:00:08. > :00:11.Are the nation's rivers and the wildlife they support under threat?
:00:11. > :00:16.This is like our rainforest. They're ours to look after. If we
:00:16. > :00:20.don't look after them, nobody else will. Much of our water comes from
:00:20. > :00:24.rivers, and we're pushing many of them to the limit. The water is
:00:24. > :00:28.going to our customers. We're not taking it because we want to, we
:00:28. > :00:33.are taking it because we need to. Most of us have no idea how much we
:00:33. > :00:41.use and what it really costs us. on average, your use was 443 litres
:00:41. > :00:45.Are we in danger of damaging a precious resource which we all rely
:00:45. > :00:55.on? Already our rivers are suffering, because so much water is
:00:55. > :01:08.
:01:08. > :01:14.being taken out of them. It's a The last resort to keep the taps of
:01:14. > :01:23.London flowing, a �270 million desalination plant. It'll produce
:01:23. > :01:26.drinking water from seawater in the Why is it that, in a country where
:01:26. > :01:36.we are always moaning about the rain, we need technology that's
:01:36. > :01:36.
:01:37. > :01:39.more commonly used in very hot and It may seem hard to believe, but in
:01:39. > :01:43.south-east England, there's less water per person than in Morocco or
:01:43. > :01:51.Egypt, and we're all using about 15% more water than we did 25 years
:01:51. > :02:01.In the UK, we take 13 trillion litres from the environment every
:02:01. > :02:09.
:02:09. > :02:13.year, the vast majority from our The River Thames, one of the most
:02:13. > :02:19.famous rivers in the world. It's cleaner than it's been in decades,
:02:19. > :02:23.according to the Environment Agency, and so are many others. But that's
:02:23. > :02:32.only part of the story. Taking so much water from our rivers is
:02:32. > :02:38.putting the long-term health of For over 170 years, Henley Regatta
:02:38. > :02:42.has been one of the mainstays in this country's social calendar. And
:02:42. > :02:52.over the next few days, as many as half a million people are all going
:02:52. > :02:53.
:02:53. > :02:58.to be coming here to enjoy the I think a river is part of the
:02:58. > :03:03.character of any town or village. It's got a river running through it,
:03:03. > :03:07.it's a big plus to where you're living. It is relaxing to sit by a
:03:07. > :03:16.river on a summer's day. There's nothing quite like it. Without them,
:03:16. > :03:26.Our rivers do more than supply a good day out. They provide most of
:03:26. > :03:26.
:03:26. > :03:31.the water for our homes, industry This is the River Kennet in
:03:31. > :03:36.Wiltshire. It's a tributary of the Thames and one of the UK's 161
:03:36. > :03:46.chalk streams. They're almost unique to this country and fed by
:03:46. > :03:49.
:03:49. > :03:54.vast natural underground reservoirs, Wow, this is beautiful, isn't it?
:03:54. > :03:58.Look at this. What have you found? Have you found anything so far?
:03:58. > :04:00.There's a whole host of different things in here that I have found at
:04:00. > :04:05.the moment. Plant-wise, we've got starwort here, and also ranunculous,
:04:05. > :04:10.the more stringy plant we've got in front of us. It's a classic chalk-
:04:10. > :04:13.stream species, which is fantastic. How, then, do these help the
:04:13. > :04:16.animals? Are these necessary for the animals to be here? Yes, the
:04:16. > :04:20.fish, the trout, the grayling in the river will use this for shelter.
:04:20. > :04:23.The invertebrates, the bugs will use this as food. These plants are
:04:23. > :04:30.the basis for the ecosystem of the river, really, and if these
:04:30. > :04:32.disappear, the whole of the life cycle of the river is disrupted.
:04:32. > :04:36.Chalk streams like the Kennet provide an excellent barometer for
:04:36. > :04:41.the health of the nation's rivers. Sounds like there's a zoo beneath
:04:41. > :04:45.my legs. Let's see if we can see some of it. Right, you need to put
:04:45. > :04:48.that down firmly in the river in front of your feet and shuffle your
:04:48. > :04:53.feet around, so you are kicking up the gravels and the substrate and
:04:53. > :04:58.everything has been thrown up into the net. Scoop it up. I got fish.
