§ 27. Mr. John Hallasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will give a general direction, in the public interest, to ensure that water extracted from National Coal Board mines in England and Wales is made available for public use and not allowed to go to waste.
§ Mr. MacCollNo, Sir. Water from mines varies from time to time both in quality and quantity. The right use for it in each case is best left to river authorities and water undertakers to decide. Where it is not used for public supply it can play a useful part in augmenting river flows.
§ Mr. HallIs the hon. Gentleman aware that last year some 88,000 million 1131 gallons of water were pumped from N.C.B. mines in England and Wales at a cost approaching 5s. per ton of saleable coal in many of the mines? As this represents about one month's water consumption in a country which is running short of water, should not this problem be considered again?
§ Mr. MacCollWe are aware of it and we are looking at it. One of the problems is that the overall figure hides the fact that this is spasmodic and varies in quality and is spread over a very wide area.