Introduction Chief Executive’s statement
Providing continuous high quality drinking water
Protecting and enhancing the environment
Supporting Scotland’s economy and communities
Investing in future water services
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About Scottish Water What might the future bring? Listening to our customers Our strategy
Prevention rather than cure More than 80% of flooding incidents are due to blockages which have been caused by inappropriate items such as nappies and wipes being flushed down toilets, or cooking fats, oils and grease being poured down sinks or drains. Helping our customers understand the proper ways to dispose of these items is essential to helping reduce flooding. We will empower our customers, and future generations through our engagement programme, to properly dispose of these items in their household waste to avoid causing flooding within their community. The Water Resources (Scotland) Act makes it an offence to put fat, oil or grease into the public waste water network from business premises. This should help to encourage good behaviour from business customers and reduce property flooding. Building bigger sewers will only be part of the solution to deal with the challenge of increased surface water run-off arising from climate change and the growth of communities. We also need to change how we manage surface water run-off, and reduce the amount entering the sewer network; otherwise the problem will continue to grow. We will therefore work with all relevant stakeholders in Scotland to look at how we create sustainable urban drainage systems, including permeable roads (which better absorb water), improved land drainage, surface water retention and reuse for flushing toilets, washing cars and watering the garden. We intend to pilot surface water management techniques to understand the practicality of implementing these; their effectiveness, costs and benefits to customers and the environment. These approaches provide opportunities to reduce the risk of flooding and uncontrolled waste water discharges to the environment as well as reducing our pumping costs, electricity demand and carbon emissions.
Maintaining compliance Maintaining our assets to prevent pollution in rivers and burns is a critical element of our environmental compliance strategy. We are forecasting an increasing demand for asset maintenance for the new and upgraded treatment works we have built over the past 15 years. We are working on innovative pilots in the regulation and operation of waste water treatment. If these pilots are successful, they may provide opportunities to reduce our overall waste water treatment costs and carbon emissions, while operating in greater harmony with the environment. 2009-2012 sewer flooding incidents Hydraulic overloading Customers’ debris
Asset failure
4% 7%
23%
Tree roots Customers’ fat, oils, and grease
4% 14%
48% Customers’ sanitary products
Strategic Projections