Living within the Watershed: Managing Urban Water Supply in a Growing Metropolis

Abstract

London’s rapid population growth during the nineteenth century drove demand for larger volumes of higher-quality water. This gave rise to Parliamentary bills for large infrastructure projects to transfer water to London from outside the Thames watershed and for the transfer of private company assets to municipal management. Wales was the most frequently suggested source, as it was argued to have cleaner, softer, and more abundant water. London’s water companies favored using improved infrastructure, connected networks, and demand management. Despite substantial investment, London’s water company assets and responsibilities were transferred to the Metropolitan Water Board in 1904. Looking back in 1953, fifty years after it was formed to take over London’s water infrastructure, the Metropolitan Water Board noted that extensive acquisition of land for reservoirs and watershed protection by the water companies proved invaluable in securing a sustainable water supply for the metropolis a century later.