The Awards recognise excellence in water conservation and efficiency and there is a specific category for farmers and growers. The closing date is 30 July 2004.
BAWAG held four workshops on abstraction issues on 1st July. Members found the workshops were a good way of producing an action plan to retain licences. UKCEED felt that the ideas of local workshops could be extended to the issue of diffuse pollution at a parish level. BAWAG (Broadland Agricultural Water Abstractors Group) has 150 members in Norfolk abstraction 15 million cubic meters of water.
Evidence to EFRA
John Place and Andrew Alston from BAWAG have been giving evidence to the EFRA committee on Climate change, Water resources and Flooding. This evidence was extremely useful to the committee and was well received.
Sites of Special Scientific Interest
There are over 4,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in England, covering around 7% of the country's land area. Over half of these sites, by area, are internationally important for their wildlife, and designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Special Protection Areas (SPAs) or Ramsar sites. Many SSSIs are also National Nature Reserves (NNRs) or Local Nature Reserves (LNRs).
The Environment Agency is responsible for managing water resources in England and Wales. One of the ways that this is done is through a system of issuing licences for abstracting water.
In March 1999, the Government reviewed this system and decided to make a number of changes. Many of these changes need new legislation but the Environment Agency is able to achieve some of them within our present powers. Foremost amongst these is the development of Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies (CAMS).
©2004