Water Needs (Hansard, 5 February 1980)

§ Mr. Peter Walker

The advisory council's report is being published today and copies are available in the Library of the House. The Secretary of State for Wales and I are grateful to Sir Nigel Strutt and his colleagues for this valuable review of the water needs of agriculture and horticulture over the next 20 years, the obstacles that stand in the way of the full and effective use of water resources, and the positive measures and attitudes that must be adopted.

The report projects a doubling of the water needs of the industry as a whole by the end of the century and, more importantly, a fourfold increase in the demand for irrigation water. Emphasis is laid on the economic benefits to be gained from extending the irrigation area and making use of the improved techniques likely to develop over the course of the next two decades. It stresses the need for the expansion of storage facilities and the careful husbanding of water resources. 191W We are in broad agreement with the council's assessment on all these issues and indeed, in the foreknowledge of that assessment and the quality of the report, last week I announced increases in the rates of grant for farm water supply and storage. There are valuable sections in the report on water quality and research and development. Although the former appears to present few problems, there are a number of useful recommendations that we shall pursue. The value of modern irrigation technology is rightly underlined and our Departments' research, development and advisory programmes will take account of the council's recommendations. The council also expresses some interesting views on the operation of licensing policies.

This is a challenging report which we warmly commend for study and thought by all those concerned with water supply and its use in our industry.