Taken early action

IN RESPONSE to our article ‘The shape of things to come', South East Waterway Manager Jeff Whyatt, writes:

We all know that some parts of the Midlands and South East experienced the driest year since records began. Defra has issued drought warnings and a number of water supply companies have started to apply for drought permits in preparation.

Early action

Of course, the canal network is also likely to be affected, meaning that we've had to take early action to preserve our water for when we really need it, during the main boating season. This is why we've recently announced investment of £700,000 to implement around 30 schemes that will either increase water supply or reduce our demand. It's also why we've had to reduce water levels on the Tring Summit.

To put the situation into context, before we reduced the water levels we had started to experience losses on the Tring Summit of up to 60 Megalitres in a week—the equivalent of around 200 lockfuls. This is an astonishing figure and I would defy anyone to explain how this volume could be lost through a lack of maintenance.

A priority

Of course stopping leaks is a priority for us, and most of our winter works were planned with water efficiency in mind, but we all have to recognise that, with continued below-average rainfall, there are other factors currently at play. The truth is that the groundwater levels in the Tring area are so abnormally low that water is simply being sucked through the canal bank.

This is why we took the decision to reduce water levels—to coincide with the stoppage season—and this action has proved successful in dramatically reducing losses. As a result of reducing water loss and avoiding drawing water from any of our reservoirs we've been able to achieve a net inflow into the Tring Reservoir group of up to 57Ml/week.

Starting to recover

This is welcome news but, whilst some are starting to recover, our reservoirs are, on the whole, far from full. Tring Reservoir group is currently holding just 49% of its maximum capacity (compared with 74% at this time last year) and, contrary to your article, holdings at Marsworth Reservoir are around 50% of capacity.

We very much hope that the situation at Tring is not the shape of things to come. It's likely to be a challenging year ahead but with the additional investment, the expert knowledge of our waterway staff and water management team, along with the support of the boating community, we can keep things running as smoothly as possible.