Utility Week

26 | AUGUST 2022 | UTILITY WEEK Water Download report Are utilities doing enough to drive water efficiency? A new report by Utility Week, in association with Capita, examines how water companies are engaging with customers to tackle the dual impact of increasing demand and a changing climate. T he National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has recommended the govern- ment should plan for water companies to be able to supply an extra 30% in volume over today's supplies by 2050 to ensure resil- ience to extreme drought. Action is needed due to the combined pressures of a trend for increasing consumption and climate change exacerbating supply and demand imbalances in parts of the country. Limits to sustainable abstraction is also expected to contribute to total water supply decreasing by 7% by 2045. This extra 4,000 megalitres per day (Ml/day) could be met through the combina- tion of demand reduction and by increasing supply by investing in new infrastructure. Around 1,000 Ml/day of the supply short- fall is expected to come from water effi- ciency measures such as customer behaviour change, regulations for new build houses, water efficiency labelling on appliances and by tackling leaky toilets. Water companies are striving to make headway in engaging their customers on water efficiency through a range of mediums and tools. But are they doing enough? Utility Week has partnered with Capita to produce a report which considers the efforts being made by water companies, covering key topics including the current regulatory and statutory landscape for water efficiency; whether water companies are doing enough and focusing on the right areas to achieve demand reduction; and how water compa- nies are engaging with consumers. What is the current state of play for water efficiency? Despite being highlighted as key to ensuring future supplies by important bodies such as the NIC, Waterwise's lates Water Efficiency Strategy reveals that moves towards ensur- ing greater water efficiency are in their infancy. This latest strategy by the inde- pendent NGO focused on reducing water consumption in the UK builds upon its previ- ous strategy which was published five years ago. While the 2017 strategy has pushed the agenda forward by successfully securing a commitment from government to implement- ing mandatory water efficiency labelling of water-using products, it is clear from the lat- est iteration that the movement is very much in its infancy. Of the 10 strategic objectives listed in the document, many are relatively fundamen- tal in nature, such as calling on UK govern- ments and regulators to show clear, visible leadership for water efficiency and reflect this in their policy and regulatory frame- works. Although clear leadership in this area has yet to be established, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has at least set a national target for Ofwat for household consumption for water compa- nies to work towards. With the goal being to reduce consump- tion to litres per head per day (1ppd) by 2050, water companies are focusing their efforts on encouraging behaviour change and the take-up of meters. Such efforts have brought the average consumption by Anglian Water's customers to 136 lppd, and Severn Trent's to 132 lppd. However, the government indicated in the Environment Act published last year that it will build upon this by setting a more holistic target that will take into account how much supply is being put into the system and also account for leakage and business use. "We are further back than energy cer- tainly, although I think things have improved over the past five years in terms of govern- ment leadership. We have a consultation at the moment about the Environment Act targets and one of those is water demand reduction, so that's a brilliant signal that government is taking it seriously," says Dr Nathan Richardson, head of policy and strat- egy, Waterwise. Water companies will inevitably need to take a leading role in encouraging water reduction because they are in charge of sup- ply and hold the relationship with the cus- tomer. Certainly, water companies such as Anglian and United Utilities have told Utility Week that consumer feedback has indicates

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