26 September 2007

The South East Regional Group of the Campaign to Protect Rural England has issued a comprehensive study of water supply in the South East. It calls for the government to recognise the environmental limits on water supply and for the water industry to increase water efficiency, including reuse and recycling of water.

The South East could be short of one billion litres of drinkable water a day if we don't change our approach to water resources. CPRE South East chair Christine Drury said:

Floods do not compensate for drinkable-water drought conditions. The phrase 'water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink' has taken on a new meaning in 2007. The Government and the water companies have not woken up to the new realities of water supply. Their strategies rely too much on building reservoirs that may never fill. Only when there is a change in approach will there be a reasonable chance of balancing supply and demand through the difficult and uncertain decades ahead. In our report we recommend the urgent adoption of new policies which conserve and recycle the south east's increasingly scarce and erratic water supplies.

• Press release
• Executive summary and recommendations
• Summary of report
• Full report (PDF)
• Addendum on Thames Water leakage rates