Water Abstraction

(asked on 15th June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to take steps to help prevent excessive water abstraction in areas with high water stress.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 27th June 2022

The Environment Agency regulates the abstraction of water from rivers, lakes and groundwater across England on behalf of the government. Defra and the Environment Agency launched the Abstraction Plan in December 2017 setting out how the Environment Agency will deliver abstraction reform to protect the environment from unsustainable abstraction. The Abstraction plan is now being implemented. In addition, the Environment Agency is updating its local Abstraction Licensing Strategies for all catchments by 2027, to set out how much water is available for abstraction whilst taking account of local environmental needs.

Furthermore, Water Resources Management Plans, produced by water companies, set out how water supply needs are met from sustainable sources over a 25 year period. New Water Resources Management Plans will be consulted on at the end of 2022.

The Environment Agency's Restoring Sustainable Abstraction programme has already returned 49 billion litres of water to the environment, including 37 billion litres of water to chalk streams since it started in 2008. During this time the Environment Agency has removed the risk of approximately 900 billion litres of water being abstracted from unused or underused abstraction licences.

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