Agenda item

This Council notes with concern the rapidly accelerating water crisis that we are facing. Cambridge experienced severe drought in 2022 and 2023, while recently we have seen some of the wettest six months on record in the UK, which have caused flooding in many parts of the city and surrounding areas, damaged agriculture, roads and other public infrastructure, and affected the lives of numerous residents.

 

We now have by turns either too much or too little water, as well as distressingly high levels of pollution.  When residents see local flooding, they may think that our water shortage is over.  Unfortunately, drought and flooding go hand in hand as dry hard soil fails to absorb water. Valuable rain fails to reach our chalk streams and instead contributes to flooding. 

 

In 2019, the City Council declared biodiversity and climate emergencies. This helped to raise public awareness of these critical issues and influenced planning and other decisions. 

 

We need a water emergency declaration for the same reasons.

 

This council recognises that other agencies are charged with water management. However, we acknowledge the impact of our own actions and decisions on our local water issues. We acknowledge that without broad engagement and co-operation that the chances of any improvement in our water situation is very limited.

 

This may be the longest motion that Greens have ever submitted to this council. We make no apologies for this. The scale of the crisis and the extent of the water supply gap is such that we consider that no prudent or responsible person can justify leaving any stone unturned to improve the situation

 

This council:

 

·      Asserts that our water issues go wider than the supply and sewage problems that are the responsibility of the local water companies

·      Resolves to take steps to ensure the public are aware of the full extent of our water supply gap by monitoring and republishing the information prepared by Water Resources East, the Environment Agency and others as appropriate and providing full and clear information on the extent of the water gap.

·      Pledges to encourage all organisational departments, partners and our communities, businesses and residents to address the water crisis within Cambridge and the wider region, and

·      To take a full and active part in that work ourselves and employ our “soft power” fully

 

(1) Declare recognition of the water emergency and the local impact this could have on the residents, communities and businesses we serve;

 

(2) Help reduce over-abstraction by:

 

·      Giving full weight in planning applications for large-scale developments to the evidence of the Environment Agency as statutory consultee on water issues

·      Writing to the Rt Hon Angela Rayner to request the withdrawal or amendment of the 8 May 2024 WMS (“Written Ministerial Statement”) on the Cambridge Delivery Group to be replaced with a new WMS requiring greater priority to be given to water issues in considering any local planning applications

·      Writing to the Rt Hon Angela Rayner to request that planning matters in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire remain under the control of the local authorities

·      Requiring the highest water efficiency standards for any new developments that are approved, including mandatory greywater collection and recycling;

·      Undertaking a public information/education programme within the next year to encourage residents to use less water, using all communications mechanisms

·      Continuing to engage with the water companies, alongside expert community groups, to accelerate solutions to over-abstraction, supporting those that are strategically planned, clearly costed and transparent, and compatible with commitments to reach net zero and halt biodiversity loss;

·      Putting pressure on the water companies to take more concerted, urgent and innovative action to:

o   cap abstraction from the Chalk aquifer at today’s actual levels;

o   manage demand more effectively through actions such as the prompt declaration of hosepipe bans, the accelerated introduction of universal metering and proactive encouragement of water collection and recycling e.g. water butt installation;

o   rapidly increase efforts to repair leaks.

 

(3)  Reduce pollution by

·      supporting the public’s pressure on Anglian Water to invest urgently in updating its smaller, older sewage treatment works and to halt illegal dumping of sewage into rivers.  All wastewater installations and infrastructure that discharges into chalk streams and rivers should be upgraded to this end.

 

(4) Mitigate flooding by:

·      pushing for the prioritisation of nature-based solutions, including restoration of flood plain habitats and appropriate vegetation management to slow down surface run-off, reduce the risk of flash flooding and minimise pollution;

·      promoting the concept of, and principles behind the ‘sponge’ city and region approach: i.e. the creation of places with multiple areas of greenery, trees, ponds, soakaways, pocket parks, rain gardens and permeable paving to allow water to drain away, and with measures to store rainwater and runoff (e.g. water butts).

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

 

The erratic weather patterns, generated by climate change, are well understood on paper by both the Cambridge Water Scarcity Group and the water companies. Cambridge Water, the water supply company for the city and parts of South Cambridgeshire, notes in its 2025-2030 business plan[1] that “we are likely to see more extremes of weather, with 60% less rainfall in the summer and 30% more rainfall in the winter in our Cambridge region by the 2080s.” In its draft Water Resource Management Plan, the company acknowledges clearly that, with current growth proposals and the need for licence caps on abstraction to protect the natural environment, the region will run into a water deficit by 2029/30.

 

Current plans for addressing this are wholly inadequate, and incompatible with the February 2024 government ‘guidance’ on water scarcity[2]. Plans for large- scale development will increase the burden, causing over-abstraction and pollution with negative impacts on the quality of life for residents and further threats to our chalk streams, trees and natural vegetation as the water table falls and becomes more polluted.  Information provided by the City Council on the water crisis is minimal: hidden within its webpage on recycling[3]

 

References:

 

[1] https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/111577/7/Scientific%20Report%20UK%20Storms.pdf

[1] https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/biodiversity-emergency

[1] https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=21684

[1] https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/about-us/our-strategies-and-plans/business-plan-2025-2030

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/addressing-water-scarcity-in-greater-cambridge-update-on-government-measures/addressing-water-scarcity-in-greater-cambridge-update-on-government-measures

[1] https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/reduce-your-waste

 

Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament