Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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In Focus: Customer bills In 2014, a New York Times article headlined 'The Risks of Cheap Water' pre- sented data indicating that water use in most wealthy countries correlates to cost. "Getting the water price right to signal scarcity is crucially important," David G. Victor of the University of California, San Diego, told the newspaper. In Australia more recently, the Inde- pendent Pricing & Regulatory Tribunal's dra‹ determination for Sydney Water in the 2016-20 period saw prices for domestic water use fall 13.5 per cent; total con- sumption was then shown to have risen in 2016, 2017 and 2018, hitting heights not seen since the early part of the millen- nium. However, the situation may not be as straightforward as it appears. Sydney Water suggested the increased usage was down to hot weather in 2017-18, and Waterwise, the UK-based water efficiency NGO, believes there are several factors in play. "Whether water is too cheap depends on who you are and who you ask," Nicci Russell, Waterwise's managing direc- tor, says. "I think valuing water is more around how we all relate to it – its impor- tance in our everyday lives and for the environment. "It therefore links directly with how companies engage with custom- ers, and how they publicise and deliver on their commitment to improve the environment. Price is part of the picture, but it probably doesn't even register for quite a few people. It's certainly not just about that." Increasing cost in an effort to drive down usage may cause other problems. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's 'UK Poverty 2018' study found that the most common types of debt for those with low incomes are water bills and council tax, followed by rent and other utility bills. "You could increase the cost, which might make people think much harder about it, but that means you might end up with an unfair situation for those who can't afford it," IMechE's Baxter says. "There are so many interrelated ele- ments to it around social equality and making sure everybody has access to water. What we've not done is empha- sised the value we should place on water as a society." One emerging approach that could help to balance these complex issues is to use a 'capitals' approach. Pioneered in the UK water sector by AECOM for Yorkshire Water, it provides a framework for quantifying and reporting the impacts and dependencies of water companies on environmental, social and economic issues. The capitals approach allows water companies to quantify and measure their impact on the environment – demonstrat- ing the extent to which they are improv- ing river water quality, managing upland ecosystems to secure water supplies and reducing carbon emissions – as well as the implications for social issues such as the higher water prices and levels of water poverty, changing levels of trust between consumers and water companies, or changes in the quality of place of local communities through the provision of recreational areas or reductions in flood events. At the same time, it looks at the eco- nomic impacts of these decisions in terms of investment and revenues, costs and employment opportunities. The capitals approach makes clear the importance of water to all aspects of society and how these values can be used to make better, more transparent decisions. "Integrating social and environmental factors into decision-making about invest- ment choices will help the water sector to successfully negotiate the range of challenges it's likely to face in the future," Chris White, principal environmental economist at AECOM, says. "Water companies are planning up to 25 years in advance, so the investments they make now must be resilient to factors such as climate change, changing client expectations and demand." Greater levels of water efficiency could also help, since it can improve resilience while driving down bills. Northumbrian Water, for example, has a project that involves visiting customers' homes to offer advice on saving energy, water and money, tying into the com- pany's water poverty eradication efforts (see page 14). "They're also developing a digital plat- form, which is about how they engage with their customers, and tying that in with their zero water poverty commitment," Russell says. "For them, water poverty and water efficiency are two sides of the same coin." 12 | OCTOBER 2019 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk