Paul Hammett, NFU specialist on water resources, explains how the long-awaited legislation to reform the system for managing and licensing water abstraction from rivers and aquifers was shelved. He writes:
Her views chimed with those of the NFU when she told Suffolk farmers that “the existing system serves us well but has limitations”, and NFU members welcomed Defra’s intended focus for future water management on finding solutions at the local catchment scale.
We are also pleased that Defra is determined to end the unfair current system faced by growers at times of water scarcity. It will do this by abolishing so-called ‘section 57 restrictions’ applied only to spray irrigators, and replacing them with restrictions for all abstractors at ‘very low flows’.
The elephant in the room for abstraction reform is of course the question of whether farmers and other abstractors will be disadvantaged when their current licences are replaced by permits, and the compensation issues that could arise from the loss of water rights as a production input and business asset.
All the more reason for the NFU to maintain dialogue with government and its agencies in the weeks and months (and probably years) ahead to ensure a reformed water system is fit for purpose in a post-Brexit world.