Is it time to ban the ban?

With temporary usage bans (TUBs) greeted with anger by the public and politicians, is it time to ban hosepipe bans?

Customer perception of restrictions announced in recent weeks – the first for a decade – have ranged from anger to outrage, and Tory leadership hustings, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak each suggested billpayer rebates or fines for companies that impose restrictions.

Environment secretary George Eustice publicly defended the use of TUBs as a necessary and approved step of water company drought plans designed to protect water resources.

“No matter how hard the sector tries, some people see hosepipe bans as a failure of the industry. There has been some support but the overall message is negative in the national press headlines,” Trevor Bishop, head of Water Resources South East (WRSE) told Utility Week.

Water efficiency group Waterwise’s head of efficiency engagement Stephanie Hurry said the “backlash” against TUBs the organisation heard from the mainstream media or members of the public often referenced leakage rates or water executives’ pay.

With people unhappy about restrictions being imposed, is there an alternative? Certainly not for this summer or the near future, but bringing forward infrastructure developments for water resources together with ramping up demand management could allow companies to phase out the need for TUBs.

“If they are not acceptable to society then the debate should be had to assess what it would take, what it would cost, and what the environmental impacts would be to reduce the current reliance on hosepipe restrictions in the future and give customers and politicians the chance to decide,” Bishop said.

Southern Water was the first company to announce restrictions would be needed in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Much of the company’s supply is drawn from groundwater but in its western region, where the ban is in place, it abstracts from rivers – including chalk streams. Alison Hoyle, Southern’s director of risk and compliance, told Utility Week the company was focusing on education rather than enforcement when asking consumers to comply with the ban.

She said customers have been receptive to the messaging that focuses around protecting chalk streams and the environment rather than about saving money.

“People are really proud of their local environment and we know that is one way our customers are engaging with the message rather than about saving water to save money,” she explained.

Despite customers receiving messaging in “a positive way”, Hoyle said some are still unhappy. “We will always get challenges about leakage, people get frustrated about visible leaks without seeing improvements made on the invisible leaks.”

She said the sector attempts to “be the proverbial swan” whereby people only see the calm “when actually there is an awful lot of work going on that people don’t see”.

Grumblings are amplified by social media, but have not translated into increased complaints or inbound contacts to the company, she added. “We have a high confidence that our customers are responsive and care about the local natural environment they are proud of.”

Asking and imploring people to use water differently in their homes and gardens, even to benefit the wider environment, is not straightforward. Tanya Sephton, customer services director at South East Water, said engaging customers and creating behavioural change around how consumers use water is “without a doubt a challenging activity”.

“Over the last few years, we have developed and implemented a strong behavioural change programme to engage with our customers in a positive way,” Sephton said. This has ranged from postcard drops to inform customers how water efficiency devices can save them money, to targeting low affluence areas through its partnership programme.

“The recent high temperatures, coupled with the drier weather have helped raise awareness of water scarcity and many customers have engaged with us to better understand the importance of water and the need for all of us to use it responsibly,” she said. “Whilst we have seen an exceptional increase in demand during the last two months, we have also seen strong indicators customers are trying to help reduce usage.

The hot weather contributed to an almost 50% increase in bursts for the company, which it directly addressed in its communications to help billpayers understand why they occurred and what was being done to address them.

“Whilst it’s a challenging balance to deliver the water efficiency behavioural programme, we strongly believe that through using our own data, enhancing our understanding of customers and by tailoring our messaging, customers are engaging with us and showing they are willing to support us.”

Protecting water environments and safeguarding future water supplies is central to water resource management plans (WRMPs) created by each company. Regional plans will for the first time also being used to take a broader view of areas with too much or too little water and how companies can support one another.

WRSE, together with the other four regional water resources groups, are due to publish their draft plans in November so there would not be sufficient time to properly assess the feasibility of alternatives to restrictions for inclusion in the draft. However if deemed desirable, this could be added ahead of the final documents being produced the following September.

WRMPs are one of several scheduled commitments the sector must follow that feed into and inform price review business plans, the next due in 2024 (PR24) for 2025-30. PR24 plans will also be required to take planning and investment for managing combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into account to minimise the risk of harm to waterways from overflows. This will represent new spending for each water and sewage company following public and political attention on river health. As a novel requirement, the cost of dealing with CSOs has only been estimated but is forecast to add billions to capex programmes.

Bringing forward spending for major infrastructure for additional water resources such as reservoirs, transfers or water recycling would be a further addition to capex. Adding these costs up may mean for many billpayers, a brown lawn for a few weeks in the summer is more palatable than the cost of extra supplies.

Security of water supply will be one of the themes discussed in detail at the Utility Week Forum on 8-9 November in London. Find out more here.