WATER
Cambridge and its surrounding area are already experiencing water scarcity and over-abstraction of our rivers as a result of excessive development in the region. We are concerned by the way Cambridge City Council and South Cambs District Council are promoting house building at levels that exceed already-inflated government targets and that will have destructive effects on the river system.

The surge in the population of Cambridge and surroundings is already contributing
to a water crisis with the depletion of precious chalk aquifers which feed the Cam, Ouse and their tributaries, and insufficient water for farmers. The chalk streams are increasingly polluted by industrial waste, and runoff from agricultural and nonagricultural pesticide-use, and are also drying up. The proposed development, with its excessive targets to build homes, will exacerbate these problems.

The Environment Agency has requested that water companies and farmers reduce abstraction and it encourages more efficient use of water. Moreover, it maintains that any further growth will harm the environment. It says there is insufficient water to supply the existing population, let alone an expanded one. The Integrated Water Management Study, the Stantec Report, found that that low, medium and high regional growth scenarios all have a deleterious impact on the river system. To fill ‘the water gap’ it is proposed that water be transferred, by building new infrastructure (which itself will generate substantial carbon emissions), from areas which are already losing jobs and people to the Cambridge area. This would draw another resource from areas from which jobs and people are migrating. Surely it is better to encourage jobs in and movement of people to the places where the water and houses already exist?

The local plan makes no reference to the provision of sustainable water supplies, reduced flood risk and effective waste water treatment; these should be established as baseline conditions for any new development.