MPs demand urgent action to end River Kennet water abstraction crisis

Demands for urgent action to protect the River Kennet from the over-abstraction of water have been given overwhelming support today (Thursday) by a cross-party Commons Select Committee.

The government’s Water White Paper lacks ambition and urgency, warned the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee in its report.

And it demanded that ministers must act now to prepare for a future where water resources in England will come under increasing pressure and calls on the government to take rapid steps to tackle the environmental damage caused by the over-abstraction of water.

The report also called for more ambitious targets to be set for the introduction of water meters in seriously hit areas like Marlborough, one of the victims of last month’s hosepipe ban.

ARK, the local campaign group set up to save one of Britain’s rare chalk streams, has seen the Kennet run dry this year during one of the worst droughts until the latest downpours revived the water levels.

Now the report has added its own welcome demand for immediate action to be taken, in this case by Tames Water, which runs its own Care for the Kennet campaign.

“The Committee makes many of the points that ARK has been pressing for, they clearly listened to our evidence when we visited Parliament earlier this year,” ARK’s chairman Dr Geoffrey Findlay told Marlborough News Online.

“The report quotes our description of the Kennet as in ‘crisis’ and uses an ARK photograph of dead fish in on the Kennet’s dry river bed. 

“They argue for much more urgency in reforming the abstraction regime in order to protect the environment, and like us they call for the government to introduce water metering much more vigorously”.

But the missing link that remains is the £10 million funding to build a pipeline to ensure that water taken out of the Kennet for people living in Swindon is returned to the river and not diverted into the Thames.

The committee states that government minister must act now to prepare for a future where water resources in England will come under increasing pressure.

Launching the report, Anne McIntosh, Tory MP chair of the committee, declared: “We heard persuasive evidence about the environmental damage unleashed by over-abstraction. The government’s current plans — to reform the abstraction regime by the mid-to-late 2020s – will not take effect rapidly enough given that our rivers are already running dry.

“The reform of abstraction licenses must be brought forward to protect against the effect of severe droughts such as the one we saw earlier this year.

“Defra must also work with Ofwat and the Environment Agency to tackle urgently those abstractions which are already causing severe damage to our rivers.”

The committee also finds it “extremely disappointing” that the White Paper fails to set a target to increase levels of water metering.

“It’s hard to see how the White Paper’s call for water to be managed as a precious resource can be reconciled with the lack of any clear target to increase metering levels,” said Anne McIntosh.

“Installing a meter is the most effective way to improve water efficiency, providing a clear incentive for householders to minimise wastage.”

Information about Action for the River Kennet is available at www.riverkennet.org