LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- A Policy for Rivers
Sut,—A few weeks ago the Pride of Derby and Derbyshire Angling Association Limited were granted an injunction and damages against British Celanese Limited, Derby Corporation and the British Electricity Authority for pollution of the River Derwent. The legal implications are very important for all enterprises that need water. The case also emphasises our great need, as a nation, for proper survey records of the flow of our rivers. No one would dream of scheming a factory without a plan of the site. The architects and engineers would not dream of putting it up without taking borings to see what loading the foundations should be designed for. Similarly, no one should dream of placing a load of heated or chemical effluent in a river without calculating what its effect will be; yet this is what has had to happen for generations past because for most of our rivers very few records of measurements exist—with some notable exceptions such as tile Wye.
By its nature this task of river-gauging must be a public duty. This was recognised when, in 1935, the Government set up the Inland Water Survey, now under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. The work was suspended during the war, but was afterwards resumed. Recently the first book of measurements since the war was issued, the Surface Water. Y ear-Book of Great Britain, 1937 to 1945., It is a modest volume carried only up to 1945.
Considering how vital_ these measurements are, in an age when the load on our rivers grows rapidly every year, when capital expenditure of millions of pounds is determined by the estimates designers fix on for the flow of our rivers, when the penalty of ignorance is so plainly to be seen, the pity is that the work of the Inland Water Survey has not been more abundantly backed. It will still be many years before we have adequate records for all our rivers to meet the practical needs of users and would-be users, to save waste and prevent damage, and this will only happen if the Government are as good as the word of the all-party White Paper (Command 6165) of 1944, on A National Water Policy, and " press on with vigour." This little-known activity of inland water survey, whose economic and social value so over- whelmingly outweighs its cost, deserves all the help it can get. It should have the special support of all those with riverain interests, whether anglers, farmers, industrialists or public authorities, who have in this at least a real and urgent community of interest.—Yours faithfully, The Mill, Ockham Mill Lane, Ripley, Surrey. M. G. IONIDES.
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