Thames Water draft water resources management plan

Re: Thames Water draft water resources management plan

Dear Sir/Madam,

I apologise for the last minute sending of this, and I have asked a number of friends to consider supporting my letter - which I know needs to get to you by the end of today 26th April - and I hope that you will accept any submissions from them.

In our area of Lea Bridge Leyton we are experiencing unprecedented new residential unit constructions - thousands of new homes are already being built and more proposed. The impact of this on our water sources and resources is something we are hugely concerned about and have raised with Waltham Forest Council. Sewer flooding, burst water mains and leakages are frequent events in this area.

In view of this we now call on you to build in much greater protections for the Lea and associated waterways in your Management Plan with specific mention of the impact of increased water and sewerage demand, in addition to the crucial environmental points made below.

The chalk streams and rivers of SE England – including the River Lea and its tributaries – are a globally rare habitat. They should be thriving corridors of biodiversity. Instead most of them are in unsatisfactory condition.

The causes of this poor condition include over-abstraction, leading to low flow levels, and pollution from misconnected drains. At the same time, Thames Water experiences a leakage rate of over 20%, meaning that much of the abstracted water is wasted. 

So the five-year plans for investment in water infrastructure should include robust measures to tackle these problems.

So I ask you to include:

• Greatly reduced abstraction from the Lea;
• Tougher targets to cut leakage, and a financial penalty of at least 3% of annual turnover on water companies that fail to meet these targets;
• Plans for new reservoir(s) or pipelines to meet the anticipated shortfall;
• Raising the target for tackling misconnections so that all estimated misconnections are tackled within 3 years.

Regards

Claire Weiss
Resident Lea Bridge Ward E10 7AR
cc Peoples Plan for Lea Bridge Station Sites
cc Save Lea Marsh