This month we welcomed two very different speakers on the theme of “Saving Water”. Lesli Tunbridge is the WI Climate Ambassador and Richard Farrow is Delivery Support Manager for Water Recycling Maintenance at Anglian Water. Lesli explained that Climate Ambassadors were only established in 2016 when she became one of only three in the country. Lesli’s remit is visit and speak to WI’s, to attend meetings of Climate Ambassadors and encourage WI members to make their voices heard. She showed us graphs and diagrams showing how we need to save and recycle water wherever possible along with suggestions for reusing and repurposing water.
Richard began by saying that, geographically Anglian Water is the largest water company in the UK. They collect water from 6 million customers and return it to the environment. Some of the challenges faced include Climate Change, the future acute shortage of water in East Anglia, Population and economic growth and environmental protection. Richard was at pains to point out that Anglian Water promote various community projects to educate the public on how to save water and set up schemes to improve the environment. Currently only 7% of our region’s rivers are classed as good. One of the biggest projects under construction is the new pipeline which is due to bring water from the Humber area down into East Anglia. Members were keen to hear how this would eventually affect our water supply.
The meeting was a useful and helpful opportunity to link into the WI’s current National resolution on “Clean Rivers for All” and offered plenty of food for thought on how we can all play our part in water conservation.