:04:58. > :05:04.Oh, fantastic. Loads of them. you've got a bullhead here, which
:05:04. > :05:08.is brilliant. They need really good water quality to survive. Is this
:05:08. > :05:18.what our rivers should look like? This is a good example of a very
:05:18. > :05:20.healthy, fantastic, classic chalk- This is like our rainforest. As a
:05:20. > :05:23.nation, we're really good at worrying about what other people
:05:23. > :05:27.are doing to their environment. Well, chalk streams we get in
:05:27. > :05:31.southern England and along the east coast. There's a few in France, and
:05:31. > :05:37.that's it in the world. And they're ours to look after, you know, if we
:05:37. > :05:41.don't look after them, nobody else will. So, how are we doing? Well,
:05:41. > :05:46.it's a different story downstream. Alistair Ewing has been farming
:05:46. > :05:52.sheep on the banks of the River Kennet for nearly 30 years. In that
:05:52. > :05:55.time, he's noticed a real change. We have a field over here and a
:05:55. > :06:01.field over here. Effectively, 20 years ago, this river was a barrier,
:06:01. > :06:05.so any animals here couldn't get to that field and vice versa. And then,
:06:05. > :06:10.over a period of time, we found the river level was going down and the
:06:10. > :06:14.animals were just walking across. So about 15 years ago, we ended up
:06:14. > :06:19.having to fence both sides of the river and stop the animals crossing
:06:19. > :06:24.the river. The main reason levels have dropped on this stretch of the
:06:24. > :06:27.River Kennet is because of this, the Axford bore hole. Thames Water
:06:27. > :06:33.uses it to pump water from the same underground reservoir which feeds
:06:33. > :06:36.the river. When did they first start taking water out of the river,
:06:36. > :06:40.then? Well, they first started taking water out in the 1960s, but
:06:40. > :06:49.it was just to feed local houses and local farms. And they were just
:06:49. > :06:52.taking out 13 cubic metres a day, 40 years on, Thames Water is taking
:06:52. > :07:00.on average 10,000 cubic metres every day, and it can take up to
:07:00. > :07:03.It's made a massive difference to the river, you know, it's a shadow
:07:03. > :07:07.of its former self. To put that in perspective, Thames' licence to
:07:07. > :07:15.take up to 13,000 cubic metres of water is the equivalent of more
:07:15. > :07:20.than five Olympic-sized swimming Water which nature intended for the
:07:20. > :07:23.river. Water companies have chosen to develop and exploit the cheapest
:07:23. > :07:29.water sources first, and that has been good for us because it means
:07:29. > :07:31.that water bills are lower than they would have been. But it is
:07:31. > :07:41.becoming more important that they also take into account
:07:41. > :07:45.Raiding our rivers in this way has left nearly a quarter of them at
:07:45. > :07:48.risk. And the Kennet is one of them. The Thames Water licence to take or
:07:48. > :07:57.abstract water from here is one of 21,000 policed by the Environment
:07:57. > :07:59.We have some rivers which are being affected by a legacy of
:07:59. > :08:02.abstractions, abstractions that were granted many decades ago and
:08:02. > :08:04.are no longer sustainable in the new world that we have. There is
:08:04. > :08:06.much higher environmental standards, environmental expectations and
:08:06. > :08:09.legislative drivers for the environment as well, which means
:08:09. > :08:15.that we need to protect environments like this so much
:08:15. > :08:20.better than we did in the past. This is where water pumped from the
:08:20. > :08:27.Kennet aquifer ends up. Welcome to Wroughton in south Swindon. How
:08:27. > :08:33.much water in litres do you think you use every day, just you?
:08:33. > :08:43.Probably about 20, I think about it. Must be 30, I should think.
:08:43. > :08:43.
:08:43. > :08:46.litres. Oh, I should think 70, 80. Could be a bit more, couldn't it?
