Creating a resilient water future for our region
Why is our region water scarce when it hasn’t stopped raining? Did you know that the South East has less water than Dallas, Istanbul and Sydney? Our Managing Director for Water, Tim McMahon, tackles this important topic as our Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) roadshows begin.
Our Water Resources Management Plan
Our Water Resources Management Plan – also known as our WRMP – has been in the headlines this month, and now will be the subject of roadshow events across our region from this week onwards, as customers explore how we will keep taps running for the next 50 years.
This plan has never been more important, given our region is already recognised as being more ‘water stressed’ than places like Dallas, Istanbul and Sydney. This is because we only keep hold of 1% of the water that falls from the sky and we are densely populated, compared to these other regions.
Aside from this, we also face the enormous challenges of climate change and population growth, and the need to take much less water from our rivers and underground aquifers despite these issues. We have a plan, but if we don’t get it right, we run the risk of struggling to keep up with demand and of damaging our precious environment in doing so.
What is our plan?
We are tackling this important issue from every angle, with plans to:
- Create new resources – reservoirs such as Havant Thicket in Hampshire, water recycling and desalination schemes, and new groundwater sources
- cut our leakage levels by more than 50% by 2050
- help households reduce water use to less than 110 litres per person by 2045, and businesses by 9% by 2038
- move water around our network and between ourselves and neighbouring companies, to where it is needed most
We would love to hear from our communities about these and other proposals within our WRMP, so we can come together to achieve these goals for the benefit of our communities and our environment.
How does this plan protect our environment?
Right now, we take 70% of our drinking water from underground, and the remaining 30% from our rivers and reservoirs. But with a greater need for supplies due to a growing population, and in the face of the extremes of climate change, this cannot continue without having a disastrous impact on our precious ecosystems – such as the famous chalk streams of Hampshire.
By thinking outside the box, and sourcing our supplies from elsewhere – like new reservoirs, pipe transfers from elsewhere, and schemes like water recycling – we can leave much more water in these natural places.
For Hampshire as an example, this will mean not taking from the likes of the River Test and River Itchen, which is vital as our summers are expected to become 60% drier with climate change.
Why can’t we just capture rainfall better?
Population growth hits us two ways – there’s more people who need water, but less land to catch it on and keep the rain. Currently, most of our rainfall runs across often impermeable surfaces into drains, sewers and rivers, and escapes out to sea – a process that happens even quicker today due to the intense weather events brought on by climate change. We only collect 1% of all rainfall.
The best way to harvest rainfall is through reservoirs. We are building the UK’s first in over 30 years at Havant Thicket, and have plans in our WRMP to build another reservoir in West Sussex too – plus we are working with other water companies on a new reservoir in Oxfordshire, which would include a pipe transfer into the north of Hampshire.
Of course we would love to build more, but it is about more than investment. It also relies on the geology and geography on our region, which unfortunately makes finding appropriate locations extremely hard.
Why have we been talking about sea tankers?
You may have seen in the media that some journalists have picked out a small element of our WRMP, which states that in extreme drought conditions affecting Hampshire only in the early 2030s, we may need to consider the import of water from Norway.
This would only ever be a last resort contingency measure, used for a short period during a drought which would need to be significantly worse than the infamous case of 1976. Even then, we would only reach that option once we had exhausted a raft of other, such as temporary desalination plants and water-saving agreements with businesses.
For context, in terms of probability, over the course of 100 years, this solution might only be needed for 9 days.
What now?
Our consultation runs until 4 December 2024, with eight roadshows and five webinars taking place. All the details on how to take part are on our WRMP webpage. We would really value your input to make sure we have this plan right.
We will then consider all responses and work with the Environment Agency and Defra to publish the final plan next spring.