{"id":115261,"date":"2023-06-30T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/water-crisis-ministers-step-up-drought-planning-as-fears-grow-over-future-of-thames-water\/"},"modified":"2023-06-30T08:00:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:00:09","slug":"water-crisis-ministers-step-up-drought-planning-as-fears-grow-over-future-of-thames-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/water-crisis-ministers-step-up-drought-planning-as-fears-grow-over-future-of-thames-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Water crisis: Ministers step up drought planning, as fears grow over future of Thames Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button \" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115261\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nThe government has announced it has stepped up drought planning efforts in the wake of the hottest June on record, as reports indicate the UK&#8217;s largest water supplier, the debt-laden Thames Water, might be placed into special administration by Ministers. In a statement published yesterday, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the National Drought Group &#8211; a taskforce which brings together representatives from the Environment Agency, government, water companies, and farming and environmental groups &#8211; met to discuss plans to boost the resilience of England&#8217;s water supply this summer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The recent heatwave has served as a reminder that we need to prepare for weather extremes and act now to ensure resilient water supplies,&#8221; said Simon Hawkins, chair of the National Drought Group and director of operations for the southeast and east at the Environment Agency. &#8220;The Environment Agency, water companies and partners are working collaboratively to handle drought risk across the country; with our staff managing abstraction licences to balance need, ensuring water companies implement their drought plans, working with farmers to manage resources, and rescuing fish in areas where river levels are extremely low.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Defra said reservoir stocks on 20 June were at 83 per cent of their total capacity and stressed that exceptionally wet and very dry patches of weather meant that it could no longer rely on rainfall alone to ensure plentiful water supplies. Water Minister Rebecca urged water companies to step up their resilience planning, noting she had recently visited reservoirs in Devon and Cornwall, areas suffering from drought.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Through our Plan for Water, we are ensuring key water supply infrastructure such as reservoirs can be built more quickly, helping increase our resilience in the long-term,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Whilst we all have a responsibility to protect this precious resource, water companies must step up their efforts to ensure water resilience. This includes not only increasing supplies but also reducing leakage and encouraging water efficiency to better deliver for both customers and the environment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It comes as the government and water regulator Ofwat are reportedly drawing up contingency plans for the potential financial collapse of the UK&#8217;s largest water company, Thames Water. Reports yesterday suggested the company could be placed into temporary public ownership by Ministers amid concerns about its financial position. The firm, which is owned by a number of pension funds and sovereign debt investors, has \u00a314bn of debt and has been repeatedly fined for discharge of raw sewage into rivers and missing environmental targets on pollution and sewer flooding.<\/p>\n<p>The water sector has faced significant criticism in recent months over the ongoing sewage crisis and its plans to secure investment to upgrade sewage works by increasing consumer bills, despite having paid significant dividends to shareholders and bonuses to senior executives over the past decade. Earlier this week, Thames Water CEO Sarah Bentley announced she was stepping down, just weeks after reports she was due to receive pay and perks worth \u00a31.6m this year.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessgreen.com\/news\/4119108\/water-crisis-ministers-step-drought-planning-fears-grow-future-thames-water\">Business Green<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/water-crisis-ministers-step-up-drought-planning-as-fears-grow-over-future-of-thames-water\/\">Water crisis: Ministers step up drought planning, as fears grow over future of Thames Water<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[425,575,4898,454],"class_list":["post-115261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crisis","tag-environmental-news-en","tag-thames","tag-water"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}