:08:46. > :08:49.Could be a bit more. 30 to 40 litres, yeah. Probably about 80,
:08:49. > :08:52.100 litres. Well, let's say 40. 40. It's actually about 150 litres
:08:53. > :08:56.every day. Now, the second part of the question is, when you turn your
:08:56. > :09:01.tap on and the water comes out, where does it come from? I've got
:09:01. > :09:04.no idea. I would think it's natural, like the oceans. The rivers.
:09:04. > :09:09.would guess most of it's from underground, this area. You are the
:09:09. > :09:13.first person to get it correct today. So, around 150 litres. But
:09:13. > :09:17.could we all help our rivers and save money by using less? Let's
:09:17. > :09:26.find out. Meet the McRobies. There's Marie, Jamie, Olivia and
:09:26. > :09:28.Water usage isn't one of those things in the front of your mind
:09:28. > :09:34.from an energy-resource perspective, point of view, compared with
:09:34. > :09:38.electricity and gas. And why do you think that is? I think water's a
:09:38. > :09:41.difficult one to judge. We're not on a water meter here, so we get a
:09:41. > :09:50.bill per year based on our rateable value, so it's not something we
:09:50. > :09:54.First off, the family have agreed to have a water meter installed.
:09:54. > :10:00.They're key to understanding how much we use. Just over a third of
:10:00. > :10:04.all homes in England and Wales have one. In a week's time we'll be back
:10:04. > :10:07.to show them the results. And it's important, because like the 62,000
:10:07. > :10:17.other people who live in south Swindon, the McRobies get their
:10:17. > :10:23.
:10:23. > :10:29.Here's the healthy stretch of the river we showed you earlier. Now
:10:29. > :10:34.we've moved downstream. So, it may look shallow. It's just mud, look,
:10:34. > :10:38.that's just mud. We're now three miles downstream from where we were
:10:38. > :10:40.earlier, and the other side of the borehole. And so you can see
:10:41. > :10:44.already, looking at the floor of the river, you've sediment built up
:10:44. > :10:49.and algae growing here, and just look at it, compared to the site
:10:49. > :10:52.earlier. We've got far less vegetation in the stream than we
:10:52. > :10:57.had. There's a little bit, but what is growing here is clogged with
:10:57. > :11:01.algae as well. Taking too much water doesn't just affect river
:11:01. > :11:11.levels. It can also reduce the speed at which water flows. Time
:11:11. > :11:14.for another net test. Let's see what we've got. Well, nothing,
:11:14. > :11:18.we've got some stones. There's a couple of shrimp in there. We've
:11:18. > :11:21.got some shrimp, but in the other site, in just about every net we
:11:21. > :11:28.brought up, it had some fish in, and here just mud stones and shrimp,
:11:28. > :11:33.really. To you, what does this say to you? It's says we need a faster
:11:33. > :11:37.flow. We need to flush this sediment out. The Environment
:11:37. > :11:42.Agency warns that most of our rivers are at the limit of what can
:11:42. > :11:45.be sustainably taken from them. That pressure is only going to get
:11:45. > :11:48.more acute in the future as the population increases. Our demand
:11:48. > :11:51.for water will increase, but also climate change is highly likely to
:11:51. > :11:55.mean a drier, warmer climate, and that push will demands up, and it
:11:55. > :11:59.will probably reduce the amount of water available in rivers. So there
:11:59. > :12:08.is a going to be a mismatch between how much water is available and how
:12:08. > :12:13.much society and the economy needs.! Parts of Britain are in
:12:13. > :12:16.drought after one of the driest springs in record. It may seem a
:12:16. > :12:20.long time ago now, especially after we've just had one of our coldest
:12:20. > :12:30.summers in years, but this spring was the driest in the south of
:12:30. > :12:30.
:12:30. > :12:33.England and East Anglia since When we were in the peak of the
:12:33. > :12:38.drought, this was being used 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
:12:38. > :12:42.that's what the crop requires, when it's at its maximum growth.
