￡6 billion plan launched to counter serious threat to water security and the environment in Eastern England

Urgent action is needed by all water users to manage Eastern England’s scarce water resources. This is the conclusion of Water Resources East 's first ever Regional Water Resources Plan – a multi-sector, collaborative effort to achieve resilient water supplies and a thriving natural environment in the region. The plan can be read on our website by clicking the link below.

WRE’s Regional Water Resources Plan, published in draft for consultation, reveals that the region faces projected water shortages of more than 600 million litres of water per day by 2050, equating to a quarter of current water use. This water deficit is being driven by population and economic growth, climate change, and the urgent need to take far less water from rivers and groundwater sources that are showing the effects of over-abstraction.

Unless action is taken, increasing water scarcity will constrain agricultural production and curtail economic and housing development, impacting the region’s future prosperity and endangering the east’s iconic chalk rivers, peatlands and wetlands.

Demand for water is increasing, driven by economic and population growth and the changing climate. Overall, water demand is projected to be 2,135 million litres per day (Ml/d) in 2025, rising by approximately 14% to 2,440 Ml/d by 2050.

At the same time, water available for use by all sectors is falling, predominantly due to the need to cut abstraction from unsustainable sources and leave more water in the environment for nature. But climate change and achieving better drought resilience are adding pressure too.

We have modelled three ‘environmental destination’ scenarios, with 'enhance' the most ambitious. WRE's aim is to achieve the outcomes associated with the 'Enhance' scenario by 2050.

• Recovery/Business As Usual (BAU): represents the legal minimum improvements in environmental flows to support WFD Good Ecological Status.
• Resilience (BAU+): requires extra protection for internationally-designated habitats.
• Enhance: requires extra protection for UK designated sites (SSSIs) including chalk rivers, headwaters and wetlands.

Achieving the most ambitions ‘Enhance’ scenario may require water companies and farm businesses in some parts of East Anglia to curtail abstraction from current sources by 60%+ in order to help nature recover.

The process of abstraction licence reform is already underway. Many water company licences being capped at 'recent actual average' levels, farm businesses typically 'max peak' historic usage, with tougher ‘hands off’ flow conditions and more to come. The Environment Agency's reform timetable is below.

As a result of these licence reforms, in the absence of urgent action, demand will exceed supply within years, not decades.

This year's drought showed how quickly river flows and water levels can drop, with severe restrictions placed on farm businesses and other abstractors at very short notice.

Our draft Regional Plan proposes how the deficits in the public water supply can be met in ways that benefit all sectors and the natural environment.

It starts with more effort to reduce water demand and cut leakage, even though water companies in the east are already sector-leading. This means there is less scope in the east than elsewhere in the country to meet deficits through more demand management.

So we also need new sources of water supply. At the heart of our plan are two major new reservoirs in South Lincolnshire and the Cambridgeshire Fens. Without them, you have to rely much more on energy-intensive desalination.

Water transfers and reuse of treated wastewater are important parts of the plan too.

Public consultations on both reservoir projects are already underway:

Both offer substantial community, economic and environmental benefits as well as promise to store 50bn litres of water each.

Our overall 'best value' plan to 2050 looks like this. It focuses on benefits rather than just meeting the projected water deficits at minimum cost. The supply-side options in the plan are estimated to cost ￡6.3 billion (Totex, undiscounted 2021/22 prices), with most of the cost falling in the 2030s and 2040s.

We know things will change between now and 2050. So ours is a 'low regret', 'adaptive' plan that is robust to future uncertainties and can be flexed if need be.

For farming, supply deficits will require a combination of:

• Water efficiency & rainwater harvesting
• New winter storage reservoirs
• Water sharing with nearby farms
• Water sharing with water cos: raw, potable & treated effluent.

But farm businesses need government support too.

For the energy sector, freshwater use is falling as fossil fuel generation makes way for renewables and new nuclear. However, hydrogen production and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) are both water-intensive. The sector could require much more water by 2050, but projections are highly uncertain.

Overall, Water Resources East 's draft Regional Water Resources Plan shows how more resilient water supplies for the growing population, economy and the environment in the east can be achieved in the changing climate.

We would love your feedback. Consultation closes 20 Feb 2023.