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Water Management: S&T Report

My Lords, it was of the noble Lord’s vintage, was it not? Nevertheless, our use of water in the UK is still less than that in the United States and I believe that it is less than it was in ancient Rome. However, the problem with ancient Rome was that they did not have any taps. It is important that when we consider this policy, and as we want to encourage responsibility for the matter to be taken at local and national level, we should think about international figures. I am disappointed that we do not have them here. Perhaps the Government could help us in that respect, at least with regard to the European dimension. The document discusses the use of grey water and new schemes to push that through, which are very important. However, it is not clear who will be responsible for those. I believe that in a British way, as it were, a series of agencies and organisations will be involved, some of which will be stimulated by individual bodies. I endorse the important developments at BedZED, a local housing scheme referred to in the report. Some local authorities have also developed extraordinary innovations in the use of water and water technology. Woking comes to mind as a city that realised the importance of the economical use of water connected to energy. It is also interesting to note that a number of United States companies are working with local authorities and local water boards in Britain. I heard at a seminar in the United States that those companies find it a lot easier to deal with UK bureaucracy than United States bureaucracy. We should congratulate ourselves on that. The other important way in which we shall get new developments and reduce use of water is through Government. The noble Earl, Lord Selborne, referred to the Ministry of Defence’s innovation. It has now ceased to be socialism but has apparently become standard policy that the Government should introduce innovation through their procurement policy. Given the enormous government schemes for hospitals, prisons, barracks and housing, all these new and much more efficient methods should not only be introduced but enable British industry to become world standard with regard to such developments. The report emphasises the need to have more water resources as well as protecting the environment and the issue of climate change. As someone who studies that matter, I confirm that the report’s modelling predictions on the rise in global and regional temperature and temperature changes between day and night are reasonably accurate. The historical record is accurate. However, precipitation modelling is extremely difficult. One of the reasons for that concerns gradients of pressure. It is always more difficult to predict a gradient than an absolute value. In the summer the UK has continental air, but in the winter we have south-westerly air streams. The waters around the UK are getting warmer, which might cause a slight increase in rainfall. On the other hand, the dryer continent will reduce that. Another feature highlighted by the report is that when the precipitation comes in such situations, which might be associated with dust in the atmosphere, we may experience much stronger bursts of rain. That is extremely difficult to deal with in terms of flooding, agricultural run-off and so on. The conclusion is that there is a level of uncertainty regarding the precipitation aspects of climate change. Therefore, we need risk analysis by all organisations that deal with the various aspects that affect them; we need continual monitoring and continual public information. As noble Lords will be aware, the variation of rainfall in the UK is astonishing. In Devon, which I know well, it is 24 inches a year on the coast; three miles inland it is 44 inches and a further three miles in the figure is 77 inches. Such areas will experience great variations with climate change. It is important to encourage organisations, people, farmers, monks and everyone who measures rainfall to continue to do that and inform us so that we can observe the patterns. The committee concluded that there was no universal panacea for transporting water from one area of the UK to another, despite the media interest, as the noble Earl, Lord Selborne, mentioned, but we need to keep that under review. Maybe our canals and rivers need to be used more effectively in that respect. The report pointed out that we need a holistic approach to water. That is important and is also the view of the Environment Agency. We need to consider not only water resources, but the danger of flooding and rising sea levels. We also have to keep in mind that one of the biggest dangers to London would be if the large reservoirs at Heathrow were put at risk. That point was made by experts who were concerned about water in London—and perhaps I may advertise a book from the House of Lords Library, London’s Environment, in which London’s water system is covered effectively. Coastal planning, urban planning and the ecology of our countryside is intimately connected to our water resources, the environment, leisure activities and the growth of such areas. One complex issue pointed out by the report is that there is no democratic body that can handle such matters. The report stresses that, because the future position will be unlike the past, there must be an important democratic dimension to those discussions. We probably do not need new bodies, but we need the bodies that are dealing with such issues to be open and informative about what is going on. I endorse the fact that schools and other community bodies need to be involved. Schoolchildren need to learn much more about how to use water and our profligate use of water. Finally, particularly as this is a Science and Technology Committee report, I endorse the comments that research is essential, both for policy and for designing water systems—especially holistic systems in which the universities involved in such research, supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology’s laboratories, play an important role. They are undertaking complex research and advising Government and perhaps it should be emphasised that those bodies need to have a public role. I should like to assure the House that NERC looks carefully at the proposed efficiency measures, focusing CEH research in a few centres, and I strongly endorse the plans, which do not preclude the continuing work to survey the environment around the whole of the UK. It is important also to look at our European colleagues. I often go as a visiting professor to the Netherlands, where more work is being done than anywhere else in Europe by computer simulation, and where demonstrations of excellent systems show local government how flooding and other water-resource issues are changing. I very much endorse this report. I hope that the Government will take it seriously and, most importantly, find the funds in Defra’s research and applications budgets to take these issues forward.