Wednesday 28 April 2010

WWF call for reduced abstraction from the River Kennet

Following on from their 2009 Rivers on the Edge campaign, the WWF have today released Riverside tales.

The report highlights the environmental damage caused to the Upper Kennet (and other chalkstream rivers) from over-abstraction, and notes that "despite the Environment Agency and water companies agreeing to reduce over-abstraction, funding has not yet been secured to make this happen."

See the previous posts on "The upper reach of the River Kennet" and "Snow flow at Swallowhead springs" for other images of the Kennet displaying how 'normal' seasonal variations in aquifer levels affect the Kennet and keep in mind how these levels may be significantly affected by over-abstraction.

Whilst you're reading why not test your local knowledge by identifying the location of the images at 1.04 -1.08 seconds in the Rivers on the Edge video and on pages 4 & 5 of the report.