Guest Blog: Supporting the development of Water Abstraction Groups

One of today’s biggest challenges is tomorrow’s water. In less than 25 years a lack of water could limit growth and employment opportunities and have a very real impact on people’s everyday lives. By 2050 we’re going to need over 200 million additional litres per day. And we know this will have a significant impact on agricultural abstractors.

Water Resources West have secured Environment Agency funding to work with agricultural and horticultural abstractors on the establishment of Water Abstraction Groups and are actively looking for people to work with – is this you?

Who are Water Resources West? Water Resources West brings together water companies, regulators and key users of water. They work together to plan and secure sustainable water resources at the regional scale. They seek to ensure the sustainability of water resources, considering wider societal needs, environmental improvements and cross-sector opportunities. Agricultural and horticultural businesses are an important element of this work.

Sarah Faulkner, has recently joined WRW as Agricultural Lead bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge of agricultural collaboration and abstraction. She’s a great asset to WRW and will be helping to drive this work forwards.

Why the interest Water Abstraction Groups? Water Abstraction Groups are local groups of abstractors working together to take responsibility for their water resources resilience. Most of the interest in WAGs comes from the agricultural and horticultural sector who rely on water for growing and irrigation. WRW believes that WAGs are strongest where they are farmer led and locally run.

The current project has identified nine catchments which face pressures on water resources and that would benefit from forming a WAG. These are the Idle and Torne in Nottinghamshire, Herefordshire Wye, Shropshire Middle Severn, Warwickshire Avon, Worcestershire Middle Severn, Tame, Anker and Mease in Leicestershire and Staffordshire, Staffordshire Trent Valley, the Weaver Gowey in Cheshire and the Alt Crossens in Lancashire.

For some of these catchments there is a significant risk of abstraction licence reductions in the future. In some of these catchments agricultural abstractors already work together on water resources and the formation of a WAG would formalise this. In others such as the Idle and Torn in Nottinghamshire plans for a WAG are well advanced. Linking a WAG to the work of Water Resources West will allow it to benefit from technical support from our technical experts.

Faced with the challenges of a changing climate and a forecast increase in demand for water use from all parts of society, linking your business to a WAG will help you to navigate the changing environment for abstractors and defend the use of water for agricultural production in your catchment

If you would like to learn more about the support available to form a Water Abstraction Group for your area, please contact Midlands Rural Adviser, Helen Dale.