Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | XXXX 20XX | 15 future to see whether there are shortfalls. The next thing will be to do that process with the six other water companies in the south east and to look at integrated solu- tions for the whole region. That's quite a step change in how we're producing a plan for the next round, reflecting the scale and significance of the problem." Joining forces Six companies in the south east - Affinity, Portsmouth, SES, South East, Southern and Thames - will together consider new infrastructure options such as water reuse and reservoirs. Portsmouth and Southern are already jointly developing the £100m Havent Thicket Reservoir, while Thames and Affinity are studying a possible new reservoir project in Oxfordshire. Ofwat has allocated funds for work on the reservoir through its Strategic Resource Options programme. This gated fund- ing process sees money released at five stages, or gates, depending on how stud- ies progress. "We're looking at an additional two million people by 2045 and up to four million by 2100. That's equivalent to Birmingham and Leeds moving into our area. These are not small population increases. In the next 25 years, we're projecting a deficit of 387m litres a day, or the daily water usage of 2.5m people. By 2100 that challenge gap goes to 688m litres a day. That's if we do nothing. These are big, big numbers and that's what we have to plan for," Tait says. New Water Resources North and other www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | FEBRUARY 2020 | 15 similar groups are also emerging as water companies size up the scale of the chal- lenge. Utilities such as UU want to estab- lish frameworks that enable bulk trading between water companies, including from North to South. "We will continue work- ing collaboratively with other companies and the regulators so that these options can be considered further into the 2024 WRMP," UU says. There has been a degree of regulatory progress in terms of making it easier for water companies to collaborate on future supply. The Environment Agency is poised to issue a framework document in early 2020 outlining a need to provide for one in 500-year droughts, up from the current one in 200 years. "We had a near miss drought in 2012 - the Olympics year - and it made everyone take stock. It's right to invest now, because the economic conse- quences of not doing it are so enormous," Tait adds. Martin Lunn, head of water service planning at Northumbrian Water, agrees that enabling bulk transfer trades is crucial. He says: "The biggest challenge is that, whilst demand management should be maximised, a truly twin-track approach is still essential. This means government and regulators must recog- nise that new resources, or large transfers, must also be allowed to be developed in a much quicker timescale than that of recent decades. The other big challenge is that whilst demand can undoubtedly be reduced by water efficiency, leakage reduction and metering, a significant amount relies on customers changing their water use significantly. This is a wider societal issue that can't be solely accomplished by water companies." Meanwhile the industry has a com- plimentary focus on eliminating carbon emissions by 2030. Water companies in many cases report making good progress including by generating energy from sludge and reducing pumping costs through improved network efficiency. However, Wood strikes a note of caution. "My personal view is that it's quite dif- ficult to see how we can get to a net zero target when you're dealing with a ratchet- ing up of standards that you're trying to achieve. The optimiser without a doubt helps. But, li›ing water will use energy and we can't get away from that," he said. • SCALE OF THE CHALLENGE James Bevan, chief executive at the Environment Agency, sized up the problem in his dramatically-titled address to the Waterwise conference in March 2019, 'Escaping the jaws of death: ensuring enough water in 2050'. He said: "By 2050, the amount of water available could be reduced by 10 to 15 per cent, with some rivers seeing 50 to 80 per cent less water during the summer months. It will mean higher drought risk, caused by hotter, drier summers, and less predictable rainfall. On present pro- jections, many parts of our country will face significant water deficits by 2050, particularly in the south east where much of the UK population lives." The number of people living in the UK is projected to reach 75m by 2050, higher by 12 per cent, or eight million people, compared to today. Meanwhile, the ageing infrastructure challenge can be appreciated by way of an inventory of 273 reservoirs published by the Environmental Information Data Centre in December 2019. The data shows that 62 per cent of the UK's reservoirs were built in the 1900s and 28 per cent in the 1800s. The list even includes two that completed in the 1700s and one, Ouse Washes, dating from 1652. 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 2021 2031 2041 100,000,000 75,000,000 50,000,000 FIGURE 1: The UK's population has grown year-on-year since 1982 A graph showing population growth year-on-year since 1982. UK population estimates and projections, 1951 to 2041 Estimates Projections