Despite the popular perception of the UK as a wet, rainy nation, there are big regional differences in rainfall patterns and droughts are nothing new. A parliamentary committee has even warned that .
Climate change is leading to hotter, drier summers like the current one, and summer rainfall in England is expected to This trend and the country’s growing population mean sticking-plaster solutions, such as the hosepipe bans now facing millions of people in England, aren’t a long-term answer to water shortages.
The solutions fall into three buckets: new water supply, fixing leaking pipes and using water more efficiently. A by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which advises the UK government, found that each of the three approaches will contribute roughly a third of the 4 billion extra litres of capacity England will need per day in coming decades. The Environment Agency .
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at the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development, a body set up in 2019 by three water regulators to advance big water infrastructure projects in England and Wales , says the current dry conditions reinforce the need to take action on all three fronts. “We know that climate change, the changing needs of society and increasing population will put pressure on water sources — and we can expect more frequent [dry] events, as we’re experiencing.”
Increasing water supply
On the supply front, the focus is on major new reservoirs to increase storage, as climate change is expected to bring warmer, wetter winters. Proposed ones include a scheme near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, two in East Anglia, one in south-east Lincolnshire and one in the Fens of eastern England.
Only one major new reservoir has been green-lit recently: Havant Thicket, an 8.7 billion-litre site in Hampshire in southern England. Getting such projects built is rarely plain sailing: a £1 billion precursor to the Abingdon project following local opposition over environmental impacts.
Another measure is improving water transfer from wetter parts of the UK to the driest parts in south-east England. Proposals include a pipeline from the Severn river to the Thames, as well as using England’s longest canal, the Grand Union.
Many of these big infrastructure projects will go for consultation in November, with the intent to start building from 2025 onwards. Hickey says many projects will be elevated in the planning process to national decisions, so the UK’s next prime minister will have to take “some political decisions” on approvals.
The cost will ultimately be borne by consumers via water bills. But the NIC suggests the cost of inaction would be more: £40 billion over 30 years for emergency responses including trucking water versus £21 billion for the investments needed. Failure to act would harm the environment via “damaging abstractions” from natural sources during drought and, in the worst case, risk security of supply, according to the NIC report. “Under really extreme situations, you may have to manage people’s access to water,” says Hickey. “I’m not trying to scaremonger, but this did happen in 1975.”
Desalinisation plants, which turn seawater into fresh water by removing salt, are also likely to play a role in the future, he says. Despite the dry conditions, the UK’s only existing major desalinisation plant, run by Thames Water in east London, is offline until next year due to maintenance work to replace air mains. Hickey says this isn’t good enough: “These pieces of infrastructure should be up and running so that they are ready when they’re needed.” A planned £600 million plant at Fawley in Hampshire was .
Plugging leaks
Leaking pipes are a big issue too: 9 cubic metres leaked per kilometre per day on average last year. Several of England and Wales’s 19 private water companies . The industry’s goal is to halve leaks by 2050. Hickey won’t be drawn on whether the target is ambitious enough, but says: “It is a step change to what we’ve achieved historically.”
at The Rivers Trust says the deadline should be 2030. She concedes this comes with a cost, but says it needs to be weighed up with the impacts on the natural world that England is seeing this summer. “If the cost of not fixing that leak is that you’re going to dry out a river or a stream, that’s an unacceptable cost.”
Other efforts are being made to use water more efficiently. The UK government is expected to announce plans for mandatory water efficiency labels for products such as toilets and showers in coming weeks, and water meters are seen as vital: .
Water firms need to educate consumers about the environmental impact of their water use too, says Hickey. “It’s a really powerful way to get people to engage with this agenda,” he says. Ultimately, everyone will have a part to play. Matching future water demand will require a “whole society response”, says Colvin.
