Water Efficiency and the UK Government's 25 Year Environment Plan

The UK Government has just published its 25yr environment plan, you can read it here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/673203/25-year-environment-plan.pdf

Good. Its excellent that there is a plan and its great that its been published at last. Its also great to see that theres a section on water efficiency.

But unfortunately new reservoirs get mentioned before the efficient use of water, and when it comes to targets for water efficiency the document says that the Government will work with the water industry to set ambitious targets. How long will that take? And surely specific targets were the sort of thing we were expecting in the actual plan?

I would like to set down a marker that when we talk about ambitious we should be looking at targets like 80 litres per person by the end of the next Periodic Review cycle and we should specify that all new homes should be water neutral. I can see a lot of people in the water industry thinking that this is ridiculous but other developed parts of the world are already at a pcc of 80 litres and water neutrality has been discussed for decades. The UK water industry is very good at delivery. The Government should have set targets that would protect and enhance the environment and called upon the water industry to deliver them. But instead we have talk of reservoirs and new supply alongside discussion on water efficiency when what we needed was action.

As I said its good to see water efficiency mentioned but it would have been great to see some real ambition.



Phill Mills

Water sector specialist | Adviser and analyst of industry trends, policy developments, opportunities

7 年

Thanks for the prompt heads up on the Plan Jacob Tompkins. But are you totally dismissing new reservoirs? Seems that a target of 80 litres per person per day by end of next Periodic Review cycle – so by 2025 – is very aspirational and such savings cannot be taken for granted. We used to talk about a twin track approach, i.e. both supply and demand side measures. So I support the need for greater efficiency in our use of water together with reduced leakage from company networks and customer pipes. But I also believe there is a need to capture and store more rainfall if we’re to meet the demands of an increasing and more urban (still SE focused?) population, coupled with changing weather patterns. I don’t believe we can just dismiss new reservoir storage.

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