Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | MAY 2015 | 7 Comment B y the time many of you read this, the electorate will have spoken and the shape of the next UK government will be clear – or at least, clearer than it was before the seemingly endless election campaign had run its course. As the country goes to the polls on May 7th, it is fair to say that the water sector, and environmental concerns more broadly, will play a minimal role in deciding where most voters will place their cross on the ballot paper. Searching through party manifestos for any men- tion of water policy tends to be a fruitless pursuit, with the regular refrain over the affordability of utility bills being the sole exception. As for the environment, gone are the days when David Cameron could be found posing for photo shoots in the Our futures are on the line Arctic and promising to run the greenest government ever – ecological worries have seemingly taken a firm back seat to economic concerns. A recent analysis of the coali- tion government's performance from the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) found that the Conservative-Lib Dem administration has come up short in multiple areas of policy - from enforcing sustainable drainage systems to support- ing the roll-out of metering – that could have helped achieve sustainability goals. Unless there is an exceptional showing from the Green Party, it would be a sur- prise if the next government, whatever its colour, offered to the push the sector much higher up its priority list. Of course, there is a sense in which water ought to be above politics – meet- ing the water needs of the future, invest- ing in infrastructure and protecting our environment are long-term challenges and ought to attract a consensus which is immune from the ravages of the five- year electoral cycle. Yet it's remarkable how oŒen this is not the case, and with the UK's membership of the European Union up for serious debate in this elec- tion, there remains the game-changing James brockett eDItor JamesBrockett@fav-house.com Twitter: @wwtmag possibility that much of the environmen- tal regulation that guides the industry could be turned on its head. The criticism that politicians think in five-year cycles rather than truly long- term is also one that could be levelled at many in the water industry, who are tied to the somewhat artificial construct of the AMP cycle. The development of longer-term contracts and more creative alliancing arrangements has gone some way to tackling this mindset, but the fact remains that many leading water industry figures, like our politicians, are focused what they need to achieve by 2020 rather than too far beyond. The key difference is that water companies at least know that they will be around for the long term, even if their contractors and partners, not to mention political leaders, might not be. With all of our futures on the line, it is reassuring to find that somebody at least is thinking of our needs and those of our children in the decades ahead. AŒer the uneasy experience of the coalition government in the last five years, it seems unlikely that any long- term alliancing models will take root among the main parties – but we'll just have to wait and see. Industry view sponsored by keith Hayward Hydro International 2015 is the year when that European environmental juggernaut, the Water Framework Directive, was supposed to achieve "good" status for its water bodies. Yet all member states, including the UK, are still well short of their targets. Just 17% of English rivers are meeting WFD 'good' status according to Environment Agency figures - a number that has actually gone down by 6% because tougher EU measures shi ed the environmental goal posts even further away. Meanwhile, the EU has referred the United Kingdom to the European Court of Justice for inadequate collection and treatment of How committed are we to water quality? wastewater in 17 urban areas, under the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. It seems a depressing situation. Yet, there's no doubt that environmental waters across our nation have improved hugely. Fish and water mammals have returned in great numbers to formerly polluted waters such as the Thames, Tyne, Wear and Mersey rivers. Tighter limits for ammonia and phosphates are driving even greater improvements. A milestone in the quality of surface water runoff was also reached last month with the start of long-awaited regulations for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) on new developments as part of the planning system in England and Wales. But significant revisions to original Government plans have le many wondering to what extent water quality objectives will be met and whether SuDS will be built to measurable, repeatable water treatment standards. Furthermore, there's still a huge job to be done to retrofit SuDS to achieve improved water quality in urban environments. At a recent top-level conference convened by the European Commission to discuss progress and future targets for the WFD there were tensions and differences amongst key stakeholders, according to media reports. For the public, it's a confusing and contradictory picture of moving targets, policy revisions, delays and uncertainties. No surprise then, that water quality hardly featured in election campaigning. It is every citizen's right to expect good environmental water quality. As a new Government term begins, the UK water industry must send a strong and united message to policymakers that water quality is a non-negotiable 'must-have' with the resultant investment in infrastructure, technology innovation and systems maintenance it deserves. keith Hayward is National Sales and Marketing Manager for Hydro International's UK wastewater division. www.hydro-int.com.

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