30/11/10
The new vision for water of a 14-strong conservation collective is spot-on and makes a valuable contribution to the debate about water. The same can't be said of its methods or timetable.
The Blueprint coalition of organisations stretches from little to large in every sense: from Buglife to WWF, National Trust to Waterwise; and with clear objectives for behavioural and regulatory change.
The demand is for delivery by 2015 at the latest. Yet to assume that cutting consumption by a fifth, for example, or full cost reflectivity, or abstraction licence reform, can be achieved without recognising differences between catchments, or to a nationally dictated timeline, is to confound the group's own vision of "sustainable" water. For these and other proposed reforms require equal attention to social and economic objectives.
Blueprint for Water
Water UK press release
Blueprint for Water
Blueprint coalition - 10 steps
