In brief....
The NFU is supporting a pioneering water management project in Suffolk that could help to tackle both floods and droughts
The ‘Suffolk Holistic Water Management Project’ is looking to develop new ways of delivering flood alleviation, to provide more reliable water resources for all users and to improve water-based ecosystems and water quality.
The NFU is a founding partner of the project which is led by Suffolk County Council and includes, amongst others, the Environment Agency, the Internal Drainage Board and local abstractor group ESWAG as key members of the project team.
Perhaps the most exciting project proposal is for a new reservoir on the Felixstowe Peninsular designed to hold water that would otherwise be pumped out to sea. This could be used by irrigators and for public water supply.
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The project is managed by Jane Burch of Suffolk County Council who says that more water is currently pumped out to sea than is used by irrigators in the area. Capturing some of that water could bring environmental benefits, savings for water companies and greater water security for farmers and landowners.
“We think a holding reservoir of four to five hectares, with 520 million litres of water, would work for most users. That would satisfy demand and give security to everybody,” she said.
Under the proposals the Internal Drainage Board would own and manage the reservoir and pipework, selling the water to irrigators and water companies.
NFU national water specialist Paul Hammett says that the NFU is keen to tackle problems of dealing with both too much water and not enough water in the same place but at different times.
Paul explains that farmers’ response to building resilience to water shortage has been to build reservoirs, and they have engaged in a fairly vigorous reservoir building programme over the past 25 years.
“But a much bigger and perhaps more innovative construction programme is needed if food production is to become more resilient to water shortage”, said Paul Hammett.
“There is also more to resilience than building capacity and I’m really pleased that in farming we are starting to embrace collaborative initiatives such as this in recognising that our future challenges may just be bigger than any one farm business alone can deal with”, he said.
More information about the project is available at Green Suffolk