The Campus, Cambridge and Water
Artists Impression of Possible New Reservoir Built in the Fens to Serve A Growing Cambridge
By Will Brown 11-12-24
On our walks local people have raised concerns about the impact upon Nine Wells – a local nature reserve run by the city council - as the campus grows towards it. Nine Wells is of local historical significance, as the water which springs at the site was first used by the city as a source of free drinking water over 400 years ago and continues to flow into the centre along Hobson's Conduit. In 2017 it was designated as a Local Geological Site, to recognise its geological diversity and earth heritage value. However, for many decades, spring flow at Nine Wells has been reduced by over-abstraction from the chalk aquifer at the nearby village of Babraham; this problem contributed to the site suffering from a drought in 1976 which had a catastrophic impact on rare species living there and led to it losing its status as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
This local example relates to a bigger city-wide issue of water shortage which is arguably the largest barrier to the growth of Cambridge as Europe’s science capital. Supply for the city region is managed by Cambridge Water, a small company which does not own any reservoirs, instead providing water by extracting it from the ground. If overused, this technique can cause aquifer levels to fall and rivers to dry up. This is such a significant potential impediment to the growth of the city that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government recently published a guidance document titled Addressing Water Scarcity in Greater Cambridge.
Water shortages are already having an impact on development within Cambridge. One example is the Darwin Green housing development in the north of the city, where the Environmental Agency objected to the second and third stages of its development, stating that the outline planning application for these phases (1000 homes) had failed to demonstrate that an adequate and sustainable water supply can be provided. On campus the Environment Agency initially objected to the plans for the Cancer Research Hospital, citing Cambridge’s long-term water shortage.
The issue of water scarcity therefore presents something of an existential threat to the realisation of ‘Global Cambridge’, given the rather obvious fact that if there is no water, there can be no sustainable growth. What is the strategy to assuage water shortages? Addressing Water Scarcity in Greater Cambridge follows two paths - demand and supply. The long-term plan is for water supply to be increased, initially through two new pieces of infrastructure, a pipeline which will transfer 26 megalitres per day from nearby Grafham Water (roughly 19 miles from the Biomedical Campus) currently used by Affinity Water (estimated completion 2032) and the building of a new reservoir in the Fens, which is estimated to deliver 43.5 megalitres per day (estimated completion 2036) - enough water for approximately 250,000 homes (Heywood, 2024). These are significant, and in the case of the reservoir, vast engineering challenges. There are also concerns around ownership and the business of supplying water to Cambridge - would it be the responsibility of Cambridge Water or Affinity water, and who would be contracted (and thus remunerated) for this? There are also questions around land ownership: the construction and burial of a 19-mile-long pipeline which will cross potentially 100s of different parcels of land.
In the short term the focus is on demand: the vision is for this to be addressed through the installation of smart water meters which will enable the development of “an innovative ‘water credits system’”. Analogous to carbon credits, the savings in water use can be sold to developers. This project is being supported by up to £4.5 million of government funding. A critique of carbon credits centres on the shifting of responsibility, with Greenpeace’s Alia Al Ghussain eruditely observing that they are “a way of paying for others to reduce emissions or absorb CO2 to compensate for your own emissions”. The same observation is applicable when discussing Cambridge’s water shortages, for the implementation of water credits is entirely contingent upon the current residents, businesses and public institutions being able to save water through cutting their consumption, to enable new developments going forward. This presents another potential cleavage between the interests of Cambridge’s ‘legacy’ residents and the life sciences powered expansion of the city. This is referred to in the guidance document, where it is stated that “initial government investment will be used to retrofit both household and non-household properties in Cambridge to provide the initial credits, with any property owners meeting the market requirements for retrofits able to supply the market in future”.