A THAMES Water report has predicted that water will run out in six years' time unless water-saving schemes are put in place alongside a planned £1bn reservoir between Abingdon and Wantage.
The draft Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP), called Water - planning for the future, was published today. It estimates that if water use carries on as it has been, there will be a deficit of more than 39 megalitres of water per day in South and North Oxfordshire and the Swindon area by 2014.
The only way to combat this, the company suggests, is to mend leaking pipes, introduce metering to every household in the area and to build the reservoir. It claims that the delivery of its water metering and water efficiency programme would provide enough water until a reservoir is built in 2021.
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Richard Aylard, the company's head of external affairs and sustainability, said: "We think that even when we have done all we can on leakage and meterage and helping educate our customers about water wastage, it still won't be enough given the increase in the population and the changes in climate. That's why we need to start now to have something with water in it by 2021."
The company estimates a population growth of 1.2 million in its supply area in the next 25 years. In the report, it has outlined six similar schemes for a reservoir in the area. The biggest scheme would yield 48 megalitres of water per day and would be built by 2021.
However, Nick Thompson, a member of the Group Against the Reservoir Development, believes that a reservoir is not the answer.
He said: "We are fairly confident that this does not prove that the Thames Water proposal for the reservoir is the most sustainable or in the best interests of the customer.
"If it was unavoidable and entirely unpreventable then we would not be resisting the reservoir, but we are fairly confident that they do not prove that."
Sue Rees, a member of the Reservoir Affected Parishes group, said: "In my personal opinion, I am convinced that there are other ways.
"I still don't think that Thames Water has demonstrated or provided a good reason for this particular thing, maybe for a couple of smaller ones, but I don't think the case is proven for this enormous reservoir."
People have 16 weeks to feedback their views on the draft plan, which will also go to the Secretary of State for Environment, Hilary Benn, the minister who will decide whether the reservoir proposal goes ahead.
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