England paying a “pittance” for our water, and plans to take more
When plans first emerged that up to 155 million litres per day could be diverted from the Vyrnwy reservoir to the Thames basin, calls were made for the local economy to benefit from a special tax in return.
And last night, a MyWelshpool columnist highlighted the issue following an article in The Daily Post.
“We already, as Wales, supply 360 million litres a day at a mere 3p a tonne, a pittance and disgrace,” said Elwyn Vaughan, A Powys councillor and Plaid Cymru representative.
“We should be receiving a much higher price for the water we already provide. We are talking about big business and if we were paid properly Mid Wales would receive hundreds of millions of pounds which would transform our economy and public services which are being cut year after year.”
Powys County Council has written to the Welsh and UK governments asking to place a tax on the companies with the extra revenue used to address local climate change.
But as it stands, that is very unlikely with water one of the issues that has not been devolved, so London’s Parliament ultimately holds the power to make decisions, and a 2017 protocol between Wales and England prevents decisions being made that have a “serious adverse impact” on water resources in either country.
According to The Daily Post article, United Utilities, Severn Trent Water and Thames Water are liaising over the project, designed to ease the threat of water restrictions in southern England. Under consideration is a gravity-fed “bypass pipeline” running from Oswestry.
A shortlist of two possible pipeline routes have been drawn up. One runs to the lower reaches of the River Vyrnwy, the other is a longer, costlier 16.5km route to the upper River Severn. The former flows in the latter but the shorter, 10.3km pipeline to the River Vyrnwy is said to have “hydraulic limitations”. A next-step decision is due to be made this month, according to The Daily Post.
Previously, Jane Dodds, local Senedd Member and leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said that she supported the idea to tax the companies as a form of “compensation” for past wrongs.
“An example is, of course, Lake Vyrnwy, where we lost an entire village to build that reservoir and the water went to England (Liverpool),” she said. “So, what we want to be doing is saying we want to have some compensation, if you like, that comes back into our county, into Powys, which would then help with our local services.”
Powys County Council has been invited by the Welsh Government to discuss the proposals further.
How it could work
Under the bypass pipeline plans, all or part of Lake Vyrnwy’s water releases will be transferred to the River Severn.
This will be achieved in two ways – by direct releases of water into the River Vyrnwy, and by tapping into supplies carried by the Vyrnwy Aqueduct. Flows will be calculated so as not to affect the ecology of the lake or river.
Two possible routes for a proposed ‘bypass pipeline’ from the Vyrnwy Aqueduct are proposed, both running from a settlement/filtration site at Oswestry. The shorter route connects to the River Vyrnwy, and the longer route links to the River Severn.
Current infrastructure
The aqueduct comprises three, one-metre diameter pipes first built in 1892 to shift water from Llyn Vyrnwy to Liverpool.
This month United Utilities is due to start the latest stage of a massive revamp of the pipes. Some 40% of their length has already been refurbished and the remaining section from Malpas to Merseyside will be completed between now and 2028.
A next-step decision on the proposed bypass pipeline is due this month from the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID). If approved, the project will then proceed to the final decision stage. Should it be green-lighted, the bypass pipeline could be ready by 2030 or 2033, depending on the route chosen.
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