:12:42. > :12:48.Jones has a licence to take water from the River Wensum in Norfolk to
:12:48. > :12:51.irrigate his crops. It's another river under pressure. The consumer
:12:51. > :12:55.and the general public expect water out of a tap, and they expect to
:12:55. > :12:58.walk into a supermarket and buy affordable food. I, as a farmer,
:12:58. > :13:01.try to supply the affordable food, whatever the season, whatever the
:13:01. > :13:10.weather, and to do that I need some guarantees of readily-available
:13:10. > :13:18.If the drought had continued here, he faced having restrictions placed
:13:18. > :13:21.If we couldn't take the water, it would have a huge impact on our
:13:21. > :13:28.livelihood and the livelihood of the people associated with the
:13:28. > :13:31.agricultural industry in this area. It may have rained a lot since the
:13:31. > :13:38.spring, but parts of five counties in the south-east are still
:13:38. > :13:42.And it's here where there's most pressure on water supply. Over the
:13:42. > :13:51.next 15 years, the number of people living in London and the south east
:13:51. > :13:54.There is the possibility, particularly in the south-east of
:13:55. > :13:57.England, there won't be enough water in the rivers to be able to
:13:58. > :14:00.supply the needs of households, and that will lead to things like
:14:01. > :14:06.hosepipe bans and shortages of various kinds. And it would be very
:14:06. > :14:09.bad for the environment, because we would be abstracting too much water.
:14:09. > :14:15.So, with demand for water only likely to grow, it's not surprising
:14:15. > :14:18.that water companies are looking for ways to increase supply. Every
:14:18. > :14:25.villager in a lot of villages around will say that their village
:14:25. > :14:28.is special. This one is quite historic. Just outside the village
:14:28. > :14:38.of Steventon in Oxfordshire, Thames Water put forward one of its
:14:38. > :14:38.
:14:38. > :14:41.preferred plans. A �1 billion We're more or less in the middle of
:14:41. > :14:44.the reservoir, and it's about a mile in that direction, a mile in
:14:44. > :14:48.that direction, a mile in that direction and a mile behind us. So,
:14:48. > :14:51.sort of that tree line you see out there. It would have been
:14:51. > :15:01.absolutely enormous. I mean, how much water was it going to hold?
:15:01. > :15:04.
:15:04. > :15:07.It would have been the size of Gatwick Airport, and filling it
:15:07. > :15:09.would have taken even more water from the environment. A public
:15:09. > :15:12.inquiry wasn't convinced that Thames Water had fully considered
:15:12. > :15:17.other, possibly more sustainable, options, or that it needed a
:15:17. > :15:20.reservoir so big. Chris, what I don't understand is,
:15:20. > :15:26.why would Thames Water spend nigh on �1 billion building something
:15:26. > :15:29.that potentially they didn't need? If they can invest money in a large
:15:29. > :15:36.capital project, they can charge their customers for it and get a
:15:36. > :15:39.profit from that. So, building this would have made them money? Yes.
:15:39. > :15:45.The financial incentive for water companies to build their way out of
:15:45. > :15:46.problems dates back to the late 1980s. When the water industry was
:15:46. > :15:53.privatised, its crumbling infrastructure badly needed
:15:53. > :15:58.modernising. To do this, the newly- formed water companies were allowed
:15:58. > :16:00.to make a profit on what they built. Over the last 22 years, it's helped
:16:00. > :16:07.to deliver �96 billion of investment, but critics believe it
:16:07. > :16:11.hasn't always helped the environment. When companies see
:16:11. > :16:14.that in the future there's a gap opening up between demand for water
:16:14. > :16:17.and supply, the thing that they prefer to do is to pour concrete,
:16:17. > :16:20.in other words to build stuff like new reservoirs or a desalination
:16:20. > :16:22.plant, rather than alternative ways of dealing with that gap which
:16:22. > :16:25.increase their day-to-day spending, such as helping customers to reduce
:16:25. > :16:35.their water demand, buying water from a neighbouring water company
:16:35. > :16:38.
