06/01/2006 - Environment Agency Wales will soon be sending the annual request to water abstraction licence holders for details of the amount of water they have taken from local rivers, reservoirs and groundwater. Forms will be going out in south west Wales during the first two weeks of January. Anyone who holds an abstraction licence is urged to fill in the form and return it by the end of that month.

In recent years the Agency have been actively chasing this information. There are penalties for not returning the abstraction information. The Agency say that have reluctantly had to take enforcement action against a few licence-holders in recent years who failed to send in their records, including five Formal Cautions and two prosecutions.

James Greenhalgh, Team Leader, Water Resources Regulation in south west Wales said:

'The information we get from these forms helps us increase the understanding of how water is taken from the natural environment. It helps identify where additional water may be available for use or where abstractions may be putting pressure on the rivers, and how the water is being used to support local agriculture and industry. All this information helps us when we are determining an application for a new abstraction. It also allows us to check compliance against the licence conditions, supporting our site inspection programme.'

Help us to build a better understanding of how abstractions are used to support local agriculture and industry and how this affects your local rivers and reservoirs. Please send in your information on time, and avoid us having to take enforcement action.'