Newsdesk

THE WATER CRISIS

4th December 2003

Government plans to expand housing in East Kent are putting pressure on scarce water supplies. The East Kent Green Party has recently submitted a comprehensive assessment to the Periodic Review of water supply. The average leakage rate of water companies is still a very high 20%-plus. Supplies are so low Folkestone Water intends to have a desalinisation plant operating to obtain water from the sea by 2009(1). The Kent Structure Plan shows East Kent's districts are either close to capacity in their water usage (2) or already require imports of water (3). OFWAT with other bodies issued a Joint Statement on August 11th 2003 with questions to which they would like answers. Steve Dawe notes:

"Protection of the environment is the highest priority. East Kent Green Party supports actions that will reduce water use such more metering, water conservation tariffs, reduced leakage, and low water requirements in new developments. The industry should advocate that people put bricks in cisterns to cut water consumption. We disagree with resource expansion, such as raising Bewl water and building a Broad Oak reservoir. We support demand management.

"Water Butts should be required in all new housing developments and should be bought in bulk and sold to the public to reduce household water consumption for gardening/house plants/car cleaning, etc. If the majority of consumers were metered, use would reflect value of that water. It is, however, essential that the poorest groups are protected from 'water poverty." END c247 words

FURTHER INFORMATION: Steve Dawe ON 01233 645167 or 07904 382203 (please leave a message). Contact address: 10 Hillbrow Road, Ashford, Kent TN23 4QH. Notes: 1. Paul Brown Water Boards in alert over supplies The Guardian, 1st December 2003; 2. Kent and Medway councils Kent and Medway Structure Plan: Mapping out the future, March 2002, p.39: Swale, Ashford, Canterbury districts. 3. Ibid, p.39 Shepway, Dover-Deal and Thanet are all in serious deficit. NB. Only Sheppey and north-west Kent have an excess of water supply at present, including the area of the Thames Gateway where significant planned housing development will impact upon supplies over the next decade.

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Updated by
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20th June 2005