Thanks for saving water

Published: Thursday, 11 November 2010

BRITISH Waterways thanks all the boaters who made the effort to save water on the Birmingham Canal Navigation with the closure of its main supply during the season.

It was the repairs to the Chasewater Reservoir that caused a drastic reduction of supply to the system during the season, needing it to be emptied to carry out essential dam repairs.

Measures

Following consultation with canal users, BW announced a programme of measures in March to maintain water levels on the Wolverhampton level of the Birmingham Canal Navigations during the height of boating activity.

The measures, which included shutting selected lock flights overnight and boaters' help conserving water, led to a largely incident-free summer, with the canal network remaining open for boating throughout the season.

Will be several years

Lichfield District Council is expected to begin refilling the reservoir in early 2011. The water supply to the canal network is not expected to recover fully for several years and BW is advising event organisers to contact them as soon as possible to begin discussions about 2011 events.

Waterway Manager Dean Davies explained:

"It's been a challenging year but through the measures we've implemented, and with the cooperation of event organisers and individual boaters, we've been able to maintain water levels to ensure that everyone could still enjoy the area's canals.

"We're very grateful to event organisers for their flexibility, and are pleased that the majority of events have been able to go ahead in some form. However, whilst we expect the situation to gradually improve, we could still be faced with a similar situation next year and we're keen to speak to event organisers as early as possible so that we can begin planning for 2011."