Water should be moved from Wales to London and the south east of England, according to a London-based union. As London is in a drought, GMB London, a water workers' union, has proposed reviving the so-called "win-win" plan from the Victorian era to move water from a Welsh lake to help London's situation.
The plan would see water taken from United Utilities at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys via the restoration of the Cotswold canals and Sapperton Canal Tunnel in Gloucester. GMB London has said the plan could help to deal with periodic droughts in and around London.
Although moving water around the UK is by no means a new idea, the union's call to use Welsh reservoirs to provide water to England may prove controversial on this side of Offa's Dyke. With some reservoirs in Wales showing lower water levels than usual there are bound to be questions about whether the plans are the best use of resources - and for some, the idea may have unsavoury echoes of the Tryweryn Valley being flooded to create a reservoir to supply Liverpool with water.
