With the next regulatory period (AMP6) for the water
industry starting in 2015 over the next few articles the blog will look at the
main drivers for investment.
Improving the environment is one of the major drivers
accounting for about a quarter of the capital spend (£25bn over last 25 years).
This is led by the Environment Agency who via their National Environment
Programme set out what they expect from the water companies in PR14. The
Environment Agency is looking for water companies to reduce flood risk and meet
the challenges of growth, development and climate change. They expect that in
AMP6 they will see improvements in bathing water quality, catchments moving
towards ecological status, secure water supply and no deterioration in the
current quality of the environment.
This means that significant investment will be needed in a
number of areas:
o Compliance
with all licences and permits
o Reduced
serious pollution incidents
o Sustainable
abstraction
o Reduced
sewer flooding
o Tackling
water leakage
Surprisingly Eels are the cause on one significant area of
investment. European eel stocks are at an all time low and the EU has
introduced new legislation (Eel Recovery Plan) that the UK must implement. One
of the problems is allowing the passage of eels past river water intakes. This
will require significant investment in the design of water intakes and their
screens to stop the eels being sucked in. It will particularly affect the water
only companies.
Reducing water over abstraction is another massive area.
Currently 3.3% of all water comes from rivers suffering from over abstraction.
Eliminating this will mean a mixture of developing alternative water sources and
managing demand.
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