Water efficiency key to coping with climate change
March 04th 2008

If proof were needed that the Environment Agency is at the very heart of tackling climate change then 2007 was it.While one arm of our operation was battling the worst floods in living memory, another was mapping ‘water stress’ across England and Wales to highlight in which water company areas increased metering will help to conserve this precious resource says Dave Calderbank, senior water demand management analyst at the Environment Agency

Fighing drought on one hand and flooding on the other seems contradictory but that’s our climate change-affected times for you. The long-term forecast depends on how soon, and by how much, we cut greenhouse gas emissions. But for the next 30-40 years at least the planet is locked into rising temperatures and more extreme weather such as more frequent drought and flood.To survive this new world disorder we will have to better manage water use. Drought – well it’s obvious isn’t it? But as we saw last summer, floodwater – often contaminated with raw sewage, chemicals and harmful bacteria – can mean less water available for public supply too.

In addition to climate change impacts,water resources in the south east of England are already stretched, or stressed – as our mapping project showed - yet demand for water in this region is predicted to rise,the population is growing and significant development is planned.Here, in particular, the ‘predict and supply’ approach to water management is not sustainable. Instead,we need a twintrack approach which links up reducing water use in new and existing homes along with, where appropriate, developing new water resources.

Reducing demand

No doubt 2007 will be remembered for its devastating summer floods, but it was also a year which saw further steps taken to help business use water more wisely. The Government put its money where its mouth is and increased funding for water auditing and efficiency advice for business - delivered through Envirowise and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP).

Envirowise provides advice to businesses to help them reduce their water use. Visit www.envirowise.gov.uk/water or call 0800 585 794 to discover how it could assist your business.NISP is a ‘swop shop’for waste materials,including waste waters. If you produce waste water, or don’t need pristine water for manufacturing or other processes, they may be able to help match you with another business that wants, or produces, what you need. You can read more about their services at www.nisp.org.uk

The Government also provides tax incentives to companies that invest in water efficient equipment.You can visit www.eca-water.gov.uk to learn more about equipment that has been accepted as being water efficient on the Water Technology List. Bespoke membrane systems can qualify as well,provided they are approved by Defra.

The past year has seen progress on metering too. On 1 October water companies in areas of serious water stress were given the opportunity to plan for the compulsory metering of their customers, where it is cost effective, after the 2009 water resource planning round.

Universal smart metering offers the chance to reduce both domestic and non-domestic water use. But to be most effective,metering – whether it’s in the home or the office – must be used in conjunction with other water efficiency measures, such as low-flow taps or dual-flush toilets. In fact, our research shows that at least 40% of the extra water needed for growth in the south east could be supplied from the water saved by installing meters and water efficient fixtures and fittings in existing properties.

The idea that you can achieve the same, or less, demand for water post-development as existed pre-development by retrofitting existing buildings - and only constructing water efficient ones - has been further developed by our landmark study Towards Water Neutrality in the Thames Gateway. Working in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government and Defra, this project examined the feasibility of achieving water neutrality in the Thames Gateway by 2016. Its recentlyreported findings offer up many valuable lessons about sustainable growth, including the need to continue improving the water efficiency of industry and business.

In addition to exploring water neutrality in 2007,we also asked for your views on the draft principles for our new Water Resources Strategy. Water for People and the Environment, our three-month consultation on ways to improve water resources management over the next 25 years and well beyond into the next century, has now ended and we have been assessing responses.The draft principles we consulted on included tougher targets on leakage and asset replacement for the water industry and we hope your feedback will help shape the revised strategy which is due out in December 2008.

Water Efficiency Awards

As many of you know,we also seek to encourage water saving across a range of sectors, including industry and business, via our two-yearly Water Efficiency Awards (WEAs) – and 2007 saw our fifth set of WEA winners honoured.

Once again the entries were of great quality and diversity and the judges had a hard job to decide who should take away the trophies. But all agreed that it was a family-run hotel and restaurant business in Margate, Kent, that had demonstrated the willingness to go that extra mile. The owners of the Malvern Hotel & The Blues Grill carried out a range of water-saving measures including fixing leaks and dripping taps and made impressive financial savings. They also did a lot to raise awareness of the need to save water among guests and the business community in the south east through their ‘ Every Drop Counts’project.

The Industry and Business category was won by Swansea-based hand car wash and valeting centre Pitstop. This business reduced its use of mains water by 60 per cent thanks to the installation of a closed loop water recycling system,incorporating a reed bed. Pitstop has also made a similar decrease in the disposal of waste water. The cost of installing the reed-bed system was £14,250 which means that, on current annual savings on both water and electricity bills, the system will have paid for itself in less than four years.

If you’ve got a similar good news story to tell, then look out for our call for entries for the next Water Efficiency Awards this year.

Increasing capacity

Meanwhile, one option that is often talked about when it comes to increasing capacity is a National Water Grid. The Environment Agency has recently investigated this option in detail and concluded that the economic and environmental costs make it unviable. Instead, we are encouraging the greater integration of resources at a regional level, especially in the south east.

Seven large-scale water storage facilities are also being considered for the south east, including four new reservoirs and increasing capacity at three existing ones. But it takes a long time for reservoirs to be built and they are expensive.We need to make sure that the benefits justify the cost as well as the impact that reservoirs can have on the landscape and local people.

Clearly, while progress is being made, there is still work to do to reduce demand rather than relying on new supplies. We need water companies to further reduce leakage. We need business to use more rainwater and grey water for tasks that don’t require drinkable water.

As well as ensuring we are better adapted to a world with less usable water, cutting demand will help reduce the key cause of global warming - carbon emissions - because less water needs energy to treat and pump it. Industry and business, quite literally,don’t have to cost us the earth.

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