GMB, the water union, has criticised the government’s proposal - reflected today in the Environment Agency report on water resources in England - to agree an individual daily personal water consumption target.

The average person in England currently consumes140 litres per day - the Government has said in its 25 year environment plan that want to see water use in England fall - and that it will work with industry to determine appropriate targets for personal water consumption and the measures needed to achieve them.

The water union said the Agency’s advice comes in spite of the fact that enough water to meet the needs of 20 million people is lost through leakage every day - some three billion litres of water a day.

According to the GMB, alongside the repair of leaky pipes and upgrading and maintaining the UK’s water infrastructure, a key part of the solution is the movement of water to where it is needed.

In the area with highest forecast increase in demand, London and the South East, GMB has recently called for Thames Water and politicians to be bolder as additional water sources will be needed to meet ongoing demand and to avoid the near miss of running out of water in the drought of 2012.

GMB has called on politicians and the public to urge Thames Water to be bolder and to move up the priority list a plan first developed by the Victorians to move water from the west of the UK via the Severn and the Cotswold canals and Sapperton Tunnel into the Thames. There are also proposals to move water from the Midlands via the Oxford canal.

Thames Water plans to reuse waste water from sewerage works above the weir at Teddington and from the Beckton sewerage works which will yield an estimated 550 million litres per day. Plans for a new Thames reservoir at Abingdon covering an area the size of Heathrow Airport have also been revived - an earlier version of the plan was rejected by the planning system in 2010. If it gets the go-ahead, the reservoir is forecast to supply 300 million litres per day after it is filled each winter.

The water union said Thames Water had acknowledged that any serious interruption in water supply to the region would cost “a staggering £330 million every day.”

In the GMB’s view London and the South East are the engine room of the UK economy and not something that can be put at risk. Thames Water should accept the water being offered by United Utilities from Lake Vymwy and move it to the Thames via the restoration of the Cotswold canals and Sapperton Tunnel.

Stuart Fegan, GMB National Officer, said:

“Pressuring everyone to use less of this most basic necessity through ever rising bills and water meters is not the solution.

“When the equivalent of 20 million people’s worth of daily water consumption is lost from leaky pipes because privatised water companies have prioritised dividends for shareholders in favour of infrastructure spend.

“No wonder the call from the UK public grows ever louder for the water industry to be returned to public ownership.

“Privatised regional water companies have failed to look at the big picture of storing more of the water that falls in this country and moving it to where it is needed.

“It is clear to almost everyone it seems except Government and the EA that water infrastructure in the UK needs serious investment.”

WaterAid - report demonstrates UK is not immune to water scarcity issues 

Leading water charity WaterAid has also responded to the Environment Agency’s calls for action on water efficiency, saying the report demonstrates that the UK is not immune to water scarcity issues which are seen around the world and that no one can take water for granted.

Jonathan Farr, WaterAid’s senior policy analyst on water security and climate change, said:

“Following warnings from NASA last week, this is another call for Governments to work with utilities on tackling the water crisis. While the UK has access to world class engineers and resources, WaterAid is already working in countries facing severe water restrictions.

“The good news is that by using water more carefully in our homes and gardens, and through the ongoing work of water utilities to address leakages, we can help to counteract this increasing water stress from population growth and the extreme weather caused by climate change. “

An average person in the UK uses 140 litres per day — almost three times that of the World Health Organization’s recommended amount for daily personal use. We must all stop taking water for granted and treat it as the precious and finite resource that it is.”

He went on to say that the international community needed to mobilise urgent action to reach the 844 million people without even basic water supplies and secure water resources for the 60% of the world under water stress. “The people living with the water crisis are those who’ve done the least to cause it.” he added.