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EAST SUFFOLK

East Suffolk is dominated by agriculture and characterised by low rainfall. The soil along the east coast is light and free-draining, ideal for growing root vegetables. But these crops are reliant on irrigation and demand for water is outstripping supply.
Flows are being reduced by abstraction to levels that may not support species and habitats in almost 40% of our water bodies. The volume of water abstracted from aquifers and water bodies must be reduced substantially to return abstraction to sustainable levels. There are 97 protected areas within the catchment, many of which are water dependent. Protecting these areas may require even more stringent restrictions on abstraction.

What will we achieve?

Scoping workshop

A workshop with stakeholders will develop a shared understanding of the water demand problem across sectors and will inform the preparation of a simple visual representation of the East Suffolk catchment… Read More

Management strategy development

This task will use existing datasets and water resource models and climate predictions to investigate different options for meeting current and future demand and to select the preferred option(s). Read More

Management strategy piloting

For this task a new water management and visualization approach for East Suffolk will be piloted and tested using desktop approaches. This will involve tracking key performance indicators that will test… Read More

Who is involved?

The stakeholders will include local municipalities, county councils, municipal associations, planning authorities, government departments (e.g. DEFRA), Environment Agency, water utilities, drainage boards, Highways and Energy companies, Essex and Suffolk Catchment Partnership partners and sub-catchment organisations, Essex and Suffolk Water Abstractors Group (ESWAG), Rivers Trusts, Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, national and multi-national companies e.g. retailers, food and farming businesses, NFU and other agriculture and land management organisations, communities, general public (water users), citizen scientists and volunteers. This list is not conclusive – please do get in touch if you would like to be involved in the project.

RECENT ARTICLES

  • The Water for Tomorrow Guidance Pack lists all of the tools and resources partners have developed to help us all understand and adapt to a future with less water. This document details some of the methods used to engage stakeholders

  • Water for Tomorrow funded local projects across the 3 English pilot sites, working with local organisations to build on and develop partnerships between different stakeholders at the local scale. In East Suffolk, this work was delivered collaboratively through the East

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