in more local ways, and we want to make the interconnectivity between our reservoirs better.”

Farming bodies called for a fair distribution of water for agriculture among the clamour for the dwindling supplies.

Brian Finnerty, spokesman for National Farmers’ Union (NFU) East Anglia, said: “The government can’t make it rain but it can take steps to help alleviate the problems growers are facing in East Anglia. We made the point strongly that food security is as important as energy or water security, and needs to be allocated on an equal basis.

“Currently public water companies have a statutory duty to supply and therefore take priority over other users, including agriculture.”

Nicola Currie, East regional director for rural watchdog, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said: “Agriculture is under incredible pressure as a result of the lack of rain through the winter. The government needs to think about extending permitted development rights to build on-farm reservoirs. This could make a real difference during any drought, particularly using flexible abstraction licenses to allow efficient recharge of reservoirs.”

POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF DROUGHT:

CONSUMERS:

The continued drought has raised the possibility of the first hosepipe ban for 20 years in the Anglian region, with the west of the area most at risk.

Anglian Water spokesman John Clare said: “It means people won’t be able to wash their car with a hose constantly running unattended, or leave a sprinkler on in their garden with no-one in control of it. You could still wash your car or water your lawn, but you would need to find a water-efficient way of doing it.”

Former Norfolk County Councillor Chris Hull, has installed a home-made system to harvest rainwater at his home on Neville Street in Norwich, where the run-off from guttering is collected in a butt to flush his toilet.

He said: “It cost me £120 and it has reduced my bills by 35pc. There is a minority of people who worry from an ethical standpoint, but the majority of people will be motivated by saving money, which they can do very easily.”

AGRICULTURE:

An estimated third of the country’s potato crops rely on irrigation, especially to produce quality for packing for retail sale. Andrew Alston, chief executive of Broadland Agricultural Water Abstractors’ Group, said some growers in west Norfolk had not been able to fill reservoirs because of very low river flows in the Nar catchment.

Arable and dairy farmer Henry Alston, of Billockby Hall, near Acle, has invested in a 50-million gallon winter storage reservoir to irrigate crops including 200 acres of potatoes. “We’re pumping each day from marsh drains but keeping a very close watch on water quality,” he said. “We hope to fill our reservoir by the end of March but it is about 30pc of capacity at the moment.”

NATURE:

The RSPB warned the continued drought could spell disaster for the region’s much-loved wildlife. With East Anglia home to some of the UK’s most important wetland sites, some species could struggle to survive unless the rainfall returns in the next few weeks.

Ian Robinson, from the RSPB in the Broads, said: “The Broads is known for its lush, low, wet habitats and this lack of rainfall is alarming. At this time of year we normally have up to 35pc surface water flooding here on the reserves in the Yare valley, but we are currently at just 15pc.

“The grazing marshes on Berney Marshes provide valuable habitat for birds and wildlife. This habitat will not be ideal for them if the lack of rainfall continues and that will be disastrous for their breeding season.”

LEISURE:

Basil Todd, proprietor of the Wensum Valley Golf Club in Taverham, said he was fortunate to have alternate water sources to keep his tees and greens in use.

“There is no problem here at the moment,” he said. “But I think a lot of golf clubs who don’t have their own supply of water will be in a muddle.

“We use sprinklers from May to August. If they stopped us using water then the greens at every golf club in the county would dry up. We cannot let that happen. But I have got lakes and ponds here and I have an abstraction license and a borehole. If they withdrew those licenses it would give me a problem.

“We are going to put a storage area in to catch all the roof water. That will be 100,000 gallons, which is enough to water the course for a couple of days.”

13 comments

Ingo, I think there is a problem because our County Council is working hand in glove with certain business partners. The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership has amongst its partners Anglian Water, Norfolk County Council the District Councils, Norfolk MP's and various well known companies such as May Gurney, Eastport, Mills & Reeve, EDP, Archant East, LLoyds, R G Carter, Sentry42, Group Lotus, Barclays etc, etc. If you look at the New Anglia Enterprise Partnership website you will see how councils and business are working together. On the website look at the Enterprise zone brochure and view the plans for Yarmouth. This new enterprise partnership has replaced EEDA but I am concerned about conflicting interests on developments that the public may object to. Where once local government acted as an independent body it no longer does.

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Joy, King's Lynn

Monday, February 27, 2012
The drought is being used to advance the debate over GM foods and before farmers have to reduce their abstraction, we will have hosepipe bans to content with. There are many methods of saving water, but the powers to be don't want to hurt house buildersd and water companies who earn hefty profits from their still leaking pipes. If you had any thoughts of being able to coment on the GM debate featuring big today, think again, they don't like to hear facts anymore. I.e. 'we do not want to consume genetically engineered foods'. There are already blight resistant potatoes on the market, conventionally bred, why are they not mentioned or marketted?

