DISCUSSION

Mr H. C. Bowen (Chief Engineer, Thames Conservancy) said that the whole of Paper 13, by Dr Buchan, was of intense interest to engineers who were concerned with water conservation in south-east England, since they had to deal with an area of high potential demand, of comparatively low rainfall, and one where topography largely precluded the use of impounding or regulating reservoirs. As an illustration of that point, a preliminary investigation of the four most promising sites for impounding reservoirs in the Thames valley had shown a potential capacity of some 25 million gallons. This would not be sufficient to solve flooding problems to any worth-while extent; it would not even be sufficient to provide for foreseeable abstraction demands beyond 1985. Furthermore, those reservoirs would inundate 26 square miles of useful land, with an average depth of 15 ft. He thought that this showed beyond doubt that it was incumbent upon engineers confronted with this sort of problem to consider very carefully whether some other course was available which would not be open to such serious objections.