Clause 7 - Rights of navigation, harbour
Water Bill [Lords]
2:45 pm
Ms Sue Doughty (Guildford, Liberal Democrat)
Much of the Bill relates to river systems, water companies' reservoirs and abstraction from streams and rivers for such purposes as sprinklers and trickle irrigation, and yet a large amount of water is in the navigation system. That concerns us, because if one takes a holistic view of water management, there does not seem to be a good reason to manage rivers but not canals, which also extract water. Water is pumped to the head of a canal and used to manage the waterway. That pumping and the holding of water creates reservoirs.
Consideration has been given over the years to using canals and waterway systems as a national water grid. That has been an unpopular proposal, and there have been several objections to it.