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FUTURE: PROBLEMS
The driest area of the UK, the Southeast is also ear marked for the biggest future development.
Courtesy
of
www.eerf.org.uk/Q
As new developments are built,
population in the area will rise, resulting in a smaller “market share” of water
resource for agriculture.
Development also creates large
quantities of impermeable tarmac and concrete, which increases the amount of
run-off in to water courses; this gives urban influenced fluvial systems
“flashy” characteristics, whilst leading to less rain fall being stored as
ground water.
PROBLEM 2: CLIMATE CHANGE
UKCP09U Mean
Precipitation
Viewing DEFRA’s predictions for UK
climate change it would appear that, we will be having more rain. However, it
should be borne in mind that these higher rain falls will be matched with higher
temperatures.
This may result in
UKCP09U
Mean Temperature
PROBLEM 3: INCREASING RELIANCE ON
IMPORTS
The reason that the UK’s
agricultural water usage can remain so low at 2% is that we import such high
percentages of our food. Even apples that will grow readily in the UK are only
24%R home grown. And with sugar snap peas from Kenya, and dates from
Israel that is one of the better examples. In short we are robbing other
countries of their water.
Imported food also has the double
negative of a larger (generally) carbon foot print, air freight for perishable
food, is becoming ever more popular, with very high CO2 emissions.
Failure to manage the UK’s water
resources with regards to food production will lead to greater reliance on sea
and air freighted food, and increased entrenchment in a negative feedback loop.
PROBLEM 4: POPULATION GROWTH
Britain can expect to have a 25%
population increase by 2060S , this will give rise to increased
competition for water resources, leaving less for food production.
FUTURE: SOLUTIONS /
SUGESTIONS
SOLUTION / SUGESTIONS 1: TRANSFER
SCHEMES (COUNTER TO WRONG PLACE)
Case Study: Ely Ouse Transfer
Essex and Suffolk Water are reliant
on water transferred from Norfolk via the Ely Ouse to Essex Transfer Scheme (EOETS).
Norfolk is a one of the most intensively farmed counties in the UK, yet due to
this transfer scheme it supplies up to 35% of Essex and Suffolk’s Water.
The EOETS was a massive project
completed in 1971, a project like this now would take decades to get off the
ground, so I fear we are very much entrenched in the system we have inherited,
from an age where “things got done”. The EA has a
very good knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the UK water balance. Its
182 page Water resources planning
guideline has very detailed appraisals of water resources distribution within
the UK.
By viewing the rainfall distribution map, you
might conclude that a West to East Transfer scheme might solve many of the
problems that the dry south east is facing.
Case Study: Kielder Water Transfer
“On
26 April 1996 Yorkshire Water Services (YWS), in response to the water shortage
in Yorkshire, announced its decision to develop a £50 million water transfer
scheme from the River Tees to the River Ouse.”T
In view of increasing temperatures
we might take example from the Romans who were pioneers in engineering, and
quickly saw that the losses in evaporation from the surface transfer of water
can be abated via the use of underground transfer, the “chain of wells”
technique might nowadays be replaced with a scheme such as the southern conveyor
in Cyprus, which very large volume of water being transported in pipes rather
than open water courses.
Policy Changes:
Legislation in the UK should
reflect that small scale localised storage should be encouraged. Farm reservoirs
are subject to ever tightening control, inspection and design under the
Reservoirs Act.
If there is the space and resources
available for a viable storage system to be built on a farm then efforts should
be made to encourage it development. This could be achieved by subsiding
construction / design costs or by increasing license charges to make such
storage economical viable. Storing the winter glut closer to the point of use
is, energy therefore carbon efficient. It encourages the efficient use of water,
and lessens abstractions from water courses and groundwater.
Policy Changes
We already re use tin cans so why
nor reuse waste water, instead of the outfall of a sewage treatment plant going
back in to a river (where it maintains flows undoubtedly) why not store the
water in a reservoir for use in dry periods. This principal could be applied to
small scale, for individual industrial sources or residential.
This has been tried with limited
success in Cyprus where treated sewage effluent is stored in dams to be used for
irrigation water.
Policy Changes:
SOLUTION / SUGESTIONS 4: LOW CARBON
ECONOMY
As with the rest of the world the
UK must do its bit to lower carbon emissions. More companies should follow
Environmental Management Systems such as ISO14001 and BS855, manufactured
products should be labelled with embodied carbon and water labels as outlined in
free standards such as PAS 2050.
At present the UK (alongside Japan)
has the highest % of registered businesses and growth rates for IS014001
certification.V These EMS aim for more
efficient water use, leaving a larger share for agriculture. Many bodies such as
the WWF comment on 14001’s lack of effectiveness , but it demonstrates intent if
nothing else.
Policy Changes:
SOLUTION / SUGESTIONS 5:
SUSTAINABILITY
Much could be done to decentralise
food production in the UK, and thereby decrease the intensity of water demand in
certain areas. Projects such as Land Share are at present a bit twee but they do
bring to light the options that are available to people. Land share now have in
excess of 44,000 people registered.
Small scale food production n
whether instigated via TV cooks, or other means should be encouraged. Planning
policy on a regional level at present seems to favour infill of open space in
urban areas, and so this option is becoming ever less plausible. Should new
planning application be made to include to rainwater harvesting, grey water
reuse?
Policy Changes:
Population control will be VERY
unpopular.
Policy Change:
Importing virtual water from arid
counties only serves to imbalance the global distribution of water still
further. Although it does the UK itself no harm, we are acting irresponsibly.
Policy Change:
Policy Changes:
Water is a vital component of food
production. Food production uses a lot of water. Meat in particular is very
water heavy in its production. The UK and the World use very different
percentages of their water for food production, but we share a lot of the same
problems in terms of distribution and timing of rainfall.
In terms of managing resources you
would expect the UK to be leaps and bounds ahead of say Ghana, but just as it is
easy to manage our carbon emissions, because so much of our carbon is “exported”
to China and India, we could say the same of the water in the food we eat.
It would seem that the two main
problems in general are climate change and population growth, both of which seem
like unstoppable tides. A cave man lived a sustainable life style. We (the human
race) are so far from that now. Sustainability is a nice concept but it will
require a complete upheaval of every person’s life style. No cars, no imported
food, no holidays . . . a Dictatorship might be able to impose these changes, in
the western world we are used to our freedom of choice and a regression of this,
would prove fatal to any political party that suggested policies based upon it.
References:
P- Lessons from
Kitase/Gyankama - WaterAid Ghana Briefing Paper 2005 (No 1)
Q - East of England Rural Forum - Water Resources
(www.eerf.org.uk/)
(31/12/09)
U - UKCP09 - DEFRA (https://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/)
R -
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/food-miles-the-true-cost-of-putting-imported-food-on-your-plate-451139.html
(02/01/10)
S -
https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/27/population.eu (02/01/10)
T -
https://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/kielder_transfer_scheme.html
(02/01/10)