31/03/11
The word 'innovation' calls to mind gleaming metals and plastics in hi-tech production plants. But if you work in the water industry, innovation might be a piece of black corrugated plastic, a low wooden slatted fence or a bale of reeds held together with biodegradable twine.
These are being used to block moorland ditches that were originally dug to drain the land for grazing and to speed up the progress of the water but now threaten biodiversity.
When water runs off the land too quickly, it takes vital nutrients and sediment with it, destroying ecosystems, choking fish spawning grounds downstream and decreasing flood resilience and water quality. The plastic, wood and reeds hold the water on the moor, raising the water table and helping spongy mosses to thrive. They in turn soak up and slow the water, increasing biodiversity, environmental health and water quality, and in some cases reducing the flood risk for communities downstream.
These low-tech measures are low-cost but highly effective innovations that have been developed by water companies in close co-operation with landowners, agricultural communities, local interest groups and conservationists. Through such catchment management schemes water companies are developing best practice in sustainable land management and providing benefits for the environment, food production and the customer.
