Bevan: Water shortages greater threat than pollution

Pollution is not the greatest threat to the water environment, James Bevan has argued, whilst warning about impending shortages.

Speaking at the World Water Tech Innovation Summit, the head of the Environment Agency (EA) hit out at misinformation surrounding the public debate about water. He called for a re-examination of the facts, highlighting that rural land management can be a far greater contributor to water pollution than wastewater treatment.

Bevan described the surge in public interest in the state of waters in England as “an unqualified good thing” because the quality and quantity of water is “the single biggest X-factor for the state of nature”.

However, Bevan said he wanted to set the record straight: “The truth is more complicated and less convenient than you might hope. It does not fit into 280 characters on Twitter.”

Bevan admitted that water bodies are not in the condition they should be, with only 14% of rivers meeting the criteria for good ecological status, yet disputed the claim that “all our waters are in a terrible state”. He said tougher regulation is needed to protect rivers and coastal areas from pollution but noted that water quality and biodiversity have both improved significantly over recent decades.

“The right regulation is not red tape: it is what gets you a blue and green country,” he added.

Bevan went on to defend the EA’s role in protecting waterways, saying it is polluters, not regulators, that should be criticised.

“I agree with Ofwat that water company chief executives should have their pay linked to levels of pollution their companies cause,” he said. “We need to remember though that the polluters are not just big water companies or careless businesses – they are us, the public, too.

“Every time we flush a wet wipe down the toilet or pour cooking oil down the sink the end result is to pollute one of our watercourses. Every time we leave the tap running unnecessarily we take water out of a river, lake or aquifer and put a bit more strain on the environment.”

The biggest long term threat to the environment, he underlined, is not the quality but the quantity of water as the country deals with a “toxic combination” of climate change and population growth.

Bevan infamously warned in 2019 that England is facing the Jaws of Death as demand rises and supply falls. Speaking on Tuesday (22 February), he reiterated how to avoid this: water efficiency, reduced demand and leakage, and investment in the right infrastructure.

On the subject of farming and land management, he said: “We need to put as much focus on helping farmers farm in ways that don’t pollute our waters or erode our soils as we do stopping water companies dump sewage in rivers.”

The EA will, Bevan said, step up its efforts to inspect more farms and help farmers avoid harmful practices.

To fund the rising costs of protecting and enhancing waterways, Bevan emphasised that polluters should pay for damage they have caused.  He said licence charges and penalties should be higher and called for increased investment in upgrading infrastructure.

“If water companies are to continue their social licence to operate, they need to be putting more of their profits back into the environment and less in dividends to shareholders,” he stated.

As a “precious commodity”, Bevan said water should have a “fair” price tag for consumers who should know what it really costs. For this reason, he said the EA supports water metering.

“Clean and plentiful water is everyone’s responsibility, not just mine or the water companies’,” he declared, before concluding that the EA’s focus needs to be as hard on harm-free farming as it is on water company performance.