30/09/10
Let The View take to you on a journey, out to the countryside. With the wind at your back, a good pair of walking boots and a waterproof, let’s stride across springy peat, the afternoon sun glistening on the newly-fallen rain which highlights the soft contours of the moor...
You feel the catch in the back of your legs as you walk up a hill, passing a farm on your way. There are people working the fields, and you can see tanks, tractors and the other paraphernalia of a working farm. Onwards, and upwards, and, as we crest the hill, pausing briefly to admire the spectacular view of purple tinged hills and glittering lakes down below, we head for that rather nice looking pub nestling in the valley…
Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to bring you back there. But, pint and a pie aside, you may not have realised it, but you have just had a mental walk through a water treatment plant.
The peat, newly restored with the help of water companies, provides a natural water filter, and the farm is also providing treatment, through rainwater collection tanks and reduced levels of chemicals with help from soil scientists and agronomists. The result is that glittering lake down below, far cleaner than it would have been, and needing far less chemical treatment as a result.
This is just a snapshot of what companies are doing across the country, creating innovative solutions to the potential problem of pouring more concrete.
Although catchment management has always existed as part of the Water Framework Directive, the last price review allowed it to flourish. This area of water management is attracting new people into the industry with creative ideas on how to provide clean, safe drinking water by working with the environment.
