The recent extreme weather events in Australia have served to highlight the challenges the water industry faces. Severn Trent Water estimates that another £96 billion of investment will be needed over the next 20 years. This is in addition to the £85 billion invested since privatisation.
Is this sustainable, especially with customer debts spiralling out of control?
Energy usage for example has spiralled by a staggering 113 per cent since 1989. Understandably the industry has been wedded to capital schemes and the transport of water to fewer centralised water treatment and wastewater plants with the consequent massive investment in the necessary water mains.
Is there a better way? Certainly the proponents of Sustainable Urban Drainage think so with the focus on local treatment at source. If we are to limit the increase in water bills and generate a truly sustainable water industry there needs to be a radical rethink about whether bulk water supply and largescale sewage treatment is really the best way forward. Should not individual households be encouraged to do much more to supply their own grey water? Certainly with new homes, rain water harvesting should become standard, as it already is in some European countries.
2011 brings the opportunity to drive forward change. A Water White Paper and related Natural Environment White Paper, a review of Ofwat, all promise change. Its important to take this oportunity to deliver a sustainable approach for the water industry, its customers , its investors and the envronment for the benefit of future generations.
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