Water UK

Promoting water resources management

14/05/08

In the past few weeks water companies in England and Wales have published draft water resource management plans (WRMPs) for comment by regulators, local authorities, development agencies, the public and each other. Such plans have been produced, reviewed and updated consistently for nearly 10 years but never, until now, officially exposed to external evaluation.

Huge effort

The consultation follows a huge behind-the-scenes effort to comply with guidance on the what, how, who and how much of ensuring a supply-demand balance for the next quarter century.

The heavy regulation shows the importance our elected rulers give to the task. They and their officials will also go the extra mile in helping prepare, and assessing, these vital plans.

What is less clear is whether they will recognise publicly the depth of industry commitment to a critical national requirement. Will they communicate the benefits of one of the world's most thorough, transparent and effective water management regimes? Or wait for the public response and trim their comments to the responses of special interests and their media friends?

Positive campaign

In some areas of business such commitment is warmly welcomed. Your M&S, for example, has a plan – Plan A, a green initiative tricked out for the times "because there is no Plan B"; and customer surveys show it is working. I don't mean to criticise. This is not any marketing, this is M&S marketing, and deserves to succeed. My point is to ask if a joint positive campaign behind the WRMPs might not, in its own way, be just as successful.

It is hard to do justice to the spread of issues and coverage in WRMPs. A brief overview can provide a taste.

First, there is a description of the company supply area – water resource zones, development scenarios and levels of service (including return periods for restrictions). Then, the three components of a baseline supply-demand balance: forecasts of i) demand and ii) available water, each taking account of relevant legislation and climate change; and iii) a forecast of headroom to allow for uncertainty in assessment. If there is a deficit, options for meeting the difference must be identified and tested.

Flexible and robust

The final plan, based on preferred options, is costed, justified and, in most cases, subject to strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Official guidance demands that companies show "how their plan is flexible and robust to the various risks and uncertainties including climate change". (Environment Agency Water resources planning guideline, April 2007)

Forecast demand covers metering, leakage control and an enhanced focus on water efficiency, together with changes in population, household size and commercial development. Forecast supply looks at potential reductions in 'deployable output', transfers between zones and across boundaries, distribution and treatment works.

Options, from increases in meter penetration and new reservoirs to adjustments to networks or treatment potential, are assessed by the company against the deficit reduction they deliver and costs in terms of capital and operating expenditure, social and environmental outcomes and carbon emissions.

All at SEA?

Companies must decide themselves whether their WRMPs require a strategic environmental assessment. The aim of the SEA directive is "to provide for a high level of protection of the environment and contribute to the integration of environmental considerations into the preparation of plans and programmes, with a view to promoting sustainable development".

Quite a mouthful and quite a challenge, when you consider the range of issues and regulations that could impact on water resource planning. For starters think abstraction management, biodiversity, water quality, recreation, soil, landscape, built and natural heritage.

National sustainability

Water companies provide a critical economic service dependent on the natural environment, which makes them major contributors to national sustainability. This duty is nowhere more apparent than in the management of environmental limits, climate change, customer expectations and citizens’ rights required by WRMPs.

Stakeholders are asked to get involved in the consultation. Regulators and others with roles in a vital exercise should promote the benefits of a well-tried process and a skilled industry committed to the public service. Here Plan Bs do exist and just as well given the uncertainties and complexity of the job.

Barrie Clarke

A version of this article appears in Water & Wastewater Treatment magazine, May 2008