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GOVERNMENT ABANDONS TOP NATURE SITES - Wetland Wildlife Faces Disaster on World Water Day

23 Mar 1998

The Government is celebrating United Nations World Water Day (Monday 23 March) by abandoning dozens of Britain's best wetland wildlife sites. Friends of the Earth has revealed for the first time a list of some of the country's top wetlands, which are threatened by over-abstraction of water by water companies, but will be left off the official list of sites to be saved.

The list has been drawn up by the Environment Agency (the Government's green watchdog) and submitted to the water regulator Ofwat. It omits dozens of the nation's most important wildlife havens - known as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) - which are dismissed as “non-core”. Evidence available to FOE shows that the Environment Agency drew up the list after direct instructions from the Department of Environment.

The “core” and “non-core” listing will be used by Ofwat to determine which of our top nature reserves the water industry should spend money on saving. The only sites that will be saved (the “core” sites) are those designated as of international importance [1]. FOE has written to Environment Minister Michael Meacher demanding that he intervene to ensure that every SSSI is listed, and that water companies are forced to spend the money needed to protect them.

The “non-core” sites to be sacrificed include:

• Hewell Park Lake SSSI, Hereford and Worcester. It is feared a decline in breeding reed warblers and great crested grebe will continue unless low water levels following abstraction are resolved
• Hell Kettles SSSI, Durham. A loss of a unique wetland ecosystem is feared including Charophytes and other unusual algal species. The site requires urgent investigation and a long term solution to be secured.
• River Kennet SSSI, Berkshire and Wiltshire. One of the UK's finest chalk rivers,famous for its high quality fishing and for the diversity of aquatic plants which are feared to be under threat following abstraction. Environment Secretary John Prescott recently allowed the abstraction to continue.
• Kennet and Lambourn Floodplain SSSI, Berkshire and Wiltshire. The reduced flows of the River Kennet are feared to be a threat to the internationally important populations of Desmoulin's whorl snail found in this SSSI which fringes the river.
• East Ruston Common SSSI, Norfolk. A fenland site with an abstraction problem identified a decade ago. A restoration project on the site is likely to fail unless water levels are restored.

All of these sites have been identified by the Government's wildlife watchdog English Nature as at risk from over-abstraction [2].

Matt Phillips of Friends of the Earth said:

“It is horrifying to learn that the Government has abandoned dozens of our best wildlife sites. These sites are threatened by the water companies. It is the Government's job to make sure that they are protected. But Ofwat and the Government are so obsessed with cost-cutting that they have totally forgotten their duty to the environment. The cost of protecting every SSSI at risk from over-abstraction is tiny compared to the massive profits of the privatised water monopolies. Labour promised us a 'world-class, water-efficient, sustainable water industry. Unfortunately it seems that this pledge is about as reliable as their promise to be the greenest Government ever.”

Other wetland sites are also at risk from Government activities.

• London's largest wetland site, Rainham Marsh SSSI is under threat from Government Quango English Partnerships' £16 million plan to destroy much of the site by building a petrol station, drive-through restaurant and warehouses. The SSSI is home to Water voles and wintering and wading birds such as teal.
• News has just emerged that Severn Trent Water owned wet meadow SSSI, Gwaun cwm cownwy has been entirely destroyed by a tenant farmer. Severn Trent failed to notify its tenant of the SSSI status of the land and it was ploughed in order to grow rye grass which would support more sheep.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] Asset Management Plan III is the five yearly process by which Ofwat regulates the water industry. The companies submit plans and the Environment Agency submits its priorities for action to Ofwat. Ofwat then decides which projects will be acceptable as expenditures and can therefore decide how much customers are charged in their water bills. Compared to the investment programmes of the industry which amount to many billions of pounds, resolving over-abstraction issues will cost little.

[2] English Nature. (1996). Impact of Water Abstraction on Wetland SSSIs. English Nature,Peterborough.

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