SPECIAL REPORT
End of term report: Could
we do better for the WFD?
The WFD’s deadline for achieving its water management objectives is getting closer. But, says Chris Williams, Chief
Operating Officer of Hydro International, recent flood activity has made us lose sight of the underlying concerns
Improving control of stormwater volume and quality close to the fall point would get us closer to meeting the WFD
A
re we being distracted from the main surface water management and groundwater man of Europe’ over the past 20 years to having
event? With the effects of climate management was to achieve ‘good status for all world class drinking water, fish in the Thames
change hitting home to the general waters by a set deadline’, i.e. the end of 2015. and 71 blue flag beaches. We must not become
public over the past four years (dry, very wet, The Environment Agency (EA) has the complacent and the drop in the number of
wet, wet), there has been a flurry of government responsibility for overseeing its implementation quality bathing beaches this year should be a
activity on the water front. by working with water companies and other warning. One might argue that establishing a
This has resulted in a lot of public focus, agencies, and the companies’ revenue and better basis for good quality water for the future
government enquiries, reports, promised action expenditure are overseen by Ofwat through five- is in all of our interests, and that better
and attempts to ensure that a wider community year Asset Management Plan cycles (AMP). explanation and education of the long-term aims
is involved in finding solutions, culminating in the AMP 5, the last in the series before we have for our total water resource management would
draft Flood and Water Management bill, which to face the ‘end-of-term’ assessment, starts in gain support. Perhaps implementation of the
has recently finished its consultation period. 2010. Thus, it’s a good time to look at what we wider strategy for better quality water a victim of
All well and good, but a look at the have achieved, what we ought to be achieving the credit squeeze? Article four of the WFD
fundamental problems that underlie the and what we might be able to do to achieve a allows measures not perceived as being of
management of our water resources can be reasonable pass, if not an A*. sufficient cost/benefit ratio to be derogated and
dated back to 25 to 30 years ago. an extension of time to be sought.
Where is the main objective?
The context Perhaps as a result of the flood activity, and the Flood defence or prevention?
The Water Framework Directive (WFD), which desire by those in charge of water policy to be The EA polices the steps towards meeting WFD’s
was formally adopted by European Parliament in seen to address current concerns, we may have requirements, and has recently delivered its draft
2000, was the consolidation of a number of EU lost sight of the concerns that underlie the WFD. River Basin Management Plans, in December
water initiatives and directives dating from 1975, Ofwat’s ‘Future water and sewage charges 2008. This event illustrates the two sides of the
with a particular concentration in the late 1980s 2010-15: Draft determinations – executive UK’s water management equation, and how they
and through the 1990s. summary points out in the foreword that we are still moving on parallel tracks, hopefully
The WFD’s co-ordination of objectives for have moved from being considered the ‘dirty towards future convergence.
14 Water & Wastewater Treatment September 2009
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