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The annual cost of maintaining river health is predicted to double over the next five-year river basin management period to £10 billion annually, according to an Environment Agency director.
Richard Thompson, deputy director water management at the Environment Agency, warned that the cost of preventing deterioration of rivers is rising.
He warned that failing to adequately invest in river health could cost the economy as much as £41 billion in the case of a severe drought.
Costs are expected to hit £10 billion a year within in the next six years, according to the Environment Agency’s forecasts.
“We are running to stand still,” Thompson said of waterbody health, which would quickly deteriorate if action ceased.
Seven years ago when the current plans were created, it was calculated that £5 billion annually would need to be spent through water company investment and other regulated industries as well as agriculture.
Thompson noted that the public have high expectations for the water environment, which is under threat from new emerging pressures such as microplastics and forever chemicals. Understanding of the impacts and chronic long term effects of these are yet to be understood, he told the Westminster Forum on the future of water management.
No one action or investment in isolation would change the fate of rivers, Thompson stressed, and urged for joined up plans to address nutrients and pollutants with investment at catchment level to see improvements.
Thompson said England and Wales are twice as likely to experience restrictions to water usage thanks to climate change, which will reduce available water by up to 15%.
He explained water resource management plans (WRMPs) have helped reduce the total amount of water put into supply networks by 300 megalitres a day compared to 20 years ago, despite population growth of 6.5 million people in that time.
However to meet the deficit while being mindful of reducing abstraction in sensitive locations, the public will have to lower consumption. WRMPs are reliant on demand management for the next five to ten years until novel supplies come online such as reservoirs or strategic transfers.
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