Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 13TH - 19TH SEPTEMBER 2019 | 13 Utility of the Future: climate change Cape Town narrowly averts a water crisis The threat of turning o the taps in a dramatic "Day Zero" event helped Cape Town slash its water consumption and avoid becoming the rst major city in the world to exhaust its resources. Cape Town's water crisis peaked in early 2018 when, following three years of anaemic rainfall, water storage levels drop to as low as 15 per cent of total dam capacity. In January 2018 the South African government announced Day Zero, a theoretical moment in 90 days' time when emergency rationing meas- ures would be triggered if major dams fell below 13.5 per cent capacity. Under the provision, water supplies to suburban homes and businesses would be cut o and every resident would be forced to visit communal water collection points to retrieve a daily water ration. The shocking prospect had a catalytic e ect. Locals started taking water conservation seriously, limiting toilet flushes to once a day and recycling washing machine water. In addition to a cap on consumption of 50 litres per person per day, and heŒ y nes applied to non-compliant households, this galvanised a 30 per cent drop in residential consump- tion. The measure formed part of a multi-pronged response to the crisis, which included the throttling back of water for agriculture and higher water tari s for heavy users. The emergency e orts paid o and when average rainfall levels returned in mid-2018 city oŽ cials were able to push back Day Zero inde nitely. Today, dam levels in the Western Cape Water Supply System are at an encouraging 82 perc ent, but the parched summer season is fast approaching. To help facilitate a wider strategic operation between water companies and stakeholders such as farmers, electricity generators and environmen- tal groups, the Environment Agency has agreed to lead development of a water resources national framework by December 2019. Stuart Sampson, water manager at the agency, tells Utility Week: "This national framework will model future water needs and set out an assess- ment of national and regional water needs, includ- ing indicative needs for strategic solutions such as water transfers and new sources of supply to improve resilience to drought." Demand reduction A greater focus on - xing leaks, rolling out water meters and raising awareness of water conserva- tion with customers could deliver around two- thirds of the additional water capacity targeted by the NIC in its report. At present, around 20 per cent of water put into the public supply is lost through leakage and Ofwat has set all water companies a target to bring down leakage by at least 15 per cent by 2025, rising to 50 per cent by 2050. However, the government has criticised the former target as "not ambitious enough" and said the longer-term goal should be reached ten years earlier, by 2040. The potential for leakage reduction is question- able, given that in 2017/18 almost half of compa- nies in England and Wales missed their leakage targets. The worst o' ender, Thames Water, was - ned £120 million by the regulator as a result. New technology and learning lessons from other countries could help - nd solutions, says Steve Kaye, chief executive of UKWIR: "UKWIR has set out the goal for the sector to achieve zero leak- age by 2050 in an e' ort to drive innovation, this will lead to greater cost e— ciencies and improved operational reliability. The Netherlands has less than 5 per cent leakage and other countries have fewer losses, so so we have to ask ourselves how that is achievable." A signi- cant reduction in personal water con- sumption could have a big role to play in future. A recent survey carried out for Utility Week by Harris Interactive found that 90 per cent of 1,022 people polled would be happy to make changes to their energy and water consumption to support the gov- ernment's net zero emissions target by 2050. However, a third of those quizzed found it surprising that the UK had signi- cant water shortages, which points toward the need for a high-pro- le public awareness exercise. Conventional metering has been shown to reduce demand by around 15 per cent and smart meters, which provide more frequent readings, are expected to increase this to about 17 per cent. The NIC plan recommends that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural A' airs (Defra) allows companies to implement compulsory Big Numbers 1 in 4 Chances of a serious drought between now and 2050 20% Amount of mains water currently lost through leakage 118 litres Volume of water per person per day required to ensure long- term supply, down from 143 today £21bn Predicted cost of building supply resilience over the next 30 years continued overleaf UTILITY WEEK CONGRESS 2019 8-9 October 2019 | Birmingham 'Building and maintaining resilience' will be one of the key themes of Utility Week's two-day Congress in October. For further information or to book your ticket, visit: uw-event.co.uk/congress

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