8
Water Authorities and conservation
The following article has been provided by Ken Hill using information extracted from leaflets about the
Thames Water Authority and other sources such as an article by the Amenity and Recreation Officer in
the February 1986 issue of the BTCV "London Conserver". Although written some years ago and
therefore containing information which may be out of date, the text should still retain much relevance
today. However changes to the Water Companies associated with privatisation might well have long
reaching effects on what happens to their land holdings and the conflicts between making profits and
enhancing the environment for nature conservation. I would welcome follow up articles and letters on the
subject.
I am very grateful to Ken for his continued efforts to provide me with Newsletter material which should
be of interest to members. I would take this opportunity to ask all members to consider providing articles,
long or short. People make many observations that are interesting and perhaps important - yet often these
observations remain unrecorded and lost to posterity because they are not thought to be worth recording.
But it is astounding how much there is still to learn about the behaviour and ecology of many species and
it is amateur naturalists that often provide the most important observations - Editor.
Thames Water Authority is the largest of the ten regional water authorities in England
and Wales. It was formed in 1974 and has a large staff looking after 11.5 million
customers, and responsible for 1,600 miles of rivers. The Authorities boundaries include
94 local authority areas covering over 5,000 square miles from the Cotswolds to Dartford
and a line from Banbury to Luton down to the Hampshire Downs. The area is
geographically based on the Thames and Lee basins.
The Authority has statutory responsibilities for water resources development and
conservation, water treatment and supply, sewerage, sewage treatment and disposal, land
drainage, flood alleviation, pollution control, fisheries and river and reservoir amenities.
In addition to water supply and disposal of sewage operational responsibilities include
river pollution control, land drainage, flood prevention (including the Thames Barrier),
patrolling the non-tidal Thames above Teddington, maintenance of river banks and locks,
123 miles of towpath walks, issue of boat licences on the non-tidal Thames, inspection of
hire cruisers, fish rearing, fishing licences and stock conservation and much else.
Each day during 1985-6 an average of 580 million gallons of water was supplied through
17,500 miles of mains and an additional 260 million gallons daily in the area was
supplied by private water companies acting as agents. About 50% originated from the
River Thames (44 weirs control the flow), about 40% was obtained from underground
sources, and about 10% was abstracted from the River Lee. An average of 965 million
gallons of sewage is treated daily at over 400 sewage works after passing through 28,000
miles of sewers.
An article by the Amenity and Recreation Officer in the February 1986 issue of the
BTCV "London Conserver" claims that much of the criticism levelled against the water
authorities for being environmentally insensitive is unjust, since the early land drainage
schemes were constructed in ignorance of how the work could have been done
environmentally better. Personally I believe that if management had wanted to be more
sensitive there was enough knowledge and skill around at the time to have forecast many
of the environmental effects. The straightening of water channels would for example
predictably remove marginal plant life by erosion and seriously interfere with river beds,
removing the stony bottoms used by many fish for breeding and depleting the food
resources of otters and water voles.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 23, November 1997