A SOMERSET MP has warned that work needs to start as rapidly as possible on increasing the capacity of the largest reservoir in the southwest if chronic water shortages are to be avoided.

Ian Liddell-Grainger says it is vital that more water is penned in Wimbleball Lake, on Exmoor, as the effects of climate change become ever more alarming.

The reservoir was built in response to the 1976 drought but after a hot, dry summer is only at 17 per cent capacity - a level not seen since its original impounding.

And despite owner South West Water pinning hopes of refilling it on heavy winter rains there are fears that households across a wide swathe of Devon and Somerset could face rationing next year if they fail to arrive.

Mr Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, said the company must implement contingency plans and add ten feet to the height of the 160-foot dam wall.

“The original design of the Wimbleball dam allowed for this to happen at some future point and in my opinion that point has now been reached,” he said.

“Wimbleball was the last major storage facility to be built in the southwest and it is clear that in its present form it is inadequate to meet the increased demands from thousands of new homes, particularly during prolonged hot, dry weather.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said when it was constructed the concept of global warming was hardly on the agenda.

“In fact scientific opinion at the time suggested we were far more likely to be heading for another ice age,” he said.

“That scenario changed when scientists began to go public on the warming challenges in the 80s and 90s. The worrying aspect is that not only are the changes they forecast underway, they are happening far more rapidly than all but the most pessimistic of them predicted.

“It is clear that summers of the kind we have had are likely to become the norm from now on and if the same applies to the dry springs we have also been experiencing then we are going to need to capture every last drop of rain that falls.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said a scheme to raise the height of the dam wall could be achieved relatively quickly and inexpensively.

“But it will only buy us some time,” he said.

“In the long term we are going to need to vastly increase water storage in this region and every other and the water companies are going to have to start immediately investing in major reservoir-building - as it was intended they would when water privatisation took place.”