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Water Management: S&T Report

My Lords, I commend the report. I declare an interest as a professor of climate modelling at University College and as chairman of the advisory committee of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, which features in the report. Water management covers the supply of water, dealing with used water, dangers associated with water and what to do about those matters, including all the governmental and public dimensions of these issues. While the document urges changes in personal habits at, for example, paragraph 8.36, it does not come out with a strong statement, which we might begin with—that, currently, use of clean water is profligate. Probably less than 5 per cent of the water that we use is needed for drinking. The rest is used for many other purposes, which do not require such clean water. I recall that when the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, was a Minister he talked about sharing a bath with a friend.