BACK in November 1998, the European Commission issued a directive on the
quality of drinking water. Member states have to incorporate this into their
legislation by 25 December this year. A consultation period for the regulations
that the government proposes for Britain closed at the end of June.
The environment minister Michael Meacher told MPs recently that the
consultation elicited 350 responses. He went on to say that the Commission鈥檚
directive includes an option to relax controls on sodium or artificially
softened water. However, he said he has decided not to do this because high
sodium levels can damage a baby鈥檚 kidneys: the water used to make up infant
formula should be safe for babies to drink, and not put them at risk of infant
hypernatraemia.
Sydney Chapman asked Meacher if he was aware that estimates showed that 50
per cent of previous EU water directives had not dealt with health and safety
aspects of the water, but were entirely to do with its colour and taste?
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Britain, he said, had spent hundreds of millions鈥攊f not
billions鈥攐f pounds in meeting unnecessary standards.
Meacher replied that Chapman had understated the importance to householders
of receiving water that is free of unpleasant taste or discoloration. Each year
there are between 300 and 400 complaints about such matters. But our tap water
is now as good as anywhere on the Continent!
TONY WRIGHT, MP for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, is concerned by the amount of
sand and gravel being taken from the seas around Britain. He told MPs in an
adjournment debate that 15 per cent of the aggregates used for construction in
England and Wales in 1999 was dredged from the seas. And of the 23.7 million
tonnes of sand and gravel extracted, 40 per cent came from the east coast.
Wright went on to say that since 1992 scientists from the Centre for
Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science鈥攁n agency of the Ministry
of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food鈥攈ave been studying the cumulative
impact of dredging and its effect on fish populations around dredging sites (see
www.cefas.co.uk/Scientificframeset.htm). Aspects of the studies鈥攕uch as
the effect of the sediment plumes thrown up by dredging鈥攚ill continue over
the next three years.
Beverley Hughes, a junior minister at the Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions (DETR), replied that marine-dredged materials are
needed for coastal defences and for 鈥渂each nourishment鈥濃�攖o replace
material lost from the beaches through erosion. The latter accounts for 10 per
cent of extracted marine materials. The east coast of England, she said, more
than any other area, relies on such materials for this. Between 1994 and 1998,
that area used about 23 million tonnes for beach nourishment鈥攎ore than 60
per cent of the total material used nationally. As well as being a regional
issue, it has implications well beyond Norfolk.
The minister said that the government would soon be introducing a new
regulatory regime to bring marine extraction under statutory control. The DETR
will then become the authority controlling marine dredging in English waters.
Applications will be considered only after an environmental impact assessment
has been made. It will become a criminal offence to dredge the seabed without
permission.