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ingo wagenknecht

Friday, February 24, 2012
Don't forget what our previous Broadland leader, the new leader and the strategic planner once said about water and the proposed 37,00 houses they need to feed...we will find innovative ideas in water management.....derrrr, if thar 'int' no water 'bor', then thar 'int no water BORE!..if the Saudis with all their 'billions' can't do it, how could BDC even think they could with 16d..good old Simon, Andy and Phil once contemplated with Anglian Water to divert water from Lincolnshire and further afiled, rivers! to justify housing quotas?....even more 'derrrrr'!.

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kingsize

Thursday, February 23, 2012
On Wells harbour recently I saw a van parked on the quay emblazoned across the side were the words 'DEFRA sucks but they are not fisherman's friends' excellent sign! Spelman allegedly heads DEFRA although civil servants actually seem to make all the decisions. Spelman has no grasp of environmental issues as shown here, on one hand engaging in talks regarding water shortages while on the other hand actively pursuing the building of incinerators country wide (I think 65 are at some stage of planning or building) as part of her National Waste Strategy. The Willows will be connected to the mains water supply by a 100mm pipe, the capacity of that pipe is up to 624,672 litres per day for that reason alone incineration is wrong for Norfolk. Cory Wheelabrator say they will use rainwater catchment to be water efficient, that's a good one bearing in mind how much rain we had last year and what is predicted for the future. If you have been blinded by CW's PR spin to get their facility built that will generate £26 million per year operating profit for them paid for by us. Think of how your council and government have let us down by their stupidity in choosing incineration above MBT, AD, or Autoclave systems that use much very little water. Who will you hold responsible in the future when you cant water your garden, wash your car, run water from your taps 247 or even flush your toilet for several hours a day! I remember water rationing many, many years ago. Anglian water for sure as they do not address leaks but also the government and our Conservative County Councillors who have gone blindly along with a water hungry incinerator instead of using their brains and listening to those who have warned them endlessly of many dangers of the incineration path.

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Joy, King's Lynn

Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Yes, well done Caroline Spelman, lecturing the public on doing their bit to conserve water whilst signing on the dotted line to fund an incinerator with PFI cash that will ultimately suck millions and millions of gallons of the stuff from the clean mains supply. Another day, another load of old toss from DEFRA...

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Fenscape

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
http:news.sky.comhomeuk-newsarticle16174307 And if water will be short, what is the point in building even MORE houses that need MORE water. And 4 minute showers.

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Christopher Neave

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
i do all i can and have shared a bath for over 20 years to save water.i use old bath water on the garden using a pipe going down the front of my house.so the water board should do their bit.

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bookworm

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
im fed up with high utility bills. the govt never helps or forces them to reduce the prices. all these housing plans should be shelved.

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bookworm

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Some questions our water company needs to answer: 1 Why have you lived in denial about the future water needs, relying on rivers and groundwater, when it has been so obvious that weather patterns were changing and the population steadily growing and these were not going to meet future needs in many areas? There are still no reservoirs in Bedfordshire or Norfolk, with Norfolk having a totally isolated water supply. You have simply failed to prepare for the future. 2 Now that we are in a drought situation and you have turned the emphasis onto the customer to save water, can you explain why you were investigated by Ofwat 201011 for failing to meet leakage targets, who went onto say that these failures sent a "poor signal" about how the companies value water? 3 Why are leakages still running for several days before being repaired, there has been many incidences of this lately, surely in the current situation, every leakage should be treated as an emergency? 4 Do you seriously think a hosepipe ban will make much difference when nearly 70% of households in our area are metered and paying exorbitant charges for their water use? You rarely see anyone using a hosepipe these days. 5 Why are you still relying on hundreds of miles of frail cast iron mains, some dating back to the early 1900s? Which break given the slightest ground movement. 6 When are you going to start investing properly in the future and stop keep hoping it going to rain? The current water shortage has little to do with lack of rainfall and more to do with mismanagement of our current resources.

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John L Norton

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Whats there to talk about ?. Like Peter Trett says, the excuse used all the time for all increases is "to improve the infrastructure". Rubbish, All it was, was to increase profits, shareholders dividends and the 'uppers' pay and perks. Perhaps Spelman would like to address this first instead of wasting time on this sort of rubbish !.

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"V"

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Instead of the planned high speed rail from London to Birmingham, which would only benefit a small number of people. Why not spend that money on a fresh water system from Scotland and Wales to drought areas, or desalination plants around our coast, they have them in the middle east, yes MP's would have to get off their backsides and start to earn their too generous salaries with add ons.

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Paul Platten

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
It's not down to domestic customer, 70% are on meters and don't waste water. No it's down to over abstraction and mismanagement by the water companies who have concentrated on making vast profits whilst ignoring the need for future infrastructure.

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chucky noris

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
'Join the battle!'......get real Spelman, whilst water companies have regional monopolies they have NO incentive to join to construct a common water pool, grid. As for 'commodity'....Violia Water covering Cambridge and South has potential bidders for takeover....Canadian Pension Fund..German Bank..and Japanese Investment Company. If every unemployed person dug 1 metre of atrenching it would reach from Manchester (which has been inundated by rain) to Cambridge Ask her which is more important HS2 or H2O

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sj.bewilliams

Tuesday, February 21, 2012