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Government plans stake to the heart of water company vampires
31 March 1999
Water company vampires who have sucked Britain's wetland wildlife habitats dry may at last be curbed. The Government has announced restrictions on water company licenses which allow abstraction from rivers and groundwater. Friends of the Earth has strongly welcomed the moves, calling them “the most important thing to happen to our water resources since the drought”.
FOE has been campaigning for many years to save Britain's wetland wildlife sites from over abstraction of water. In 1996 FOE published along with other environmental organisations research highlighting the over-abstraction threat to hundreds of rivers and wetlands and to species such as white-clawed crayfish, water crowfoot and to habitats such as grazing marshes and chalk streams. Sites such as the River Wey at Alton in Hampshire remain under threat from over-abstraction.
Matt Phillips of Friends of the Earth said:
“This move is very welcome, although we will need to look at the details very carefully. Intensive farmers, water companies and businesses have descended on our wetlands like vampires and sucked them dry. At last action is to be taken.With climate change threatening our water resources, it is essential that our best wetlands are protected.
“But when will the Government turn these proposals and other measures to protect our best wildlife areas into law? And when will they make the water industry (but not customers) pay more for the water they take, so their wasteful practices hit their bottom line?”
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jul 2008
