Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | MARCH 2022 | 25 Water Baseline 2020 Demand reduction Climate change (excluding environment needs) Environmental destination (including climate change) Total 2050 -42 to -277 Future scenarios 1 to 220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 -61 -180 -42 33 166 Increases in water availability Decreases in water availability Overall water available WEST COUNTRY SUPPLY-DEMAND BALANCE: THE STARTING POLICY FUTURE AND THE RANGE OF POSSIBLE OTHER FUTURES (ML/D) The group, which covers the east of Eng- land, comprises Anglian, A nity, Essex and Su olk, Cambridge, and Severn Trent water companies. The area has the highest water demand for agriculture in the country and the lowest rainfall, making it a particularly dry region. WRE's plan is clear that work must begin now to ensure future supplies, therefore it urges stakeholders to begin to plan and develop the signi cant new infrastructure required. Paul Leinster, the group's independent chair, says: "The current focus is on iden- tifying the no or low regret actions which are appropriate to progress now. These will include the initial planning and develop- ment aspects of strategic options. It will be many years before they are providing addi- tional water supplies, but work needs to start on them now." WRE will not carry out the work itself, Leinster says. "It will be for other sectors to incorporate the issues and solutions identi- ed within their planning processes. The WRE plan and process will provide a con- text and a means by which interested parties can have more con dence in making their choices." At present, the East of England uses the equivalent of 2,311 million litres daily, which WRE forecasts could double by 2050. At the same time abstraction licences set by the Environment Agency will have sustainabil- ity reductions applied to them from 2025 to reduce impacts on water bodies. This, WRE says, necessitates an urgent and imminent requirement to meet short-term needs that will require demand management. WRE calls on water companies to explore lowering per capita consumption (PCC), reducing leakage and developing a multi-sec- tor collaborative strategy. It says abstraction reductions should prioritise chalk streams and the Norfolk Broads. The group suggests beginning plans for a strategic reservoir and desalination plant to be built in the next Asset Management Period (AMP) from 2025. During AMP8, the plan recommends ramping up water e ciency tactics for domestic and business consumers, particu- larly using smart metering and usage tari s. Other infrastructure recommendations at this stage include piloting re-use schemes and desalination as well as an aquifer stor- age and recovery pilot, developing more storage options and exploring regional or national transfers. Despite the need to signi cantly reduce customer demand, cites consumer research showing that drought is not a conscious con- cern for customers, who are unaware of the supply shortages the region faces or the envi- ronmental sensitivity of chalk streams. Re-use in the West Looking to the west of England, if no action is taken the region faces a possible 277 mega- litre (Ml) daily de cit by 2050. WCWRG's resource management plan calls for signi - cant demand reduction to head o this sce- nario, along with e™ uent reuse and using existing reservoir and groundwater storage more e ciently. At present, 1,400Ml are used each day, 85% of which is used by homes and 15% by business customers. The group, made up of South West, Wes- sex and Bristol water companies, produced its emerging regional plan with ve future scenarios with varying resources available and levels of demand. It predicts demand could range from a 42 megalitre daily de cit to 277 megalitres a day by 2050. The group calculated that this could be covered with demand reduction, includ- ing leakage, to save 166 megalitres a day. WCWRG says personal consumption would need to be lowered to 110 litres a day by 2050 and the sector-wide commitment to cut leak- age by 50% would need to be met. Strategic supply-side options being inves- Note: Five different scenarios were tested: Policy future, High demand future, Bad future, Stretching future, Alternative future. Source: Emerging Regional Plan stakeholder Summary for consultation tigated to enhance supplies include reser- voirs, adding pumped storage to existing reservoirs and e™ uent recycling. One area for attention in the plan was a suggestion to use water sources "more e ectively" such as maximising the poten- tial of reservoir and groundwater storage, which the West Country has plenty of. This, WCWRG says, could be used di erently to make the most of wetter winters, which would have low cost or carbon impacts. From 2030-40 the plan calls for construc- tion of strategic resource options and an intra-regional transfer. There will also poten- tially be an e™ uent re-use scheme in opera- tion and a new reservoir will "likely" be under development. Later, from 2040-50, the plan is adap- tive so will depend on success of the earlier stages and what environmental impacts lookŸlike. The rst recommended action will be around demand reduction, undertaking these as soon as possible will create head- room in future scenarios. Consultations for each of the plans will run until March ahead of nal dra¡ s pub- lished in the autumn. Ruth Williams, water correspondent

• Cover