Reality Cheques 4515 The government’s Office of the Director General of Water Services sets industry price levels each
5 years, which determine both the maximum levels of water bills and specifies investments in
water quality treatment. During the 1990s, the water industry undertook pesticide and nitrate
removal schemes, resulting in the construction of 120 plants for pesticide removal and 30 for
nitrate removal (Ofwat, 1998). Ofwat estimates that water companies will spend a further £600
million between 2000 and 2005 on capital expenditure alone due to continuing deterioration of
‘raw water’ quality due to all factors. Ofwat predicts capital expenditure for pesticides to fall to
£88 million per year at the end of the 1990s/early 2000s; and for nitrate to fall to £8.3 m/yr.
Although Ofwat has sought to standardize reporting, individual companies report water treat-
ment costs in different ways. Most do distinguish treatment for pesticides, nitrate, Cryptosporid-
ium and several metals (iron, manganese and lead). The remaining treatment costs for phosphorus,
soil removal, arsenic and other metals, appear under a category labeled ‘other’. Of the 28 water
companies in England and Wales, three report no expenditure on treatment whatsoever; and a
further three do not disaggregate treatment costs, with all appearing under ‘other’. Twenty com-
panies report expenditure on removal of pesticides, 11 on nitrates, and 10 on Cryptosporidium.
It is impossible to tell from the records whether a stated zero expenditure is actually zero, or
whether this has been placed in the ‘other’ category. Using Ofwat and water companies’ returns,
we estimate that 50% of expenditure under the ‘other’ category refers to removal of agriculturally-
related materials.
16 We originally calculated the annual external costs of these gases to be £280 million for methane,
£738 million for nitrous oxide, £47 million for carbon dioxide and £48 million for ammonia. But
a more appropriate measure would have been to use an accepted policy target for these costs, such
as the 25% cut required to meet agreements made in the Kyoto Protocol. This would put the total
annual costs at £314 million.
17 DETR, 1998a, 1998b; Pretty, 1998; Campbell et al, 1997; Pain and Pienkowski, 1997; Mason,
1998; Siriwardena et al, 1998; Krebs et al, 1999.
18 Repetto and Baliga, 1996; Pearce and Tinch, 1998; HSE, 1998a, 1998b; Pretty, 1998.
19 Fatalities from pesticides at work in Europe and North America are rare – one a decade in the UK,
and eight a decade in California. In the UK, a variety of institutions collect mortality and morbid-
ity data, but in California, where there is the most comprehensive reporting system in the world,
official records show that 1200–2000 farmers, farmworkers and the general public are poisoned
each year (see CDFA, passim; Pretty, 1998). There appears to be greater risk from pesticides in the
home and garden where children are most likely to suffer. In Britain, 600–1000 people need
hospital treatment each year from home poisoning.
20 On food poisoning in the UK, see PHL, 1999; Evans et al, 1998; Wall et al, 1996. For a study of
foodborne illnesses in Sweden, see Lindqvist et al, 2001. When BSE was first identified in late
1986, research confirmed that it was a member of a group of transmissible diseases occurring in
animals and humans. It appeared simultaneously in several places in the UK, and has since
occurred in native born cattle in other countries. By mid-2001, more than 180,000 cases had
been confirmed in the UK, the epidemic having reached a peak in 1992. The link between bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans was
confirmed in 1996, and 100 deaths from CJD have occurred to 2001. The annual external costs
of BSE were £600 million at the end of the 1990s. See NAO, 1998; WHO, 2001. By mid-2001,
there had been 181,000 cases of BSE reported in the UK, 648 in Ireland, 564 in Portugal, 381 in
Switzerland, 323 in France, 81 in Germany, 46 in Spain and 34 in Belgium. For more on the
important lessons of BSE, see Lobstein et al, 2001; Millstone and van Zwanenberg, 2001.
21 For an excellent review of food crises and the need for new thinking in food systems, see Lang et
al, 2001. Also see Waltner-Toews and Lang, 2000.
22 Donald Worster (1993, p18) points out that this was not, of course, the end of the story. Control
through the levees did not stop conflicts between farmers wanting water for irrigation, and others
wanting to provide waterfowl with a habitat. Nor did they stop pesticides and nutrients running