Andrew Alston: Water Abstractors Group (BAWAG)

As climate change bites over the next few decades, water resources will become an increasingly big issue for farmers and land managers in the UK. Hotter, drier summers will place greater pressure on supplies at the same time as the industry is being tasked with producing more food for a growing population.

Over in the East of England, a group of farmers are working together to tackle this issue head on. Set up in 1997, members of the Broadland Agricultural Water Abstractors Group are surrounded by 28 Broadland Special Sites of Scientific Interest, and started to feel pressure to protect supplies when their licences came up for renewal.

The group, which now counts breweries, glasshouses, and processors amongst its 180 members, cover 22 different water catchments. They work together to ensure they’re using their supplies as efficiently as possible, share knowledge and resources, and sub-groups have been set up within BAWAG to target particular locations or issues. Members are moving towards more efficient boom irrigation systems, and five reservoirs are in development.

Andrew Alston, a local farmer, contractor, and Chief Executive of the group, says that when they started, there was no support for farmers on this issue in the area. The Group’s success shows what can be achieved when farmers work together, and as a testament to this, they were awarded the Environment Agency’s Water Efficiency Award in 2007.

Thirty per cent of the water catchments in the UK are over abstracted, and the Environment Agency predict that demand for water could increase by 25% by 2020. Increasing efficiency of this precious resource is going to be fundamental to a secure and sustainable food supply system in the future.