Friends of the Earth Birmingham Action Briefing Aug 98/Sep 98

Water

Over two weeks in late July and early August, schoolchildren from across the city will be working on a project to ascertain the extent of water pollution in the Sandwell Valley. Their fully professional investigation techniques have been arranged via The University of the New Age, a teacher inspired organization aimed at accelerating the learning of Birmingham’s young people.

Throughout the two weeks the children will be on fieldtrips taking samples of water, testing for pollution and tracing pollutents back to the source in the industrial heartlands.

The investigators will have access to the latest technology such as CD Roms and the Internet as well as being able to question officers from the Environment Agency.

Water is essential for the continuation of life and according to the National Rivers Authority, by the time these young people reach their mid-30’s there will be a deficit in supply in the Severn Trent area. The only question open for debate is the extent to which there will be a water shortage.

Climate change is expected to make Britain warmer and wetter; yet, there is still likely to be shortages of rainfall in the south and east where demand is set to grow considerably. Also, rainfall is going to be increasingly concentrated in the winter months leading to flooding and low river flows in summer.

Adverse affects on river flows is bad news for Britain’s Biodiversity, birdlife will struggle for food in winter and with exposed riverbanks in the summer, there is a threat to the safety of nestlings from preditors.

It is aso important to consider why demand is expected to grow. Whilst there is little expectation of population growth in the early part of the next millenium many of these young people are sure to continue the trend of living alone. John Prescott has raised a debate over the need to build 200,000 new homes and all of these will be using more water.

If we are going to offer our children a comfortable future then we must take steps now to conserve our supplies of water.

Look around your home and think where you could save! Why not fit a Hippo bag to your toilet system; easy to install and they could save up to 19.4 litres of water a day from your home. Ring Severn Trent and ask for a supply.

Also, Raindrop, a company in Dewsbury, have developed a Rain-sava which collects water from your drainpipe and diverts it to a water butt which can then be used to water your garden.

Take a shower instead of a bath, this could save 45 litres of water and next time you are buying a washing machine think energy efficiency. Indeed why not shower with a friend and save more?

Needless to say, with all of the problems facing us in the furure we can ill afford to tolerate pollution.

It is to be hoped that by taking part in this project our young people will develop the confidence and the know how, to fight to protect their environment which will only be sustainable if we tread lightly.

Andrew Medley