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The water industry has been urged to put resilience higher up the agenda following last years' unusual weather, delegates heard at the Water Risk and Finance conference yesterday.

Trevor Bishop, head of water resources, Environment Agency said drought which was quickly followed by flooding last year highlighted for the first time the question and important of resilience. 

“What drought and flooding did was open up a whole debate about what level of risk this country should plan for because resilience in this country seems to be on the back burner until you look at the consequences of what failure could be,” he said. 

Bishop said some water companies had been progressive in tackling resilience while others had waited to see how things developed. He urged water companies to realise that the pressure and vulnerability on water supply and that resilience wasn’t just about building extra capacity.