Using Les Vardes for water storage is a no-brainer

I write to encourage our deputies to support the proposition of using Les Vardes Quarry for water storage.

To me it is a no-brainer. We are told that with climate change, unpredictable weather patterns and potentially a growing population more water will be required in the years to come. This is, I understand, the last opportunity the island will have to store large volumes of fresh water.

A desalination plant in the future is not an ideal solution. (We tried that in the past, although recognisably that was old technology).

The importation of fresh water would also be difficult. To some, this may seem scaremongering, but if Deputy Roger Berry had not had the insight years ago we would not be in the relatively healthy position we are in at present with regards to water storage, unlike Jersey.

Residents may know that instead of water going to waste into the sea at Petit Bot and Moulin Huet it is pumped back on island to be stored in the reservoirs in the upper parishes.

We could well experience long periods of drought in the decades to come and farmers and growers may at that point need to use more water on the land.

I can understand residents of the Vale, not wanting more inert waste dumped in the North of the island and I also accept that the building industry has to be supported into the future, but if and when the day comes that we need to export inert waste that will be something the island will have to face. For the time being, a suitable solution seems to be on the table at Black Rock, which potentially will provide us with more land reclamation in the future.

I very much hope that before the election these two pragmatic proposals, namely water storage at Les Vardes and inert waste at Black Rock will receive overwhelming support.

John Guille
St Martin’s