:16:38. > :16:41.or searching for leaks. If there is an option on the table which makes
:16:41. > :16:44.the water company the most money as a commercial business, you're going
:16:44. > :16:47.to go for that, aren't you? because the water-resource planning
:16:47. > :16:50.process requires us to list all of the options for supplying the water
:16:50. > :16:56.we need, ranked in total cost order, so economic cost, environmental
:16:56. > :16:59.cost and social cost. It doesn't matter how the funding works, what
:16:59. > :17:05.matters is the plan that we put forward has to be best deal for the
:17:05. > :17:13.customers and the environment. Thames Water failed to make its
:17:13. > :17:16.case for the reservoir and was sent back to the drawing board. Thames
:17:16. > :17:19.Water really should be grossly ashamed of themselves in their
:17:19. > :17:27.failure to investigate or for having dismissed so many of the
:17:27. > :17:30.options that really were quite viable. There was an overriding
:17:30. > :17:33.preference from Thames Water to build the reservoir? Yes, we
:17:33. > :17:36.thought that was the best solution. Had you failed to look at all the
:17:36. > :17:40.other options properly? We hadn't assessed them in as much detail as
:17:40. > :17:43.the reservoir, which is what we are doing now. The next 15 years is
:17:43. > :17:51.about managing demand and making sure we need less water, but that
:17:51. > :17:54.has its limitations. When we get demand for water down as far as we
:17:54. > :17:57.can, then we have to start building things. But the industry regulator
:17:57. > :17:59.Ofwat says that dealing with the challenges of the 21st century may
:17:59. > :18:02.mean having to encourage water companies to think differently.
:18:02. > :18:12.Unquestionably, the water industry has had to deliver big capital
:18:12. > :18:12.
:18:12. > :18:15.projects over the last 22 years. And that's what's given us safe,
:18:15. > :18:18.secure water supply at a reasonable price, and a cleaner environment.
:18:18. > :18:21.So it's not surprising that they continue to look at those as
:18:21. > :18:24.options. The public inquiry has said they need to look at wider
:18:24. > :18:27.options, we need to look at the future for making sure that the
:18:27. > :18:30.companies have the right incentives to do exactly that, to look at the
:18:30. > :18:34.broadest range of options both for the environment and the customers.
:18:34. > :18:37.And one of the best ways to help our rivers is to reduce customer
:18:37. > :18:43.demand. That's why the Government wants all of us to use less. From
:18:43. > :18:48.150 litres per person per day down to 130. In south Swindon, we put
:18:48. > :18:51.the McRobie family to the test. They agreed to have a water meter
:18:51. > :19:00.installed in their home. Water expert Cath Hassell has been
:19:00. > :19:07.monitoring the results. If you add it all up, you think it was roughly
:19:07. > :19:12.160 litres, 180 litres as a family you used every day. Cath, how much
:19:12. > :19:22.did they actually use as a family everyday? OK, on average, your use
:19:22. > :19:23.
:19:23. > :19:28.was 443 litres per day. Well over three times as much as you thought
:19:28. > :19:35.you were using. So, with Cath's help and a few
:19:35. > :19:38.clever gadgets, can they reduce the amount they use? There are
:19:38. > :19:41.technological solutions such as flow regulators for your showers or
:19:41. > :19:44.for your kitchen taps, and the really important thing is, use less,
:19:44. > :19:47.take less time in the shower, have a shallower bath, and start cutting
:19:47. > :19:57.down, and you'll be amazed how quickly those things add up over
:19:57. > :19:58.
:19:58. > :20:03.the course of a year. We'll be back in a week's time to
:20:03. > :20:08.see if they can use less water and save themselves money. The price of
:20:08. > :20:13.failing to cut water use looks like this. 20 years ago, parts of the
:20:13. > :20:23.River Darent in Kent used to dry up completely. Since then, it's been
:20:23. > :20:25.
:20:25. > :20:28.gradually nursed back to health. The purist fishermen would say this
:20:28. > :20:31.is cheating. What is it you are actually trying to do? We're just
:20:31. > :20:35.doing an electric fishing survey to look at the ecological health.
