Theresa May has said the 25-year-old German water cannon Boris Johnson wanted to bring to London have 67 faults that needed fixing before they could have been used.
Impact assessments, fact-finding missions and medical statements published by the Home Office on Wednesday show that they risked causing blindness, lacked spare parts and might have been too bulky for the capital’s streets.
The home secretary rejected an application from police – backed by Johnson – to use them in England and Wales. In the wake of her decision, here are some of the key problems experts identified in their reports on the Rosenbauer Wasserwerfer 9,000 (WaWe9).
Risk of serious injury
According to the scientific advisory committee on the medical implications of less-lethal weapons (Sacmill), the water cannon can cause a series of injuries, including:
Anatomical ports of entry, such as the nostrils, ears and mouth, place body tissues in these areas at greater risk of injury from the ingress of high-pressure water jets. The risk of serious injury to the eye from a water jet is also of concern, and the risk may be increased by the impact of glass, plastic or other material from broken spectacles.
[There is] a predictable risk of secondary injuries resulting from tissue damage produced by the impact of street furniture and debris energised by the water cannon jet. This could comprise penetrating or blunt trauma depending on the physical nature … of the energised object and may include the projection of protesters’ weapons into the crowd after being energised by the water jets.
There is a small risk of hypothermia when wet. There is a risk of inducing immediate or delayed psychological or mental health [problems].
Poor evidence-gathering capabilities
The WaWe9 uses a relatively simple evidence-gathering system, namely a Sony camcorder-type video recorder fixed to a tripod on the dashboard of the machine and linked to four hard drives installed in the cab … The system cannot record what is taking place behind the vehicle and does not provide CCTV from the monitors to the inside of the vehicle.
The evidence-gathering techniques available in these machines are not advanced, although it is right to point out that there is a facility to gather evidence through a limited facility to record what the crew can see and hear. As such this does meet the tactical requirements at a low level.
No camera to aim the cannon
The lack of cameras affixed to the monitors introduces the issue that these cannon are dissimilar to those used in PSNI [the Police Service of Northern Ireland] and as such Sacmill may have a view that they are more likely to be less accurate than the PSNI cannon.
Cannon do not meet London’s emission requirements
The vehicles do not have any exhaust emission equipment and are classed as ‘Euro 0’. The emissions regulations for the UK require that vehicles entering London are to Euro 4 standard or above.
Water tank at risk of failure
Water cannon of this age are prone to corrosion in the main water tank. Critical failure of the tank would be time-consuming and costly to repair and may not be economically justifiable.
Spare parts are hard or costly to find
Whilst spares are widely available for the normal mechanical aspects of the vehicle, the spare parts for the special fitments [pumps, pipe work, body panels etc] are not widely available and have to be specially manufactured when required. Repairs are likely to be costly and time-consuming.
Cannon may not fit on London’s streets
It is recognised that the nature of London and other major cities in the UK is such that there are often narrow roads to be negotiated [unlike some other major European cities which have been constructed more recently]. The WaWe9 has a 9,000-litre capability, which means that the vehicle itself is large. Dimensions are available, but as an idea it might be useful to say that WaWe9 appears slightly larger than a London fire engine, perhaps with a bulk more similar to a large refuse collection vehicle. In terms of its manoeuvrability it is accurate to say that it would ideally be smaller in size.
David Shaw, the chief constable of West Mercia police, who leads the national water cannon project board, said in his fact-finding reports that many of the above issues could be corrected – but at a cost.
