LISTS of operators with tankers which could be used to
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transport water are being prepared by Road Haulage Association area secretaries.
This news comes as National Water Council chairman Lord Nugent reported plans to use tankers to bring water to drought-hit areas from Scotland.
Water usually costs around 50p per thousand gallons and the use of tankers would push this price up to nearer £8 per thousand.
In Devon and Cornwall the water authority has approached the RHA and asked for a list of operators. In that region, too, water is being transported in tankers to herds of animals which were being moved to the water.
The water brought in by tanker would be used primarily to keep major industries going. But Lord Nugent has said that he thinks it is inevitable that there will be short time working.
In the meantime, things look black for hauliers who rely on industries that might be considered as non-essential. Already they are being hit by the water crisis and short time will hit the amount of work for their hauliers.
In London a spokesman for the RHA said that it had formed no official policy on the drought. "But we will obviously do all we can to help," he said.
The RHA is expecting that more water authorities will approach local secretaries for help in finding water tankers as the situation gets worse.