{"id":634345,"date":"2026-08-13T04:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/634345\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T04:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:01:16","slug":"protected-chalk-stream-could-be-tapped-to-combat-water-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/634345\/","title":{"rendered":"Protected chalk stream could be tapped to combat water shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Measham, the chief executive of the group, said: \u201cIt is extremely frustrating to spend our time objecting again to a drought order because Southern Water has failed to do its job properly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouthern Water promised in 2018 it would use all best endeavours to provide alternative solutions to pumping the Test below safe limits. We will be lucky to see any meaningful alternatives before the mid-2030s \u2013 nearly a decade late. This is a delay the salmon cannot afford.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Dark plume\u2019 of sewage<\/p>\n<p>Southern said it had a range of environmental monitoring and mitigation measures in place.<\/p>\n<p>The application to draw more water from the Test comes a month after Southern pleaded guilty to <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2026\/05\/23\/water-companies-dumped-10000-hours-worth-of-sewage-rivers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">discharging a \u201cdark plume\u201d of sewage<\/a> into a four-mile stretch of the river.<\/p>\n<p>The Environment Agency, which discovered the incident during a routine water quality check, also criticised the company for failing to alert authorities.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the drought order, Southern has applied for a \u201cnon-essential use ban\u201d which will crack down further on the use of water by businesses.<\/p>\n<p>The fresh measures would ban leisure centres and gyms from filling swimming pools and could also force car washes to close.<\/p>\n<p>Southern Water supplies around 2.6 million homes across Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Hampshire.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for the company said: \u201cThis isn\u2019t a choice between protecting the river and supplying customers. We\u202fhave to\u202fdo both. The drought order process helps ensure we can\u202fmaintain\u202fessential water supplies to customers during an exceptional drought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWere it implemented, it would be covered by the regulations which are designed to balance environmental protection with the needs of communities that rely on the River Test for their water supply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Defra spokesman said: \u201cWe are working closely with the Environment Agency, water companies, farmers, and environmental organisations to protect water supplies and minimise environmental damage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all have a role to save water in these unprecedented times, and any drought order must weighed up carefully against impacts to nature and people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Measham, the chief executive of the group, said: \u201cIt is extremely frustrating to spend our time objecting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[79,19559,18,440,19,17,133,1702,46523,138020,443],"class_list":["post-634345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-business","tag-drought","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-standard","tag-top-story","tag-uk-weather","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117086210506652520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}