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Want water? Move to Wales, says minister
Last updated at 13:37pm on 16.10.06Londoners should move to Wales to avoid the impact of the drought in the South East, a Government minister said today.
The bizarre advice came from Environment Minister Lord Rooker, who was responding to demands for a national water grid to avoid the problems of hosepipe bans and washing cars.
The peer said that the best thing was for people to consider moving to wetter parts of the country, including Wales, Scotland and the Midlands. "There is no question that the population and resources in this country are spread very unevenly," he said. "There is something immoral about taking a resource from other areas of the country to the South East. Rather than build a water grid, it would be much better to move the population and centres of Government and reconfigure the country more fairly."
Ministers are also considering a new system of leakage targets to stop so much water being wasted. Thames Water was ordered earlier this year by Ofwat to invest an extra £150 million fixing leaky pipes after it again missed its leakage target.
Replying to a parliamentary inquiry into Britain's water resources, Lord Rooker stressed the Government was already preparing for more arid spells, adding: "We are now planning for the possibility of a third dry winter and the drought stretching into next year."
A national water grid was put forward as one proposal to tackle droughts, which are particularly hitting the South East, however, Lord Rooker argued such a move would be too costly.
He highlighted an Environment Agency report, which found that to build five pipelines carrying 1,100 megalitres per day of water from the northern Pennines to London would cost up to £15 billion.
He condemned current metering levels as "pathetic" and urged water companies to use their powers to force homebuyers to have a meter installed.
Reader views (4)
How on earth do these idiots get these positions of power? If they had a normal job they'd last 5 minutes before being booted out for incompetence! The worst thing is that they are paid out of our taxes to represent us.
He says that the government are planning for the next dry spell but doesn't actually say how, which doesn't fill me with confidence...
- David, Tamworth, UK
So, another mad minister in the making, the most recent was in charge of our security and foisted ID cards on us, this one is the obvious candidate to take control of our water resources.
- Frank, London
Given Lord Rooker's views, will the Government now immediately announce that it is scrapping John Prescott's plan to build 300,000 new homes in Ashford and East Kent, where we do not have enough water for the homes already here? These homes should now be built in North Wales.
- Alan Holden, Canterbury, Kent
Perhaps Thames Water should not have built on reservoirs and perhaps the Government should stop concentrating on building more homes in the Thames Gateway!
- Sue, Sidcup, UK
