Swale Water Management Meeting Report
Last Wednesday we gathered some of the key stakeholders in the area into 1 room to discuss water with the group. What is it needed for, how much of it is available, who has too much, who has too little and why does it never stay where you want it to were just some of the questions we grappled with.
Firstly Mark Beston from the NFU spoke of the policy changes coming down the line in both the near and distant future. The change of government among other factors, has prompted one of the largest reviews of the water sector and it is likely there will be reforms following the review. Mark spoke of 3 programs being pushed by the Environment Agency and regulator for water, across 3 timescales. Currently the EA are focused on re-establishing sustainable levels of abstraction. This has caused them to scrutinize any licenses with excess headroom - meaning the calculated difference in water available compared to forecasted demand - to look at reducing the permitted levels of abstraction. As of 2028, driven by their obligations to uphold the 2021 environment act, the EA are planning a number of catchment permit reviews, and as an abstractor you may be contacted to partake in such reviews. From 2035 onwards, factors such as climate change will influence the EA to consider the environmental destination we will reach within the UK in the future and analyse how this may change abstraction. Mark emphasized that the EAs response as the regulator would always default to enforcement through regulation. Despite this, there are alternative solutions to unsustainable abstraction in the form of Abstractor led collaborations and Multi-sector planning using organisations like Water Resources South East (WRSE).
We then Heard from Lee Dance who works for WRSE. He spoke of their work producing a regional plan for the south east which strategically identifies needs for water for the next 50 years. The plan among other things, identified that 1.3 billion litres of water was currently unsustainably abstracted and that alternative solutions would need to be sought to cease abstraction from these sources. Lee emphasised the need for a catchment informed assessment of available water resources that offer a local scale analysis that could feed into wider regional plans. These assessments known as Local Resilience Options (LROs) have been funded by the government for some areas already, and offer a number of solutions from recommending farm water storage, water sharing and rainwater harvesting to rewetting wetlands to hold back water. Lee finished off by outlining the work currently being undertaken by WRSE to further understand the role agriculture plays in building resilience. If anyone would like to get involved, please go to https://www.wrse.org.uk/.
Sam Hughes continued the conversation, making a case for the delivery of building water resilience through the Holistic Water for Horticulture Project. Through this project, the South East Rivers Trust offer to facilitate Rainwater harvesting, water storage and trading; assist in kickstarting nature based solutions projects such as flood plain restoration; and advise on how to manage land for the benefit of water quality and runoff absorption/purification. So far the project has assisted a number of farmers to implement the formerly mentioned solutions. To find out more on how you could benefit from the project head to https://www.holisticwaterforhorticulture.org/.
We then transitioned from an ongoing project to an upcoming project, introduced by Priscilla Haselhurst from the Lower Medway Internal Drainage Board. Priscilla outlined the fundamental role of IDBs in monitoring and understanding where water is across the landscape, helping to increase our understanding of where it needs redistributing. Their new project, Wise Use of Water, while still in its early stages, hopes to enable farmers to plan and collaborate on how they use this fundamental resource, not just for agriculture but for wildlife and the environment as well.
Our final talk gave us an important insight into how maintaining healthy/ balanced catchments and hydrological systems can benefit the wider environment. Thea and Olwen from the zoological society for London, spoke of 2 projects they were involved in working to restore coastal and intertidal habitats throughout the Thames and Medway Estuaries. They’re connecting science and strategy leading to promising first steps in the restoration of sea grass and the repopulation of Native oyster beds. To hear more head to https://www.zsl.org/news-and-events/news/planting-healthier-ocean.
A huge thank you to all the speakers who came and visited the group.