Clean Water

 

 

An estimated 70% of our drinking water is collected from the uplands and the peat soils act like a huge sponge, storing water and releasing it slowly into watercourses.

 

It is ironic that reservoir catchment areas were often planted with trees, in the belief that they would slow down the run off of water into reservoirs.  It is now understood that the amount of evaporation of water from the tree surface actually reduces the amount of water reaching the watercourses.  The best land surface for water catchment is open moorland with healthy peat soil.

 

In order to ensure that the water collected from their moorland is as clean as possible, managers avoid actions which may cause soil erosion (such as overgrazing or fires which damage the peat layer).  Erosion washes soil into watercourses and causes water discolouration as well as silting of reservoirs. 

 

In the Government’s post war efforts to improve grazing, some moors were drained or “gripped”.  Again, that is now recognised to have caused problems with eroded drains becoming a hazard to birds and animals as well as water discoloration.  Many landowners are now actively blocking up these drains to slow run-off, reduce soil erosion, and to re-wet the peat bogs.   This has a range of other benefits, not least more insects and more boggy pools for waders.

 

There is increasing attention to management of catchment areas, governed by the EU Water Framework Directive.

 

 

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