Water for Tomorrow (WfT) is an EU Interreg France (Channel) England project that will develop and test innovative water management tools and decision-making support systems.
These will enable more responsive short-term management of drought events, and better long-term planning, as well as investment in water management at a local scale.
Addressing the biggest challenges
The project will run in three of the most important catchments for irrigated agriculture in East Anglia (Broadland, Cam & Ely Ouse, East Suffolk) together with one in Brittany and one in Hauts-de-France.
The project will address challenges related to over-abstraction, increasing water demand, and decreasing water availability due to climate change.
The NFU recently published its integrated water management strategy, highlighting ways in which agriculture needs to respond to extreme weather events – both floods and droughts.
The NFU strategy calls for a smarter approach to regulation that allows farmers to capture and store ‘surplus’ water for later use during periods of scarcity.
Paul Hammett, NFU national water resources specialist, welcomed the launch of the WfT project. He said:
“Highly productive farmland surrounds the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, the UK’s largest wetland and recognised as internationally important, which provides a habitat for some of the rarest plants and animals in the UK”, Paul said.
“Similarly, the mild climate, light sandy soils and well-developed business infrastructure of catchments, such as the Brecks and Coastal Suffolk, allow them to make an important contribution to national food security and the local economy.”
“These, and other catchments in East Anglia, are highly dependent on secure water supplies for crop irrigation.”
The WfT project will:
- Carry out modelling work to identify through simulation the points of failure within the current management system and determine interventions that can improve resilience.
- Support the optimisation of increasingly scarce water resources, reducing the risk of failure and related damage costs incurred by water utilities, farms and businesses, society and the environment.
- Involve all stakeholders in the development of innovative water management approaches.
- Trigger exchange of experience and cross fertilisation between French and English partners who have different yet complementary water management frameworks.
- Share lessons learnt, results and innovative methodologies and tools with a broad audience of water managers and planners in the Channel region.