Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | FEBRUARY 2023 | 15 Water Stop the Drop: Empowering customers to save water With supplies under pressure, innovative approaches to customer engagement are more important than ever. Comment Laura Flowerdew A s we all know, last year was challenging with large parts of the country were o cially placed in drought status. The South West region, for example, experienced one of the driest and hottest periods for more than 130 years. Despite the welcome return of autumnal weather, the region remains o cially in drought. We are seeing the direct consequences of climate change. Our rain is becoming less consistent. When it does rain, it increasingly arrives in short, intensive bursts on to land hardened by long periods with little or no rain, which does not absorb the water as e ectively as so- soil. These weather conditions, coupled with unprece- dented demand over the summer, have le- our reser- voirs and rivers depleted. Storage levels within these reservoirs fell to their lowest ever recorded levels last year. The situation has led to many water companies, including ourselves, introducing temporary use bans (hosepipe bans) to try to reduce customer usage. Our hosepipe ban came into force in August for customers in Cornwall and parts of North Devon and it remains in place. Planning for the future While the recent rainfall has helped replenish rivers and reservoirs, the water resources situation needs both short-term and long-term thinking, and we are taking steps now to mitigate the need to bring in restrictions next spring and summer. I'm proud of the action we have been taking at South West Water. Our colleagues are working around the clock to bring new supplies safely online, ˆ nd and ˆ x more leaks than ever before and help businesses and customers reduce their water usage. We are planning for the future today, investing in three new reservoirs and ˆ nding innovative ways to collect, store and treat water. But we can't make lasting change alone. We also need to work with customers, and we have been asking them to reŠ ect on their own activities and how they use water. We have been engaging with customers throughout the period of drought, asking them to save water where they can and encouraging them to take advantage of our water-saving freebies and products on our website. We have given away more than 75,000 water-saving devices ranging from water butts to Š ow-reducing shower heads. South West Water is investing c.£75 million in water resilience, and accelerating initiatives to secure supplies across Cornwall. This includes investment at our new Hawkstor reservoir, purchased earlier in 2022, alongside work at three other water sources in Cornwall re-purpos- ing ex-quarries and mines, and progressing desalina- tion solutions. We are also pursuing a new reservoir in the Bristol region – Cheddar 2, which forms part of our longer-term strategy. Further action We had positive early results from our customer side actions, showing that the hosepipe ban and other interventions helped to decrease demand by 10% in the peak months. But it was clear more was needed. Water is scarce and we need to support customers with innova- tive ways to bring down usage over the long term. That's why we were excited to launch a brand new customer incentive scheme for Cornwall as part of our "Stop the Drop" campaign. The scheme, which is the ˆ rst of its kind for our industry, gives customers in Cornwall the opportunity to receive a £30 credit on their bills if Colliford Reservoir – our large strategic reservoir serving 255,000 householders in Cornwall – reaches target storage levels. The aim of the campaign was to show that by work- ing together and by customers making small changes, we can start to make a real di erence. We're excited to see how customers respond to the campaign and we will be tracking the results to explore how schemes such as this could work for us in the future. With the undeniable impacts of climate change likely to place new and unforeseen pressures on our opera- tions, I believe it has never been a better time for us as water companies to ˆ nd new solutions to connect with our customers and to change the way we all think about and value our precious water resources. Stop the Drop is the ˆ rst step for us in our new approach to customer engagement. By working together with our customers and stakeholders we can reduce the risk to water supplies facing the industry, delivering water resilience now and into the future. Mike Keil, senior director of policy, research and campaigns at CCW, said: "We've been impressed with the Stop the Drop initiative, which is a great example of a water company being innovative in its thinking when it comes to helping water resources recover." "It has brought South West Water closer to the people it serves by encouraging a spirit of shared responsibil- ity when it comes to looking a- er our water resources, while also providing a ˆ nancial incentive to customers at a time when many households are struggling with the cost of living." Laura Flowerdew, chief customer and digital o cer, Pennon Group

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