The likely impact includes forest conversion to agricultural land, a drop in biological diversity as a result of monocropping and the massive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, unsustainable levels of water abstraction and a greater risk of water-related conflicts with local communities and neighbouring States sharing the same transboundary river systems.

UNESCO: Madiodio Niasse on the risks associated with large-scale foreign land aquisitions | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

They include water supply and sewerage, including abstraction and impounding of water, resources management, water quality, the water industry, water charges, safety of reservoirs and so on.

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Water abstraction, the process of taking water from a source for industrial or domestic usage, can only be carried out under licence from the Environment Agency.

BBC: River Brennand

The list is to be used to decide which sites of special scientific interest (SSSI) should have money spent on them to prevent over-abstraction by water-companies, which is the process of removing water for domestic or industrial use.

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The scheme will see United Utilities decommission a number of water intakes along the two rivers, refurbish those that remain and open two new abstraction plants.

BBC: River Brennand