11 Aug, 2022 By Tim Clark and Claire Smith

As the environment secretary George Eustice and environment minister Steve Double met with the chief executives of water companies yesterday to discuss the ongoing response to the prolonged dry weather, NCE takes a look at how utility companies around the UK are working to improve water resilience in the longer term and innovative ideas to stretch supplies further during this year's drought.

A number of areas of the UK have recorded their driest period in decades, with some records now being broken dating back to 1935. 

Commenting on yesterday's meeting, Eustice said: "I met the chief executives of water companies to discuss the measures they are taking to protect water supplies in what is the driest summer in over 50 years.

"All water companies have reassured me that water supplies remain resilient across the country. Each company has a pre-agreed drought plan which they are following, and I have urged them to take any precautionary steps needed to protect essential supplies as we go into a likely very dry autumn.

"We are better prepared than ever before for periods of dry weather with a system that is working well to manage water usage, protect the environment and maintain water supplies for the public and critical sectors. We will continue to actively monitor the situation, working alongside partners including the Environment Agency."

Despite Eustice's assurances that all is in hand, industry expert and former chair of the ICE's water expert panel Michael Norton said that little action had happened on water resilience in the last decade.

Norton told NCE that Britain faced similar issues in 2012 when he was involved in the ICE's State of the Nation report which focused on water resilience issues, with recommendations for water metering and progressive tariff structures included in the report. However, little has been done to put those recommendations into action since it was published.

He said: "Our farmers lack water for irrigation and an increasing number of households are experiencing water use restrictions. In the intervening period [since the 2012 State of the Nation report] water companies have built little or no additional water storage, due largely to OFWAT's view that customers are unable to afford raised tariffs, and that 'resilience' can be achieved in other ways."

The ICE report from 2012 called for an end to "stop-start spending" on water infrastructure, which had led to a skills shortage within the sector.

Norton argued that the scale of investment is a fraction of that needed for other infrastructure such as transport or energy. He added: "Management of the nation's water resource represents a huge economic opportunity for UK. Multi-purpose water resource developments can bring flood control, energy generation and water for agriculture - improving food security and generating more jobs - in addition to more secure domestic water supply.

The need for action raised in 2012 was repeated by a National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) report in 2018 stated that the UK needed to save 4bn litres of water a day by the middle of the century.

NIC chair Sir John Armitt again called for urgent action this week to help alleviate the risk of droughts in England due to exceptionally dry weather this summer.

With a drier climate expected to become a more permanent fixture of UK summers as a result of climate change, arguably more needs to be done to improve water resilience.

Waste water management firm Wavin has described the current way we use water in the UK as "unsustainable" in the long term.

“The way we treat water today is unsustainable. As soon as it enters cities, we try to get rid of it. We should treat water as a precious asset rather than a disposable commodity," said Wavin territory director UK & Ireland Mike Ward.

"We must reuse it where there is too little, filter it where it is too polluted and return it to the ground when groundwater supplies are depleted. This would close the water loop and stop shifting the problem from one upstream end to the other downstream end. A circular mentality must underpin every urban design step we take. We must make every drop count."

Ward advocates measures which would connect up wastewater, rainwater and tap water systems to create a circular system.

Some water companies are beginning to take measures along these lines. Compared to other water firms across the UK, Wessex Water is in a unique position in that 75% of its water is supplied from groundwater sources and only 25% from reservoirs. 

The provider has reported that stores of both are below average for this time of year, however, the firm has invested £230M into an integrated water supply grid which allows it to move water around its network to where it is needed. The system was built in 2014.

In Scotland reservoir levels are at around 81%, which according to Scottish Water is "normal" for this time of year, however even in wetter Scotland some areas such as Fife and the Scottish Borders are seeing below-average levels due to low rainfall. 

The utility firm has urged customers to use less water and is using tanker deployments and adjusting its network to re-distribute water supply. The situation in Scotland however is less concerning than London and the South East, where up to 15M people could face a hosepipe ban until October due to this summer's dry weather. Thames Water is expected to announce the start date for its hosepipe ban in the coming weeks.

Other water firms are looking to secure supply by tackling quality issues in the existing pipework. Working with Yorkshire Water, Morrision Water Services has begun a programme of spray lining up to 14km of pipework as part of a £2M programme. 

Insitu spray lining is a method of lining pipes with a thin layer of resin which is centrifugally sprayed on to the inner surface of a cleaned pipe. The lining materials applied have a design life of up to 50 years.

Spray lining is only undertaken after the suitability of the pipe has been confirmed through investigation.  According to Morrision ,spray lining provides significant reductions in carbon, cost and time as well as reducing the time and extent of streetworks needed for pipework excavations and traditional replacement schemes.

Other water companies are looking into the impact climate change will have on their systems.  A study conducted by Southern Water found that environmental stressors had an impact on future pollution events by impacting the efficiency or operations of what are known as waste resource recovery facilities (WRRF's).

WRRF's work by producing clean water and extracting bio-based materials from waste water. The systems are engineered to deal with upsets in the projects however climate change could put the systems under extra strain in the future. 

United Utilities started to supply customers via its new Thirlmere Reservoir pipeline to improve water resilience in the west Cumbria region but it is also looking at small scale solutions too. It has fitted 23 water butts to allotment sites across Manchester in a bid to collect rainwater rather than use mains water for the crops.

The project at Brighton Grove Allotments in Rusholme saw a total of 21 1,000 litre tanks installed, and two 6,000 litre communal tanks. The water firm will being work on two further projects across Manchester later this year.

Compared to the 4bn litres of water needed to be saved per day by 2050 the scheme is arguably a drop in the ocean. However in an area where each drop of water is needed, every little helps.

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Tagged with: drought water resilience

Water resilience in the UK will only be achieved by making more effective use of the water in our rivers. The UKTAG report, UK Standards and Conditions, shows that flows into estuaries can be reduced sufficiently to provide enough raw water to meet all future water supply needs. Adopted now, this would enable water companies to reduce aquifer abstraction, leaving the water there for later use. Bill Cutting. Retired Member

There is a fairly commonly held view that water companies give too much to their shareholders and spend too little on investing for the future. It would be good to know what the expert view is regarding this.

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