The Government has already singled out two areas of the country, as it fears supplies could run dry in just 10 years.
The UK is facing running out of drinking water in just 10 years in parts of the country (Image: PA, SWNS )
Record immigration could mean parts of the UK will run dry of drinking water in just 10 years, a shadow minister has warned. The dire prediction comes as Labour’s Environment Secretary Steve Reed declared the Government was taking control of the planning system to push through the creation of two new mega reservoirs in the east of the country.
Mr Reed has classed the two projects in East Anglia and Lincolnshire as “nationally significant”, escalating them from local planning to central Government. The move aims to streamline and fast-track the delivery of the two new reservoirs, the first for more than 30 years, to improve water resources for more than three-quarters of a million homes in some of England’s most water-stressed areas and unlock the building of new homes.
Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins blamed the reservoir crisis on Labour trying to cover up immigration failures and panicking now to keep the taps running.
She told The Sun: “With Labour’s shambolic farming policy and failure to grip immigration, it’s no wonder they’re making a panicked announcement about water supplies running low.”
Water Minister Emma Hardy said taps could run dry (Image: Donna Clifford/ HullLive )
However, a Labour source hit back telling the paper Ms Atkins appered to have “a lapse in her memory”, adding: “It was the last Conservative Government that let immigration levels skyrocket to record levels and failed to build any reservoirs.
“While she is busy forgetting her own record in the Home Office, Labour is focused on cutting immigration and building the first reservoirs in three decades.”
Water Minister Emma Hardy has predicted out a doomsday scenario for some parts of the nation, saying: “Britain is running out of drinking water.
Ms Hardy pointed to years of underinvestment that means “areas of the country will run out of drinking water by the middle of the next decade”.
She added: “We are taking these unprecedented steps to get reservoirs built and secure our drinking water supplies for the decades to come.”
Anglian Water is proposing the two reservoirs that have been designated nationally significant. It wants to build the Lincolnshire reservoir south of Sleaford and is partnering with Cambridge Water for the Fens Reservoir between Chatteris and March in Cambridgeshire.
Environment Minister Steve Reed has had to intervene (Image: Getty)
Under the plans, the Lincolnshire reservoir would provide up to 166 million litres a day – enough to fill 1.8 million baths – for up to 500,000 homes.
It would be completed by 2040, and the Fens Reservoir, supplying 87 million litres a day to 250,000 homes in the driest region of the UK, would be completed by 2036.
Both projects will now progress to the consultation phase, gathering views from communities and stakeholders, the Government said.
Water companies across England have committed to bringing nine new reservoirs online by 2050, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands and Somerset, with the potential to supply 670 million litres of extra water per day.