:20:35. > :20:39.amount of water being taken out of the river has been reduced by 36
:20:39. > :20:48.and a half million litres a day. It's now one of the Environment
:20:48. > :20:51.Agency's ten most improved rivers. Is it a much healthier river now?
:20:51. > :20:54.It's a healthier river, there's more water in it. There's higher
:20:54. > :20:57.water levels and more flow. rescue plan is still not finished.
:20:57. > :21:00.Even less water needs to be taken out to ensure a full recovery. And
:21:00. > :21:06.this reversal of fortune hasn't come cheap. It's cost the
:21:07. > :21:13.Environment Agency �17 million so far to get water back in the Darent.
:21:13. > :21:16.Just one river, so how much might it cost to help fix the rest? It's
:21:16. > :21:19.very hard to estimate this, but it has been estimated that it could
:21:19. > :21:26.cost between �3.7 billion and �27 billion to address the problem of
:21:26. > :21:30.damaging over-abstraction of water. The Environment Agency has reviewed
:21:30. > :21:36.all the licences to take water from our rivers and identified 600 where
:21:36. > :21:43.there's a serious risk of damage being caused. It says it's already
:21:43. > :21:49.negotiated changes to 143 of them, and is still tackling another 279.
:21:49. > :21:52.It admits that these are the most difficult. Those are a lot of
:21:52. > :21:55.licences that are required for public water supply, and if we take
:21:55. > :21:57.those licences away, it's having a knock-on effect on water companies'
:21:58. > :22:00.ability to maintain security supply for customers. Also, some of those
:22:00. > :22:04.licences are associated with agriculture, and farmers rely on
:22:04. > :22:08.those for the economic sustainability of their farms.
:22:08. > :22:13.at the River Kennet, the amount of water that can be taken from it
:22:13. > :22:20.needs to be cut by almost half. There is a plan, but it'll be
:22:20. > :22:24.expensive too. The south bit of Swindon can be fed by water from a
:22:24. > :22:28.reservoir, which is existing. It has the capacity. The only reason
:22:28. > :22:35.it can't be used is there's this missing piece of pipe. Building the
:22:35. > :22:39.pipeline could cost �10 million. It's down to the Environment Agency
:22:40. > :22:43.to pay, but it's taking time to raise the money. It's Thames Water
:22:43. > :22:46.that are taking the water from the aquifer, so why don't you dip into
:22:47. > :22:50.your very deep pockets and pay for it yourself? The water is going to
:22:50. > :22:54.our customers, we're not taking it because we want to. We are taking
:22:54. > :22:56.it because we need it to supply people from the Kennett. Now, there
:22:56. > :23:02.is a properly-funded and established mechanism when we have
:23:03. > :23:05.to give up an abstraction, which pays us the money. We need to put
:23:06. > :23:09.in an alternative, and that's what we are taking advantage of. It'll
:23:09. > :23:16.be at least five years before the pipeline is built. Only then can
:23:16. > :23:19.the licence to take water from the Kennet be reduced. At the end of
:23:19. > :23:22.the day, the licences just aren't getting changed fast enough, and it
:23:22. > :23:24.could take, you know, hundreds of years at the current rate of
:23:24. > :23:27.progress to get every licence sorted. The Environment Agency
:23:27. > :23:33.doesn't believe it will take that long, but agrees we are at a
:23:33. > :23:35.tipping point. This is where the real pressure lies in terms of if
:23:35. > :23:38.our climate changes and the population increases, because we've
:23:38. > :23:41.already got so many catchments at their sustainable limit, there is
:23:41. > :23:43.no new water available for that growth. A much more dynamic link
:23:43. > :23:52.between environmental status and the abstractions is probably
:23:52. > :23:55.required in the future. With nearly a quarter of our rivers
:23:55. > :23:58.at risk, later this year the Government will publish its
:23:58. > :24:06.strategy for the future. It's being encouraged to be radical and give
:24:06. > :24:09.water a price. Currently, it costs the same amount to abstract water
:24:09. > :24:15.in the south of England, where the water is very scarce, than in the
:24:15. > :24:18.north of England, where water is abundant. What we need to have is a
