Water Companies trash the enviornment

Yesterday hose pipe bans were lifted in many areas of the South East of the U.K, Which reminded me of piece of information I found on a laptop I was lent from the East Sussex county council. It was from the then N.R.A (National Rivers Association - now the environment agency) It concluded that the the water supply would not be sustainable with the rate of new houses being built, as the reservoirs could not cope. It is now nearly 15 years later and still the building goes on..... I expect the S.E is only a few of years away from a perpetual ban. This is not the water companies fault but the council who have the power to stop developments

The following is an excerpt form South East Water drought info page.


"This will set out what the company needs to do, and by when, to ensure both water supplies and the environment are safeguarded during extended periods of dry weather. This could include:

* Restricting the use of sprinklers and hosepipes
* Activating dormant water sources or developing new ones to increase the amount of water available
* Transferring water from nearby areas where it is more plentiful
* Applying for drought permits to allow more water to be temporarily abstracted from the environment
* Applying for drought orders to restrict non-essential use of water"

And as you see plenty of things to harm the environment and nothing about building developments

The most involvement the government wants is to draw up a 10 point plan passing the responsibility to the water companies. It does raise the question as to whether anyone actually reads them. When I read one .They seemed more worried about shareholders than the environment.

It seems no-one in power in this country has the balls to stand up and say "no more non-essential development in the South East".

Quotes from S.E water management plan.

"In times of drought, there may be occasion for measures to be put in place to
maintain supplies that could be to the detriment of the environment."

"It is impractical for an ecological assessment to consider every individual species and
habitat that may potentially be affected by a development. Rather it should focus on
‘valued ecological resources' and legally protected species."

"There is also a need to identify all legally protected species and designated habitats
that could be affected by the proposed drought permit and to devise mitigation
strategies that will avoid significant effects and contravention of the relevant
legislation."

I highly recommend downloading it yourself at http://www.southeastwater.co.uk/pdfs/draft_drought2006.pdf and check out table 14 page 72 for a list of detrimental wildlife issues. Or just download the management plan for your water authority to see what they are up to.