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<p>The Plan for Water sets out the actions we are taking to make abstraction sustainable.
Since we published our abstraction plan (see attachment) in 2017, the Environment
Agency has reduced damaging abstraction by returning 48 billion litres of water a
year to the environment and removed the risk to the environment of the potential abstraction
of 1.9 trillion litres of water.</p><p> </p><p>Water companies are told by the Environment
Agency about what abstractions are deemed unsustainable through the Water Industry
Environment Programme (see attachment) and the statutory water resources management
plans (see attachment) and take action to remove or reduce these abstractions. In
some cases, removal or reduction of abstraction licences will reduce the security
of water supply for people and businesses, so water companies will have to take appropriate
steps to reduce demand or develop new supplies of water to ensure they can still provide
water supplies.</p><p> </p><p>The deadlines water companies are given vary, as some
may require investigations into the level of reductions required. The Plan for Water
shows water companies have to take action to reduce a gap between how much water they
could supply when compared to future demand. The gap is 4 billion litres of water
per day, which includes reductions in abstractions to protect the environment and
accounts for the impacts of climate change on water sources. Water companies have
recently produced new water resources plans showing how they will address this gap
and the Environment Agency has produced a summary of how water companies (see attachment)
will increase supply and reduce demand over the next 25 years.</p>
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