Full Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, Issue ...

66Green and Fernández-BilbaoWithin the United Kingdom (UK), thereare increasing differences between practice inEngland, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland,both in terms of institutions and legislation. Theimplementation of the Water Framework Directiveis no exception. Hence, this paper will focus onEngland, where 95 percent of water bodies are atrisk of failing the 2015 objectives. High populationdensities and future development are the mainthreats to England’s water resources.In contrast with the principles of IntegratedWater Resources Management (IWRM) and theWater Framework Directive, England is a verycentralized country. This is reflected in the choiceof the Environment Agency as competent authority.The Environment Agency (EA) is the public bodyresponsible for planning and managing waterresources (Environment Agency 2004) includingwater quality and abstraction licenses. TheEnvironment Agency was established by the 1995Environment Act and it is a non-departmental publicbody of the Department for the Environment, Foodand Rural Affairs (Defra) in England but it has nodirect democratic oversight.England: ContextEngland has a temperate climate where rainfalldoes not vary greatly from month to month.Rainfall is 604 mm/year in the east, compared to1312 mm/year in the west. Although per capitaavailability of water in some parts is similar to thatof Somalia, this is a misleading comparison. Waterscarcity tends to happen in countries were themajor water user is irrigation (Berbel et al. 2005)and only supplementary irrigation is required insome parts of England (Weatherhead et al. 1994).In European terms, English rivers are small,although there is a variety in length, width, andsize. Most of the rivers are lowland, low-energyexcept in upland areas where there are highenergy rivers that flood quickly. Rivers fulfilla variety of functions, including water supply,industry, commerce, irrigation and are also usedfor wastewater discharge from sewage treatmentworks and other sources. There is some veryminor commercial fishing and most fishing is forrecreation. However, the main recreational usesare riverside ones such as walking or enjoyingthe landscape and wildlife (Tunstall and Green2003). Navigation is mainly recreational althoughthere is a long history of commercial navigation(Environment Agency 2001).In terms of quality, the first problem faced ismainly diffuse pollution from both agricultural andurban areas. Secondly, England was the first countryto industrialize and rivers were extensively adaptedduring that process, starting with constructionof weirs and races for water mills, and going onthrough canalization for navigation, and reservoirsto support navigation. Petts and Wood (1988) havesuggested that as a result of all these activities,around 89 percent of United Kingdom’s rivers areregulated or modified to some extent. Rivers arean integral part of the potable water supply systemand of the wastewater treatment system: given thesmall size of the rivers, it is not uncommon forthe outflow of the wastewater treatment worksto constitute 60 percent of the base flow of theriver. Despite a great improvement in the qualityof water bodies since the 1990s (EnvironmentAgency 2002) 95 percent of rivers are currentlyat risk of failing the environmental objectives ofthe Water Framework Directive (Department forthe Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2005).Low-flows caused by over-abstraction of water isan important issue and the Environment Agencyrecently estimated that current abstractions shouldbe reduced by under two per cent in order to avoidenvironmental damage (Environment Agency2004).England has, for Europe, quite high domesticwater usage (150 liters per capita per day) andit is densely populated (343 people per sq km)accounting for 83 percent of the total UnitedKingdom population of 49.1 million. Around21 percent of land is already in some form ofurban usage and the areas covered by some formof environmental designation total 42 percent,including national parks, areas of outstandingnatural beauty, sites of special interest, andgreen belts. Some areas are covered by multipledesignations, so the proportion is somewhatless. By 2020 there will be around 4 million newhomes and much of the growth will take place insouth-east England, which is also the driest partof the country (Environment Agency 2004). Insoutheast England, an area roughly equivalent tothe Netherlands in both population and size, theUCOWRJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATION