The EA confirmed at an NFU-organised meeting on Wednesday that the current restrictions will be lifted for approximately 150 of the 240 farmers impacted by a cessation order announced last week.
皇家华人will work to find solutions for members who have not had restrictions lifted. It is also continuing its calls for the authorities to work with the farming community to deliver long-term solutions to ensure farmers and growers have guaranteed access to water during dry periods for the sake of national food security.听
NFU Vice-president Rachel Hallos, who spoke at the meeting, said: 鈥淭his was a huge and very immediate concern for many of our members, who are already having great challenges due to the extreme dry weather we have been experiencing.
鈥淲e are pleased to have been able to work collaboratively with the EA and Internal Drainage Board (IDB) to find a quick solution for some members. We will work with those members who have not had restrictions lifted and see what solutions can be found for them.
鈥淏ut it is vital, moving forward, that we continue to work with the government and the EA to find long-term solutions to the increasing extreme weather incidents we are experiencing in this country 鈥� this problem will not just go away.听
鈥淚 completely understand the importance of public access to water and the environmental protection that is needed, and we need to work together to find long-term solutions for everybody鈥檚 needs.听
鈥淭he scale of the problems we are seeing due to the dry weather on farms on the ground is horrendous. It is costing farm businesses enormous sums of money, and some businesses will never be able to recover. This will threaten our national food security. We need to fix this because we could be in this situation again.
鈥淭here is huge pressure on water in this country. It's about the bigger picture, storing the water when it rains for future use.听
"We need to ensure that agriculture's voice is heard, and I'm doing my upmost to ensure that is the case."
皇家华人called for an urgent meeting with the EA after members across the Cam and Ely Ouse catchments received notices of cessation of abstraction licences last week.听
Farmers in this area were in prolonged dry status, with many already making voluntary reductions, and anticipating that they had further restrictions to go before this last resort, so were surprised to no longer have access to vital water for their crops.
A meeting was held on Wednesday, when it was confirmed that for a limited number of licences, the water restrictions will be lifted, with the IDB able to add more water into the system, and new restrictions will be put in place allowing irrigation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights only, from 6pm to 6am. This will be on a temporary two-week basis and then reviewed.
A spokesperson for the EA said: 鈥淧rolonged dry weather continues to affect East Anglia.听
鈥淟ow river levels and dry conditions means we have had to apply temporary abstraction restrictions in the South Level of the Fens.听
鈥淭hese pre-agreed abstraction licence conditions are there to protect the environment and the rights of other abstractors.听
鈥淲e are working with the National Farmers鈥� Union, Internal Drainage Boards, and local farmers to manage water availability.听
鈥淚n future we can expect to see prolonged dry weather more frequently, so we encourage abstractors to make their business as resilient as possible and ask water users to use water wisely.鈥�
Those impacted are due to receive letters from the Environment Agency on Friday, July 18.
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More information听
- See more about the impact of the dry weather on farmers and growers and the NFU鈥檚 suggested solutions here:听听 Joint call to invest in resilient farming following dry weather 鈥� 皇家华人
- 皇家华人is calling for action to tackle the risks of wildfires during the hot weather. See more here: NFU calls for action to minimise wildfire risk as temperatures soar 鈥� 皇家华人