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Hampshire Water Strategy Following extensive consultation in 2001 and 2002, the Hampshire Water Strategy (HWS) was launched in March 2003 and has recently celebrated its first birthday. In its first year, the HWS has seen several major successes and much work establishing significant projects that will help to ensure the long-term future of Hampshire’s water environment. The HWS provides the blueprint for the activities of the Hampshire Water Partnership and its members. The Partnership is chaired by HCC and consists of nine organisations that are major stakeholders in the management of Hampshire’s water resources. This breadth of expertise in the Partnership is key to the success of the HWS, and part of the reason that the HWS is considered an example of UK best-practice. The HWS is all about sustainable water management. Firstly it describes the pressures and threats, and then the initiatives already underway to improve water resource management. It distils these into an action plan that contains 42 actions and over 100 targets that compliment and fill the gaps between existing initiatives. The actions and targets involve awareness raising, community engagement, biodiversity, agriculture, demand management, development planning, integrated land and river management, and sustainable drainage systems. The pressures facing Hampshire’s water environment are substantial and increasing. Per-capita demand for water is increasing, as is the population. Development will mean more pollution and greater need for water treatment. Climate change is expected to have an overall warming and drying effect, which will reduce recharge of groundwater, increase demand for irrigation and concentrate pollutants. These factors all contribute to an increasingly unsustainable demand on Hampshire’s water resources and could potentially have a disastrous effect on Hampshire’s river systems – world famous chalk streams and otherwise. Yet, most Hampshire residents are unaware of the consequences of wasting water. The HWS is taking a proactive approach to addressing these issues through various projects – 4 examples of which follow. The Hampshire Water Festival of August 2003 was the first major awareness raising initiative of the Partnership and was a massive success. It engaged 10,000 Hampshire residents and many private and public organisations with the major issues confronting the county’s water environment. The Partnership is pleased to announce that there will be another Water Festival in 2004 – Saturday 14 August in Winchester, hopefully with satellite events around the county. The HWS also intends to engage people with water issues in their immediate local environment. HCC, in conjunction with the Hampshire Association of Parish and Town Councils (an HWS partner) has been recruiting volunteers to champion local water issues. A training event for these Water Champions will be held during the summer. Volunteers will then pursue their local water interests with the backing and support of HWS partners. Two of the HWS partners, The Environment Agency and National Farmers’ Union have very recently launched the Test and Itchen Landcare Project. This two year initiative will engage farmers within the Test and Itchen catchments with the aim of reducing soil erosion and levels of harmful runoff entering ground and surface water, and to improve take-up of environmental stewardship schemes. Other HWS partners, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, The Environment Agency and HCC have recently been successful in a Heritage Lottery Fund planning grant application for the regeneration of the Itchen Navigation. The project will benefit biodiversity, heritage and public access to this historic watercourse. For a copy of the HWS or our newsletter, more information regarding the Festival or other projects, or to volunteer as a Water Champion, please contact Mike Bridgeman or Andrew Pitt on 01962 846810, email contact@hampshireswater.org.uk, or visit our website www.hampshireswater.org.uk
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