Norfolk could run out of water by 2050 - unless new plan put in place
Anglian Water and the Environment Agency fear supply will out strip supply in decades, without serious action
A local water company, environmental regulators and a local industry group are warning that Norfolk could run out of it's own supply of water in the coming decades unless new plans are put in place.
The Environment Agency are currently predicting that demand for water will outstrip supply 2050- unless serious action is taken.
While Anglian Water have told us that there's still reason to believe that the East of England could run out of it's own supply of water sooner, if this year's hot weather and drought conditions persist for years to come.
Our water company say it all depends on if consumption and supply rates are sufficiently addressed, in line with population growth and the impacts of climate change.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) is meanwhile warning that East Anglia could lose thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions from our economy, without drastic thinking.
Why is Water Security such a concern?
The East has long been known as one of the driest regions in the UK, in terms of rainfall, with many areas typically receiving less the 600mm in a given year.
But this year's summer has gone beyond this with Norfolk having it's 3rd driest summer on record, behind 1921 and 1983 . While Suffolk had it's 2nd driest summer, which was beaten only by 1921- according to data from the Met Office.
So far this year parts of West Norfolk has only got 250mm of rainfall, this being well below the 330mm that our county would normally get by the start of October.
While, East Anglia had only 5.4mm of rain in July, (this being the lowest amount since records began back in 1836).
"It's a question about how we balances a range of factors"
Dr Geoff Darch is water resources strategy manager for Anglian water- and guest lecturer at the UEA.
He told us that East Anglia receiving the least rainfall out of anywhere in the UK- only makes the issue more pressing:
"That presents a number of challenges, particularly around water resources in the future, are we going to see more significant droughts, how are they going to manifest themselves? It's a question about how we balances a range of factors- to leave more water in the environment".
"If nothing was done, as was pointed out by the National Infrastructure Commission, four or five years ago- we could run out of water- but this is obviously something that we are working very hard to avoid. We have got plans in the short, medium and longer term to avoid that, in terms of managing demand and increasing the availability of it's own supply."
What does this all mean for us now and moving forwards?
The Environment Agency tell us that they are having to rescue fish in our local rivers and they're still urging us not to use water “unnecessarily", due to 'exceptionally low levels'.
Although there is currently no plans to introduce a horse-pipe ban, despite the East still being in a drought.
Rob Bakewell is drought project manager at the environment agency.
He says it's an issue we can't afford to get complacent about:
"Roughly speaking our rainfall patterns are broadly and historically fairly unchanged but climate change is telling us that we can't just rely on that. A lot of things have to happen, otherwise we could be facing shortages and problems for the environment.
"We are having aerate areas of water to create little fish rescue areas. We are seeing blue and green algae and a whole host of other things, we would expect this in dry and drought conditions- but there's an awful lot of this going on and we have got teams out responding".
How could this impact our local economy and way of life?
The NFU have told us that water shortage and security concerns, must feature more heavily in the Government's 'Food Strategy' plans.
Kelly Hewson-Fisher is their Water Resources Specialist.
She told us that the issue threatens to do serious damage:
"It has been said on reports before that water intensive crops are worth £824 million per annum, in the East of England. In our region we grow around a quarter of the England total in our region, so these crops are also thought to be estimated to support around 10,600 jobs directly jobs in agriculture".
"Looking at the attention that we have on food security we cannot achieve this without water security. So, farmers must have that access to water to grow that food that we see, including the vegetables and the salad crops, but also the cereals we see as well".
What's next?
There's more to come on our #TroubledWaters investigation' on Wednesday and Friday.