Speaking at a Waterwise conference at the end of last week, EA environment and business manager Sheena Engineer said that reform was “essential” to get the right behaviour and that this extended beyond just changing how abstraction permits are issued.
“At the heart of the process is that prices will become more adaptable to the environment – very dynamic. That will result in the benefits we want to see,” she told delegates.
Engineer added: “We need to try and find a balance to make water available so people have got water when they need it but don’t use it in an unsustainable way.”
She said that one way this could be achieved is by encouraging the water companies to take part in more wholesale water trading as this would prevent over abstraction in some water stressed areas.
Waterwise managing director, and chair of Ofwat’s resilience taskforce Jacob Tompkins said that the process of reform “has taken a long time” but that there is a real opportunity to create a resilience and sustainable regime that incorporates wholesale competition and trading.
He added: “We need an end to end process that will enable us to send the right financial signals all the way from source to tap.”
The government included an abstraction reform clause in the Water Bill white paper but omitted it from the Bill when it was published in the summer of 2013, and it failed to be added to the legislation paper as it became law last year.