THE UK’S FORGOTTEN UTILITY: WHY WE CANNOT AFFORD TO TAKE WATER FOR GRANTED ANY LONGER

Despite it now being predicted that the UK economy may narrowly avoid recession in 2023, and recent reports of UK inflation hitting a five-month low of 10.1 per cent in January, the economic challenges facing households and UK businesses alike remain immense – with ongoing pressure to cut costs wherever possible.

On the topic of cutting costs, bills tied to electricity and gas supply tend to dominate the conversation around utility costs. And the de-carbonisation of these utilities is typically seen as a top priority.

Given the carbon intensity and rising financial burdens associated with these utilities, it’s unsurprising that households, businesses, and policymakers are all committed to finding efficiencies and reducing usage. Yet, little comparative focus is given to the country’s water supply networks – both in terms of the cost for users and the need to decarbonise.

The fact is that the nation’s water usage has doubled since the 1960s, with research indicating that 3.435 million extra litres of public water will be needed by 2050. At the same time, the threat of climate change to existing water supply networks across the globe came to the forefront last year with the UK, China and northern Mexico being hit with some of the worst droughts on record –severely depleting water levels

While large parts of southern England received less than 50 per of their normal winter rainfall in 2022, devastating floods in Pakistan killed 1,739 people and destroyed significant infrastructure. Ultimately, last year should be seen as a watershed moment; it is time to focus our attention on delivering the water-related infrastructure critical for its effective management.

The water industry has a crucial role to play in leading the charge in the net-zero transition and there are already strong indicators that water may be the ‘dark horse’ utility in the net-zero race. Unlike other utilities, the water market has the potential to dramatically cut emissions quickly and at low costs, primarily as the technological solutions already exist. By deploying smart meters, leak detection sensors, and increasing the use of renewable energy, the water industry could significantly curb emissions.

While the industry faces challenges, since 2011, UK water companies have successfully reduced gross operational emissions by 43%. In 2022. Everflow took the initiative to become the first UK water supplier to provide all existing and new customers with a 100% carbon neutral water supply by purchasing UN-certified carbon credits capable of offsetting our whole supply chain and our customers’ supply chains.

However, with the 2030 target for businesses to cut their emissions in half, there is clearly more that can be done to support businesses in their own drive to cut carbon emissions. By overlooking the carbon cost of their water supply, however, businesses are missing out on a number of low-cost, highly effective methods for reducing carbon emissions.

There are plenty of ‘quick wins’ that businesses and households can adopt to reduce water usage and create water efficiencies which will have both an environmental and financial benefit. Many we may already be familiar with, such as fixing leaks and making sure to turn off taps when not in use.

But one of the biggest initial hurdles to raising awareness amongst UK businesses on how to avoid costly ineffective water usage is their lack of access to smart water meters. Typically, most businesses will only have access to the industry-standard monthly or six-monthly water meter reads which naturally limits people’s ability to identify inefficiency in their water usage.

Ultimately, industry bodies and the regulator will need to step up and make smart metering more accessible and affordable for all businesses so that all users can be better positioned to reduce inefficient water usage and secure valuable savings. In the meantime, many businesses choose to have a water logger installed on their water meter to measure the amount of water that passes through daily.

Certainly, more must be done to improve wider awareness of the financial and environmental cost of our water consumption habits and to support households and businesses alike with practical guidance for improving water efficiency.

Failure to treat water as the vital and finite resource that it is, by instead focusing conversations on new infrastructure, efficiency-driving technology, and conservation efforts exclusively for other utilities, ultimately puts at risk the reliability of our water supply and the ability for businesses to capitalise on significant carbon savings. www.everflowwater.com