Water, water everywhere

In September, barring emergencies, the Commons is politically silent. This is the month when MPs travel far and wide in search of experience, information and dialogue, out of reach of the whips and beyond the tyranny of paperwork. Back at Westminster there is a hectic programme of routine maintenance and 'improvement' to the fabric. Perhaps this year they will sort out those loos, which drip water through the ceiling into strategically placed buckets in the Division Lobbies!

Talking of water, I propose to spend a lot of time on that subject in coming months. For hundreds of local people last winter, flooding was a nightmare and for thousands it was an inconvenience. For most the water reasonably clean; for some it was dilute sewage. Water may fall free from God's firmament - but its collection, purification, distribution and disposal costs a fortune. Yet we take it all for granted - until things go wrong. To understand better our love-hate relationship with water, I went to the Regional HQ of the Environment Agency in Exeter in July.

Rob with the manager at Salisbury sewage works, September 2001

How much water do you use and what do you use it for? The average household uses 150 litres a day. Of this, 1/3 is flushed down the loo, 1/3 is used for washing and the rest has many uses - but only 1 per cent is used for drinking - yet 100 per cent is of drinking water quality. All this for 60 pence a day. Perhaps you buy bottled water to drink? Similar standard, nicer taste? If you had to buy your 150 litres a day at shop prices, it would cost you £21,500 a year. Think about it!

At home our water is metered - as is 30 per cent of local domestic supply. This is a sensible discipline - and a great incentive not to buy a washing-up machine, which is the most extravagant water-waster there is.

I have protested for years that 20 million litres a day is taken from the Upper Wylye and piped to Chippenham and East Somerset. At last there are plans to reduce it - to 16 million litres a day! But where are we to get our water for all the new housing development in Salisbury District? Eleven years ago I opened the Blashford Lakes project near Ringwood - an imaginative scheme to store fresh water in downstream gravel pits and pump it back up again to meet demand. Whatever happened to that one? I will shortly be meeting the Environment Agency and Wessex Water to find out.

The Petersfinger sewage works floods into the river south of Salisbury. Sewage works in Tisbury, Downton, Amesbury and almost everywhere else are in need of investment. So why does Salisbury District Council permit a single new house to be built until the sewerage infrastructure can cope? Answer - they have no power to do that. Isn't that crazy? So is the fact that most roof and car-park run-offs from supermarkets and factories flow into foul sewers that have to go through to the already over-stretched sewage works. And why are there so few 'grey-water systems' in new housing developments, which recycle bath, shower and sink water to flush loos?

I have asked our local planning authority to clarify their policy on water and sewerage and to let me know where new legislation might be helpful or where Government policies are unhelpful. But this is not something only 'they' can do for us. Most important in all this is demand management - which means educating ourselves to turn off taps, replace leaking washers and to think twice before we unwittingly make matters worse.

Like switching off lights or asking ourselves if our journey is really necessary, conserving water is something each and every one of us can do that really will make a difference - to our bills and to planet earth.

ROBERT KEY MP