A Victorian plan to move water from Wales to London to help the South East with repeated droughts should be resurrected, union bosses have said.
London has this week officially entered a drought and the GMB union is proposing what it calls a “win-win plan”.
It is proposing that Thames Water takes water from United Utilities at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys and get it to the Thames, via the restoration of the Cotswold canals and Sapperton tunnel, MyLondon reports.
GMB London, the union for water workers, is repeating calls for Thames Water and the UK government to implement plans, first drawn up in Victorian times, to deal with predictable and expected periodic droughts in London and the South East.
Mark Holland, GMB London Regional Organiser for the water industry, said: “As we experience yet another utterly predictable period of summer drought GMB is calling yet again on politicians and the public to urge Thames Water to implement a plan first developed by the Victorians to move water from the west of the UK via the Severn and the Cotswold canals and Sapperton tunnel into the Thames.
"This is a win-win plan. Thames Water should accept the water being offered by United Utilities from Lake Vyrnwy and get it to the Thames via the restoration of the Cotswold canals and Sapperton tunnel.
"This plan was covered in the Thames Water 2019 draft plan for water supply for London in the 21st century but is not included in the current list of things Thames Water plan to do.
"Instead of this very workable plan one of the things Thames Water is planning to rely on is the hope of consumers cutting daily consumption from 145 litres to 125 litres.”
GMB, the water workers’ union, is calling for the government to back the “common sense and financially viable'' solution.
The UK reportedly uses just two per cent of the water that falls each year, which mostly makes its way into the sea.
The Wales plan has the potential to supply 300 million litres per day and restore canals for leisure and recreational use.
The GMB says it is also easier to do than build a new reservoir at Abingdon with a footprint the size of Heathrow Airport.
Figures shared by Labour recently showed that Thames Water suffers the equivalent of 161 litres of water leaks every day per property in the region.
Water company bosses from Thames Water were awarded £2.4m bonuses in 2020 and 2021, despite leaking billions of litres of water. Thames Water loses up to a quarter of all its water from leaks alone.
Liberal Democrat Twickenham MP Munira Wilson has said the money should be going into fixing their leaking pipes instead.
Water companies have only promised to halve leaks by 2050 despite predictions of a rise in summer droughts as record temperatures continue to be broken.
A yellow weather warning has been put in place by the Met Office as hit-and-miss thunderstorms are expected to develop across the capital.
Some parts of London could even see "torrential downpours", according to the UK's national weather service, as temperatures from the recent heatwaves finally look set to drop.
But the downpours are not expected to replenish water supplies as much of the land is too dry, causing run-offs and flooding.
The weather warning is set to come into effect from 10am this morning and will last until just before midnight this evening.
The Met Office has warned of spray and sudden flooding leading to harsh driving conditions and a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded rapidly by flash floods.
