An Environment Agency report has stated that a national water grid pumping water from the North to South East England, would cost up to £15 billion and cause a considerable rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Prolonged droughts in the South East in the last couple of years led to the commission in February of a large-scale review of water transfers across the country. However, the building and maintenance of the system of pipes which would be needed from the North Pennines to London would cost 4 times more than building new reservoirs. The Agency's Chief Executive, Paul Leinster said, "in engineering terms, a national grid is feasible but there is no point in spending money on a big scheme that isn't needed."
The report goes on to recommend that water companies should adopt more sustainable solutions, such as sharing water between regions, reducing leakages, encouraging water savings and building new reservoirs. Thames Water, described by water watchdog Ofwat as "Britain's leakiest water company", have actually announced plans to build the UK's biggest reservoir for 25 years at a cost of £1 billion. The 150 billion litre reservoir near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, would go some way to easing water shortages in the capital, but would come at an increased cost to water customers. It has however been argued that Thames Water should first tackle their atrocious problems with their existing infrastructure which sees them lose up to 900 million litres a day.
These plans are subject to a public consultation, which will end in November, and will be followed by the design and environmental impact assessment stages of the project.
