Blueprint for Water publishes green PR19 manifesto

Blueprint for Water – a coalition of 18 leading environmental NGOs backed by six million supporters – has published a manifesto for the water environment at PR19. The document makes a series of calls on the industry, and is designed to influence English and Welsh company boards and Customer Challenge Groups as they discuss price and service packages for 2020-25.

The Blueprint for PR19 document focuses on the following priorities, making detailed suggestions within each area and putting forward measures of success:

• Source to sea catchment protection and restoration.

• Stopping pollution.

• Ambitious demand management and wastage reduction, resulting in a “water neutral” PR19 where no more water is taken from the environment despite demographic and climatic change.

• Keeping rivers flowing and wetlands wet.

The coalition further calls on the industry in light of Brexit to develop business plans consistent with the the principles and obligations enshrined in the Water Framework Directive and Nature Directives. “We want water companies to work with Blueprint to ensure that the government maintains overall levels of environmental protection, with any future amendments to have full parliamentary scrutiny and public consultation,” the paper urged.