:24:18. > :24:21.system of prices which means that where water is scarce, it is more
:24:21. > :24:24.costly to abstract it. Where water is abundant, it costs zero to
:24:24. > :24:27.abstract, and that will encourage trade between the regions. But at
:24:28. > :24:32.the moment, companies only trade around 4% of all the water we use
:24:32. > :24:37.in England and Wales. The regulations as they currently stand
:24:37. > :24:39.now, people would say, are the main barriers to water trading. They
:24:39. > :24:43.don't encourage water trading, they don't make it easy. Is that
:24:43. > :24:46.something you concede? There are certainly some barriers there to
:24:46. > :24:54.water trading, an absence of information on the value of water
:24:54. > :24:59.in particular places. In one place, it will be plentiful, in another,
:24:59. > :25:02.it will be scarce. But there is no clear value or price on that, so
:25:02. > :25:05.water companies may find it difficult to make a choice
:25:05. > :25:11.regarding the investment they make. That's the kind of barrier that
:25:11. > :25:14.we've been looking at. Ofwat says by giving water a price,
:25:14. > :25:23.trading could help the environment and save �1 billion over the next
:25:23. > :25:28.35 years. That's future savings, but what about today? Can we do our
:25:28. > :25:33.bit? How's it been this week, then? I know you had a timer in your
:25:33. > :25:36.shower, didn't you? We've used that, and we've put a big sticker on the
:25:36. > :25:40.door to remind us just before we got in to remind us to get the
:25:40. > :25:44.timer going. How long are your showers now? Four minutes. It's
:25:44. > :25:46.doable, actually. I was really surprised. So, looking back at your
:25:46. > :25:52.experiences this week, are you confident that you've used less
:25:52. > :26:02.water than you did? We certainly couldn't have used any more.
:26:02. > :26:03.
:26:03. > :26:07.with all that effort, just how much water did they save?
:26:07. > :26:10.So, you were using 443 on average before, between the four of you, so
:26:10. > :26:16.110 about, and you have reduced it to 227, and I am completely
:26:16. > :26:21.staggered by that. You've halved it. I am so impressed. It's a 49%
:26:21. > :26:25.reduction, if we're going to be precise. Great news for our rivers,
:26:25. > :26:28.and it could be good for the wallet too. At the moment, we've got your
:26:28. > :26:34.bills here, last bill was roughly about �390, and it looks like it's
:26:34. > :26:37.been creeping up over the last few years. So if you were to have a
:26:37. > :26:40.meter installed in your house and you were to be using the level of
:26:40. > :26:50.water you've been using this week, Cath, how much money would they
:26:50. > :26:54.
:26:54. > :26:58.actually be spending? OK, it would cost you just over �220. It's big,
:26:58. > :27:01.per year, so it's a really big saving. That's a lot of money.
:27:01. > :27:06.You'd be saving roughly around �170 per year just on your water bill.
:27:06. > :27:12.That's got to be good news, hasn't it? Yeah, that's excellent. To be
:27:12. > :27:16.honest, actually, how many bills are going down?
:27:16. > :27:19.So, right now, it's clear we can all make a difference. But it's
:27:19. > :27:25.expected there's going to be another 20 million to supply by
:27:25. > :27:33.2050. The current regulatory arrangements are not fit for
:27:33. > :27:36.purpose for the world we are moving into. If we don't make the
:27:36. > :27:44.arrangements fit for purpose, then water customers will not get the
:27:45. > :27:47.best deal and we will not protect the environment. We are at a
:27:48. > :27:50.crossroads and at a very important point right now. We think that
:27:50. > :27:52.there are some improvements that can be made. They're about
:27:52. > :27:58.incentivising water trading, better management of our resource, better
:27:58. > :28:04.information to make sustainable solutions in the long term. We need
:28:04. > :28:07.to evolve the regime. It's a here- and-now problem, our rivers are
:28:07. > :28:10.suffering because water, so much water is being taken from them.
:28:10. > :28:19.That's why it's so important that the Government take this
:28:19. > :28:24.opportunity to rescue them. After Libya, will people power