Britain’s rivers ‘being ruined by demands of water companies’

By Jane Merrick, Political Editor
3 July 2011 Water companies are draining the nation’s most at-risk rivers dry, causing environmental damage, death to wildlife and the build-up of chemicals that upset fragile aquatic ecosystems, all of which could result in ever-higher bills for consumers, a damning report will say tomorrow. Current abstraction by firms from rivers and groundwater sources is so high that it would take the equivalent of 23 million people to stop using water every day to get back to environmentally sustainable levels. The report by Policy Exchange, David Cameron’s favourite think-tank, calls for the UK’s water companies to be charged more for using the most environmentally vulnerable rivers and boreholes, with cheaper rates for those that frequently flood. This would force companies to use the most at-risk sources less often, and allow those rivers to eventually return to environmentally sustainable levels, the report argues. There would also be higher charges for abstraction during droughts. Without action, the report says, current practices will cause “serious damage to river and wetland ecologies” and water bills will soar. […] The driest spring for decades has left several rivers, mainly in the south and east of England, dry and has triggered an increase in deaths to wildlife and eradicated banks of wild flowers. It was reported last week that 200 swans have died on the Thames alone in the past six months from drought and other factors. But the report, Untapped Potential, argues that even before this spring, the long-term effects of climate change and increasing demand by soaring population rates have caused water levels to drop significantly. Some rivers dry up completely for long periods of the year, and just 15 per cent of the country’s river network is in a condition to support a “healthy ecosystem”, Dr Less, head of Policy Exchange’s Environment and Energy Unit, told The Independent on Sunday last night. The report says: “Many rivers and natural environments are suffering damage on a regular basis as a result of over-abstraction of water, and not leaving enough to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Some rivers are drying up completely at certain times, which can be fatal for the wildlife that relies on them. But also significant water-level drops can mean sewage and chemical contaminants become more concentrated, rivers slow down, fill up with sediment and may get warmer, all of which severely affect habitats for fish, insects, animals, and plants, sometimes irreversibly.” […]