According to the UN, global water consumption has almost doubled since 1950 and may increase by a further 40% before 2020. Despite the annual average rainfall of the British Isles, the UK experienced water shortages in the 1990s, which caused legislators to review the existing statutory framework for water abstraction at the beginning of the last decade. The result of this review was the Water Act 2003 ("the Act"), which made significant changes to the existing abstraction regime, but which remains only part-implemented.

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