Parliament Report - SE UK Water Problems, Watering Bans To Be Ongoing

The prospect of water bans, standpipes and drought orders becoming commonplace in some parts of Britain will be raised this week in a hard-hitting report that calls for urgent action to confront the crisis. In a stark conclusion from five months of expert hearings, the Lords' science and technology committee will say that the government and the water regulator must dramatically raise their game if they are to head off increasingly serious shortages, particularly in the south of England.

The committee report, to be published on Tuesday, will increase pressure for concerted action by government, the regulator Ofwat and water companies which have recently reported hefty profits. The committee will insist that the regulator must take a far more assertive role than it has since privatisation in ensuring that water companies deal with long-term issues of leakage and increase sources of supply. The report criticises government departments and the environment agency for failing to do enough to develop and co-ordinate an overall strategy to deal with the water issue.

The crisis-ridden Office of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, sources close to the committee told The Observer last night, is singled out as one example of the current lack of focus on the seriousness of the problem. The ODPM comes under criticism for announcing plans to build a further one million homes in the south-east without having held any detailed consultation with Ofwat or environmental experts on the possible implications for an area where water supplies are already under strain.

The Lords' committee, which is chaired by the former Cambridge professor Lord Broers, held 13 evidence sessions with hundreds of pages of testimony. It was told that enough water could be found for the new homes in southern England. But this would cost money and depend on paying much more serious attention to water conservation, metering, and new sources of supply.

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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/lords/story/0,,1790136,00.html

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