Birmingham imports 320 million litres of water every day from Wales, over 70 miles away. This began in Victorian times when Birmingham was a booming city whose wells and rivers had become contaminated with disease-causing sewage. Mayor Joseph Chamberlain led a takeover of water works and the purchase of Wales’ Elan Valley supported by parliament. The aqueduct carrying the water cost £8 million when it opened in 1904, and it now needs repairs. Building the same project today would cost £3 billion. Severn Trent Water cost the Birmingham Resilience Project of maintenance and repair at £325 million.

Key Takeaways:

• Every day 320 million litres of water travels 73 miles (117 km) from Wales to Birmingham to fill kettles, baths and boilers.
• During the industrial revolution Birmingham’s population soared and the city’s wells and rivers, the Rea and Tame, become contaminated by sewage.
• Surveyors went out in search of clean water and decided the best place to get it from was Elan Valley in Wales.

“It had an average annual rainfall of 1830mm and its landscape was higher than Birmingham’s, which would enable the 55 million litres of water to be transported to the city entirely by gravity.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-37472263