Farmers’ views on the water abstraction clampdown

A clampdown on water abstraction rules could see licences curtailed – with a profound impact on UK food production, growers have been warned. 

Water abstraction licences due to expire this year are being assessed to ensure they comply with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).

See also: Groundwater abstraction licences face review

The directive requires water bodies and aquatic ecosystems to be of good ecological status from this year.

The situation is particularly serious in East Anglia, where some 24% of water bodies are said to be non-compliant. Licence conditions could be tightened if they are deemed to contribute to environmental deterioration, with phosphate and abstraction among two concerns.

Dry areas

East Anglia is one of England’s driest regions – receiving less than 700mm of rainfall a year compared with a national average of about 1,150mm. Yet it also home to some of the country’s most fertile farmland – and some of the most productive growers.

Irrigated agriculture helps support 50,000 food and farming jobs worth about £3bn annually to the UK economy, with many agribusinesses in this part of the world reliant on water abstraction to produce high-quality fruit and vegetables.

Some 100 farmers and other interested parties – including representatives from the Environment Agency and water companies – gathered to discuss the situation at a UK Irrigation Association conference held at the Orton Hall Hotel, Peterborough, on Thursday (5 March).

“You really have to think about whether water is still going to be available in 20 or 30 years time – or whether there is going to be an impact and there is going to be deterioration,” says Christine Tuckett, the Environment Agency’s deputy director for agriculture and land management.

About 1,000 time-limited abstraction licences are due for renewal this year. The agency is already assessing the impact on abstraction on the environment – and could reduce the amount of water local farmers are allowed to use for irrigation, says Ms Tuckett.

“It might mean reducing the amount of headroom in the licence – if a farmer isn’t using all of it then, when it is renewed, there is a possibility that some could go – it depends on the catchment and the individual situation. It is the kind of thing that could happen.”

Farm leaders accept that agriculture has an environmental impact. But they dispute the extent to which there is a problem – and argue that the Environment Agency has based its assertions on inaccurate computer models rather than what happens in reality.

“Pressure from agriculture on the water environment is much less now than it was 10, 15 or even 20 years ago,” says NFU policy director Andrew Clark. “We are much better farmers these days and have much better access to technology.”

Mr Clark adds: “It is pretty clear that some of this assessment process is very much based not on actual environmental monitoring in the river, it is looking at computer models and predictions and what the impact might be.”

Change effect

The impact of any changes are most likely to be felt initially in the Cam and Ely Ouse catchment, where the UK Irrigation Association (UKIA) has commissioned a Cranfield University project to investigate the relationship between water abstraction and the aquatic environment.

Changes to abstraction rules raise important questions about how growers should best cope with drought, how they can maximise productivity and how they should plan for the future, says UKIA executive secretary Melvyn Kay.

“These changes could have a profound impact,” he adds.

The research project aims to assess abstraction patterns, locations and river networks. It will also examine the relative timing of maximum irrigation abstraction, maximum soil moisture deficits, minimum groundwater levels, and minimum river flows.

Over the next three months, researchers also hope to assess the vulnerability of aquatic ecology in the Cam and Ely Ouse to abstraction and other pressures.

The hope is that the findings will feed into the decision-making process on whether abstraction licences should be tightened.

“We would like as much data as we can get,” says researcher Thomas Barden. “We want to know what farmers abstract compared to their licensing limits.

“Often farmers don’t abstract to the maximum and we want to find out exactly what is happening.”

Farmers in the Cam and Ely Ouse catchment area interested in participating in the study should email elyouseabstraction@gmail.com.

River Deben catchment

 Peter Youngs, East Suffolk Water Abstractors Group

Growers in East Suffolk have joined forces in a bid to make better use of water that is pumped out to sea.

The plan is to store surplus water from the River Deben catchment in a reservoir and pump it to farms as needed, says Peter Youngs of the East Suffolk Water Abstractors Group (Eswag).

“At the moment, the internal drainage board pumps as much water into the North Sea as is used for irrigation.”

The next stage for the group of 80 farmers is to measure water flows and survey the area to determine the best location so the pumps can be moved.

“We’ve then got to think about the logistics and who will manage the project and the water – and who will own it,” says Mr Youngs.

“It seems the most logical thing in the world to store this water and put it to good use – what we’re doing now is getting everything together. We’ve lot of farmers interested and there is enough demand to take all the water available.”

If all goes to plan, Mr Youngs believes the project could set a precedent for similar initiatives in other parts of the country. “Everyone has talked about storing surplus water for years and I’m quite chuffed that this is where we could get our water from in the future.”

Ely Ouse catchment

 Tim Jolly, Norfolk

Norfolk vegetable producer Tim Jolly is on the front line when it comes to changes in abstraction rules. He farms in the Ely Ouse catchment area near Thetford, which is where any restrictions are first likely to be implemented.

“Proposals to reduce our licence to the actual amount of water we’ve extract over recent years would have a very serious effect on us,” says Mr Jolly. “The past decade or so has been relatively wet so our abstraction has been a lot lower than it might have been.”

Mr Jolly says he is “negotiating hard” with the Environment Agency over the way it will implement the Water Framework Directive – and how it will affect his enterprises, which include potatoes, onions, carrots and parsnips.

“Every crop we produce could be affected. We’re afraid that we could be left high and dry if were to go into a drier period – like the 1990s which was a drier decade than the most recent 10 years. We would not have enough water if our abstraction licence was capped at recent actuals.”

Mr Jolly says his licence has just been renewed for a further three years while talks with the agency continue. At the end of the three years, the licences will be issued under the new terms before being rolled out to other areas.

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