Southern Water applies for permission to draw water from rare chalk stream
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Version 0 of 1. Environment secretary urged to stop drought order that could damage the ecology of River Test in Hampshire Southern Water has applied for a drought order that would allow it to draw larger quantities of water than usual from an internationally prized chalk stream and rare salmon habitat. The environment secretary, Steve Reed, has been urged to intervene and stop the water company from “significantly and potentially permanently damaging the river and the ecology within”. Southern Water has applied to Reed for a drought order to alter its licence on the River Test, a rare chalk stream in Hampshire that is home to endangered salmon and otters. The order would allow the company to draw higher than usual quantities of water, and would permit Southern to continue drawing from the Test, even when it falls below flow levels scientists have deemed ecologically safe for the river. When rivers fall to low flow levels they can take years to recover, with potentially severe effects on fish spawning and river health. The river’s ecosystem can die off due to lack of oxygen, experts say. Yorkshire Water has similarly applied to Reed for a drought order on the River Ouse in York, and to the Environment Agency for 14 drought permits on its waterways, which are for smaller or shorter changes to abstraction licences. Drought orders are more serious and are granted by the secretary of state because they often allow larger or more urgent changes in water abstraction or reductions in river flows and can be more dangerous for the environment. Southern and Yorkshire Water (along with Thames and South East) have hosepipe bans in place. The sector has been criticised for failing to build reservoirs and to fix leaking pipes, while attention has also focused on the large pay packets awarded to some water company bosses. The Guardian recently revealed the boss of Yorkshire Water has received £1.3m in previously undisclosed extra pay since 2023, paid by an offshore parent company. The Test is running at low levels according to data from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. It is a chalk stream, of which there are only about 200 in the world, 85% of which are in England. These very pure rivers are full of minerals from the chalk aquifer and create a habitat as biodiverse as a tropical rainforest. Feargal Sharkey, a water campaigner and former frontman of the Undertones, said Reed should urgently intervene. “The River Test is the world’s premier chalk stream. The whole of the UK population of wild salmon is now on the endangered list. They swim up the Test. This river has a flow limit and Southern Water wants to reduce that by a third. If you do this, you have now effectively banished an endangered species to oblivion by removing flow limits set to conserve one of the most endangered fish in the planet. Steve Reed should intervene right now and block this drought order.” Stuart Singleton-White, the head of campaigns at the Angling Trust, said: “No one should be surprised by the drought this year, so soon after the drought in 2022. This has been predicted, and in a changing climate will happen more often. But water companies weren’t ready. They have failed to build the storage and reservoirs we need, failed to fix the leaking pipes and failed to do enough to help us save water.” Southern Water has applied to amend the current permitted hands-off flow (HoF) of the river, a minimum river flow level, measured in megalitres per day (Ml/d). The current licence bans it from abstracting if river flow drops below 355 Ml/d, but it has now applied for a temporary drought order to lower this threshold to 265 Ml/d. A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the secretary of state would make decisions on these drought orders and permits “in due course”. A Southern Water spokesperson said: “We follow a strict legal process, set by the government and regulators, to ensure we are taking the correct steps to both keep supplying water to our customers and to mitigate any negative environmental impact at the same time. “We applied for a drought order on Friday 18 July for the River Test in accordance with this, but this would only ever be needed if river flows fall below 355m litres per day – allowing us to continue taking water to keep taps running. “We continue to monitor levels closely and are currently not close to this trigger. This is thanks to households and businesses across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight using less water, and our teams tackling leaks and optimising our water network around the clock. “Longer term, a new reservoir, water recycling schemes and water transfers from neighbouring areas are among the solutions which will build drought resilience for this area.” |