Issues

These fall into three broad categories; water resources, water quality and flooding.

The Island’s water resources are stretched. Environment Agency carefully balances demands for water and the needs of the environment by licencing abstraction. However, demand on the Island is greater than the ground and rivers can supply, and water has to be piped across from the mainland.

Water quality is assessed by measuring the concentration of chemical pollutants and also sampling the creatures that inhabit the beds of streams. There are many causes of water pollution including run-off from farms, roads and urban areas, sewage treatment and septic tanks and various recreational activities.

Flooding has several causes. Coastal flooding occurs when the sea inundates the land, when there are unusually high tides or storms. Other flooding can occur when rivers breach their banks, or when the run-off from land exceeds the capacity of man-made and / or natural drainage.