Climate change – water supply issues
50. Policy CC/WE: Water efficiency in new developments, is not going to solve the potable water crisis
affecting Cambridgeshire, a crisis which is only likely to deepen if the report written by Stantec for the
Shared Planning Service is ignored.
51. The Environment Agency document titled “Water stressed areas – final classification 2021”, published in
July 2021 by DEFRA, included the fact that the supply areas of Cambridge Water and Anglian Water are
areas of serious water stress, page 6. According to Appendix 3 of this document, Cambridge Water needs
to reduce abstraction by 22 megalitres per day from levels current at 1st July 2021, and Anglian Water
needs to reduce abstraction by 189 megalitres per day from levels current at 1st July 2021.
52. Anglian Water’s proposed solution to this problem, pumping water from North Lincolnshire, appears
completely impracticable because the Environment Agency, in the same report, has also classified North
Lincolnshire as an area of serious water stress.
53. Another solution being considered by Anglian Water, according to Water Resources East, is to build two
reservoirs in the Fens. However, this idea seems to completely ignore the fact of sea level rise which will
likely cause much, if not all, of the Fens to be flooded by seawater within decades.