Water supply
The water we drink and which is used by farming and industry comes from three main sources: reservoirs, rivers, and underground aquifers. Every year, around 35 million litres of water is taken from these sources in England and Wales. Of this, about 17 million litres is put into the public water supply. Non-tidal electricity generation uses over 10 million litres, industry nearly 4 million litres, farming 0.3 million litres, and other uses, such as fish farming, account for the rest.
On average groundwater provides 29% of our public water supply in England and Wales, although this figure varies greatly between regions. In the South West Region 43% of our public water supply comes from groundwater sources. Groundwater levels measured from the South West chalk aquifer at Woodyates Farm show fluctuation around the 1961-90 mean over the past decade. The general trend appears to be one of increasing water levels. This positive trend is comparable to the national picture of groundwater levels. However, groundwater levels are highly influenced by a number of factors, and so such short term trends may not necessarily represent any impacts of abstraction.
A total of 3,636 Million litres a day (Ml/d) of water was abstracted from all non-tidal surface and groundwater in the South West in 2006, in order to meet the needs of public water supply and industry. This was 19% lower than 1995 (4,486 Ml/d). Much if this decrease is down to improved leakage control by water companies and improved water efficiency in industry.
By 2006, electricity supply was responsible for over 38% of the total fresh water licensed for abstraction in the South West, followed by public water supply (25%).
Water meters
The number of households in the South West that now pay for their water by metered supply is rising. Draft water company Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs), show in 2009/2010, an average of 51% of homes in the South West are metered. Water companies plan to increase this to almost 69% by 2015/2016.
Bristol Water and Wessex Water plan to reduce leakage levels over the next 5 years. This will reduce overall leakage in the South West region from 231 Ml/d in 2009/2010 to 219 Ml/d by 2015/2016.
Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies
Making sure we’ve got enough water is an important part of the Environment Agency’s work and they have set up Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies (CAMS) in order to manage how much water is removed. This could affect you if you are a heavy industrial or agricultural user of water, as the Environment Agency may need to suspend licences to maintain water levels for personal use. Find out more here.
The first cycle of Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies (CAMS) have now been completed for the South West, assessing how much water the environment needs and the amount of water already licensed for abstraction including public water supply. The results show that nearly every river catchment in the South West is currently under pressure from abstraction. Water resources availability maps show that 25% of the South West's surface water 'Water Resource Management Units' are either over licensed or over abstracted. In addition, recent studies into the impact of climate change show that there could be a significant reduction in river flows across the South West Region during summer and autumn.
