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Dr R.A.H.Nichols, Geologist ret. - Member of Groundwater Review Group set up to monitor work of BGS
With reference to the Scrutiny Panel's forthcoming reviews of the draft Water Resources Law, I would be grateful if the following observations could be taken into account;
- There is an urgent need to locate and protect all the surface and underground water resources in the island for use at all times in case of drought.
- It is necessary to calculate the available supply at regular intervals, from all sources, including the flow rates from wells and bores and the changes in the standing water levels in bores and wells.
- It is necessary to analyse the water regularly from closely spaced sites island wide to determine and monitor the quality.
- It is necessary to monitor the amount of water used from all mains, water bores and wells.
- The costs of supplying mains water can be met through metering and charging for the units used.
- It seems that this cannot be validly done for ground water users as they have already paid for supplying their water eg. the costs of drilling equipping, pumping and piping.
- In addition, no one can own the ground water because it flows below households. It does not seem that it can be a question of "who owns the above, owns the below".
- Use of ground water should, however, be metered for units used in order to monitor the depletion of each aquifer and/or catchment area.