Water

Mr. Wigley
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report a list of all abstraction works or other units in England at which water is abstracted from rivers upon which there are regulating reservoirs in Wales, together with an estimate of the average annual volume of water in millions of gallons abstracted by each of them.

Mr. King
The information is not available in the form requested, but the following table gives details of water taken for public supply by the North-West water authority in 1980 and Severn-Trent water authority in 1981.------------------------------------------
|Source and location of abstraction point|
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|Huntington                              |
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|Deeside and Heronbridge at Chester      |
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|Shropshire Union Canal (Hurlesden)      |
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|Alwen reservoir                         |
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|Lake Vyrnwy                             |
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|Shrewsbury                              |
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|Ironbridge                              |
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|Hampton Loade                           |
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|Trimpley                                |
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|Worcester                               |
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|Upton                                   |
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|The Mythe (Tewkesbury)                  |
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|                                        |
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|                                        |
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|Sharpness Canal (Purton)                |
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These abstractions are supported, in part, by English and Welsh tributaries which have no regulatory reservoirs. Apart from its river regulatory function, the storage capacity of the Clywedog reservoir protects the Vale of Powys from flooding.