Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
The Environment Agency (EA) has noted the need for better collaboration between England’s five regional water resources planning groups and other sectors in their areas to better understand requirements beyond public water supplies in each region.
In its response to water resource management plans from Water Resources East (WRE), Water Resources South East (WRSE), Water Resources West (WRW), West Country Water Resources (WCWR) and Water Resources North (WReN) it said the five groups also needed to better align with one another.
The EA said process and structural barriers have prevented each part of England fully adopting a multi-sector approach in their plans.
These include funding for solutions for non-water industry sectors; challenges of scale and coordination of other water users; and the fact that such planning is very new.
It said the next iteration of its National Framework for Water Resources will focus on clear ways to improve multi-sector planning approaches.
The emerging plans highlight that by 2050, England will have a water deficit of almost 4,000M/l daily rather than the 3,435M/l daily that the National Framework had previously estimated. Almost half (47%) of this additional water will be needed in the south east of England. A quarter (25%) will be required in the east of England, 17% by the west of the country, 17% in the West Country and 5% in the north of England.
Meeting the deficit will take a combination of demand management including significant per capita consumption (PCC) reductions, 50% reduction in leakage by 2050 compared to 2017/18 levels, and adding new supplies.
Novel supply options set out in draft plans included water recycling, reservoir developments, desalination, transfers, and aquifer storage and recover. Some of the schemes proposed are to support water requirements in other regions of the country such as inter-regional transfers
The response noted an inherent need for alignment between the regional groups to address “uncertainties and inconsistencies” between the plans’ cross-regional options. There are fewer options to move water to different regions, because each part faces its own challenges that require water to be held rather than shared. However, the EA said work was required on availability, requirement, timing and volume of water that can be shared.
It asked each regional group to justify and provide evidence that transfers are not worth pursuing, and of best value options.
Where transfers are proposed it asked groups to provide evidence that it would not deteriorate the environment or preclude environmental enhancement in the donor region.
The response said it “strongly supports” the ambition laid out by each regional plan to meet reductions to leakage and PCC and urges water companies to take action now to deliver on that ambition. It acknowledged “uncertainty in the medium to longer term” of plans to reduce demand, and said plans to 2030 should be achievable and well defined.
The EA said the next draft of plans should better set out ambition to enhance water environments and what steps are needed to achieve that by 2050. It also said all plans lacked details for delivery of agreed objectives for protected areas and to meet regulatory commitments. NReN and WRW omitted supply loss as a result of future abstraction in their baseline forecasts for supplies.
Final drafts of regional plans are due in autumn 2022 setting out the confirmed ambition, proposed strategy, preferred solutions and alternative choices to address planning issues. They should be standalone yet complement individual water companies’ plans and be endorsed by relevant company boards. Final regional plans are due to be published September 2023.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.