Are Cllr Monk & Jim O’Sullivan Cockalooloo?

In an area where water is scarcer per person than it is per person in Morocco or Egypt (Pg 8), Shepway District Council (SDC) wish to build up 12,000 homes and Highway England wish to build a 250 acre (101ha) lorry park. The area relies on groundwater for 73% of its public water supply – more than any other – area in the UK.

Is leader of SDC Cllr David Drury Monk and Head of Highways England, Jim O’Sullivan cockalooloo?

Jim O’Sullivan CEO Highways England

The two projects will need a massive 171.5 million litres of drinking water as only drinking water can be used when mixing concrete.

So it is safe to say that where we live across Shepway is an ‘area of water scarcity‘ as the co-ordinator of the Otterpool Coalition Group David Plumstead  has said.

Affinity Water supplies 43 million litres of water each day in South and East Kent to a population of more than 158,000 people. Affinity lose 20% of their water through leakage, which equates to three thousand one hundred and thirty nine million litres yearly and it is the customers who pick up the bill.

So how do affinity and other water companies collect their data on leakage?

Well according to Professor David Hall of The Public Services International Research Unit (2^nd Question & Answer)

 ‘The water companies have persuaded Ofwat that it’s very important they collect their leakage data at three in the morning. Why should this matter we ask ourselves? Surely water leaks out of pipes the same whether it’s three in the morning or not? But one thing that makes a huge difference to rates of leakage is pressure in the system. Water companies are obliged to maintain levels of pressure sufficient to deliver water throughout households and it’s very obvious if they’re not doing it. However, at three in the morning, very few people are using water. So half an hour before the leakage data is collected the water pressure is reduced sharply, as a result of which the leakage falls sharply.’

Sneaky very sneaky. So any numbers regarding water in SDC’s expression of Interest WILL BE an underestimate. If the pressure was at it ‘normal‘ pressure, the figure would be far higher.

So coming back to the Otterpool Park development, how does Cllr David Drury Monk intend to ensure there is enough water supplied to the new development he envisages?

Will he initiate every member of his cabinet to learn the rainmaker dance?

And his comment ‘Their ‘I’m all right Jack attitude’ ignores the very real need to provide new homes and jobs.‘ What’s the point of homes and jobs when there is not sufficient water to go around and we the people of Shepway already receive less water per person than persons in Morocco or Egypt?

Eastern and southern England is actually one of the most water stressed parts of the world ‘ not the UK, but the world. What does Cllr David Drury Monk not understand about that?

If Cllr Monk is looking for his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, regarding Otterpool Park, he best remember how rainbows are made, because they will become less frequent in years to come.

Also something for Cllr Monk and SDC to ponder is, on current trends, 2016 will be the hottest year ever measured. The previous record was set in 2015; the one before in 2014. Fifteen of the 16 warmest years have occurred in the 21st century. As temperature rises due to climate change, water which is already a scarcer commodity here in Shepway than in Morocco or Egypt, will become even scarcer.