Experts warn over future of water supply

Reporter

Wednesday 13 June 2012

SCOTLAND'S abundant water supply will come under increasing strain in the coming years because of the impact of climate change and population growth, it has been warned.

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Jody Harrison

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Scotland says steps must be taken to ensure that the water industry remains "fit for the future".

It says the coming years will see a greater demand for the resource, which is not as secure as previously thought amid changing and unpredictable rainfall patterns, and Scotland should reject the creation of a UK national water grid in favour of shorter, cheaper interconnections between the regions.

The engineering body also calls for the formation of a taskforce with the job of ensuring supplies remain viable while working with counterparts across the UK as a whole. ICE Scotland water expert and past ICE president Paul Jowitt said that action is needed now, as there is "no guarantee" that water will stay as readily available as it is today.He spoke out following the publication of the ICE State of the Nation (Water) report, which lays out in stark terms the challenges facing Scotland. According to the UK Climate Projection, Scotland will have warmer and wetter winters and hotter and drier summers as a result of climate change. Mr Jowitt said: "It is unhelpful to regard water in Scotland as a virtually unlimited resource. "We have a fantastic opportunity to generate economic and social benefits for Scotland by maximising the potential of our water supplies. However, we must be careful to do this in the most sustainable way possible, protecting our natural resources in the long term. "The difficulty we face in Scotland currently is that people often see no need to use water sparingly because it appears to be so plentiful. However, there are a lot of expensive processes that have to happen between water falling from the sky and it coming out of a household tap, and yet we use this expensive drinking water for all sorts of domestic uses such as watering the garden and washing the car."He added: "This is not sustainable in the long term, and we believe a public awareness campaign is needed to impress its real value on people."The ICE report follows the Scottish Government's own Hydro Nation proposals, which looked at the development of the water industry and its importance to the economy. The report also calls on the Scottish Government to produce a national water resource management roadmap, to feed into a UK-wide strategy through the work of the taskforce.It said an interim Hydro Nation report should be drawn up, in addition to a three-year report that will go before the Scottish Parliament. The institution also said the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland should work together to address the tension between reducing Scotland's carbon footprint while maintaining high water quality standards.Mr Jowitt added: "Pumping large quantities of water, which is a very heavy resource, long distances, requires an enormous amount of energy and therefore carries with it a high carbon footprint and price-tag. "This is not the right solution to the UK's water shortages, not least because it would take several years to complete, and by then the situation would have worsened. "We must look at more strategic ways of evening out the disparity in water availability in the UK, and one of them will be encouraging adjacent water companies to share resources more readily, particularly where they can be transferred by natural waterways, therefore reducing the carbon impact significantly."

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Experts warn over future of water supply

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