Water, Water Everywhere?

The UK is likely, by 2050, to have a water deficit of 4bn litres. Much of our current water comes from aquifers and rivers. The Environment Agency (EA) issues licences to people and businesses to abstract water from these locations. It's charged with monitoring this process. The EA has been revealed, however, to have nearly halved its water-use inspections in the last 5 years. It's also been carrying out increasing numbers of 'desk-based' inspections, that simply rely on the honesty of the licence holder (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/02/environment-agency-england-water-use-inspections-rivers-aquifers). Reduced on-site inspections is good news for agriculture and Water Companies. It's not, however, good news for the environment or any UK drive for water sufficiency. The EA has effectively been set up to fail.