Calls for water efficiency ‘propaganda’ to cut usage

A “propaganda”-style campaign is needed for the public to think seriously about water scarcity, the co-founder of the Green Party has said.

Speaking at Utility Week Forum, Michael Benfield argued for more drastic approaches to educate people about the wider impacts of their lifestyle choices.

In particular, Benfield said more must be done so that the public can understand the link between climate challenges and water scarcity.

“We need to address the educational issue, it’s becoming very much more a propaganda issue, not just an educational issue,” he said.

“We need to propagandise what is happening to get people really thinking about it and taking action on their own water reduction, their own electricity reduction, their own food changes and so on.”

The UK has set an ambitious target to reduce the use of public water supply per person by 20% by 2038, compared to 2018 usage levels.

The target was set in response to the Environment Agency’s review of draft Regional Water Resource Plans which found an additional 4,000 million litres of water a day will be needed in England by 2050 to meet future supply pressures.

Despite the need to use less water, all water companies fell short of their targets to reduce consumption in Ofwat’s annual assessment released in September 2023.

Benfield said the lack of progress is due to siloed thinking from politicians on environmental issues and lacking the capacity to see climate issues, decarbonisation, water scarcity, land use and migration together.

He added: “Government and politicians in general don’t have the capacity to take a holistic view. They don’t bring things together, they want to talk about individual issues.”

Also speaking at the conference, former chair of the Climate Change Committee Lord Deben argued that compulsory water metering should be accompanied by novel billing approaches to target consumption levels.

“I was the minister to introduce compulsory water metering, which was then turned over because there was a great story about a bus driver’s family of six not being able to pay the bills,” Deben said. “If people can’t pay the bills, the answer is you change the billing system.”

“Make the system help people to do good, and help them not to do bad,” Deben said. “That’s what we have to do and water is at the very heart of it.”

New charging structures are being trialled at eight water companies this year to address affordability concerns and reduce water consumption.

It comes after Ofwat called on the water sector to shake up how consumers are billed for the water they use to ensure low-income households are not overly-burdened.

Affinity, Anglian, Northumbrian, Portsmouth, South Staffs, South West, Southern and United Utilities have all proposed running a trial in 2024-25. These vary from rising block tariffs, seasonal and peak demand charges, and essential use tariffs, all of which will be piloted this year and into the next asset management period (AMP8).