The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs has published Anglian Water’s Climate Change Adaptation Report 2015 setting out how the region’s water and sewage networks are being made safe and secure in the face of climate change.

The report has been submitted to Defra and has now been published online by the Government.

Chris Gerrard, Climate Change and Biodiversity Manager, said:

“Climate change is a very real threat to our homes, our countryside and our economy in East Anglia. Our coastline has been hit hard in recent years by storm surges and we have faced flooding and drought as well.”

“As the region’s largest water company we need to think ahead to ensure we are prepared for climate change impacts. And all of this has to be looked at in the context of an increasing population and many thousands of new houses being built.”

“This report lays out everything we have done in the last five years and what we intend to do over the next five years to meet the challenges and keep our treatment works running. We have made good progress, but it also shows that we still have a lot more to do to ensure that our customers get the services that they deserve. Detailed plans are in place and along with our partners we are working very hard to get it done.”

Examples of adaptation measures covered in the report include:

• Ensuring 160,000 customers who rely on a single supply source for water are connected to other sources to ensure they are protected in case of a supply shut down. Another 620,000 customers will benefit from similar projects over the next five years
• Investigating the costs and risks of a transfer from the River Trent during extended periods of dry weather
• Reducing leakage by 20 Ml/d to 172 Ml/d, which is 15%of distribution input, by the end of AMP6
• Aiming to have 95% of domestic properties metered and 88% of customers with metered bills
• £63m spent on drought resilience including securing new ground water sources, reducing leaks by installing smart pressure valves into water pipes and increased investment in detecting underground leaks
• Installing additional transfer pipes between reservoirs and treatment works to ensure we can move raw water to where it is needed
• Investing in flood protection at 20 water treatment sites, with 36 water treatment and water recycling sites scheduled for similar projects over the next five years
• Contributing funding to partnership schemes to reduce the risk of flooding to homes and businesses, such as £3m given to Tendring District Council to help pay for coastal flood defences in Clacton
• Carrying out improvement work on the sewerage system to take hundreds of homes off the flood risk register
• Engaging in industry-wide research to look at the scale of the risk to water supplies and infrastructure from climate change
• Development and use of a model with Aalborg University in Denmark to help understand the impact that increased temperatures will have on corrosion in sewers and odour escapes caused by sewer gas.

The last five years have seen a number of extreme weather events including a storm surge on the east coast in December 2013. This was brought about by an intense storm and an exceptionally high tide. It caused widespread damage to homes and businesses and resulted in 38 water recycling sites being taken out of action. This event alone caused Anglian Water to spend more than half a million pounds bringing the sites back on line.

Totex funding enables collaborative working on flood alleviation projects

On flooding, the report flags up the benefits of building resilience through working collaboratively in partnership. Anglian said customers had told them they wanted the water company to take preventative action, engage in long-term planning to build resilience and work in partnership with others, commenting:

“Supported by the increased flexibility of Totex funding, that is the approach we are taking for flood alleviation projects across our region.”

The report cites the example of Clacton-on-Sea where coastal erosion threatens the sewer network, including a 2.8m diameter strategic sewer running along the coast which relies on the coastal defences to protect it.

Tendring District Council is responsible for the defences and had received 70% of the £37m needed to enhance them from Defra. However contributions from other partners were still needed to secure the full funding, so they approached the water company for support.

Anglian Water’s own assessment showed it would cost £27.4million to redesign and relocate sections of the strategic sewer. Contributing £3m to the council’s partnership scheme as an alternative way of achieving the same outcomes was therefore a clear benefit for customers, saving over £23m.

The 22 Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFA) in Anglian’s region have developed Local Flood Risk Management Strategies to reduce flood risk to their communities which the water company helped generate and implement these through Flood Risk Management Partnerships which include the Highways Agency, the Environment Agency (EA) and Local Authorities (LA).

The report says the utility has proactively engaged with the LLFAs to identify flood and erosion defence partnership funding opportunities and has an AMP6 partnership investment programme to reduce flood risk and combined sewer overflow events.

Failing to deal properly with consequences of climate change means water supply and water recycling network will be under threat

Commenting at the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group event in Paris last week calling on world leaders to end subsidies for fossil fuels, Chief Executive Peter Simpson said:

“In this region, nearly 30 per cent of the land area is below sea level making us vulnerable to rising sea levels; and in some parts, our annual average rainfall is less than many areas of the Middle East. And yet our population is one of the fastest growing in the UK, which puts enormous pressure on resources and focusses minds in my business on the need for long-term investment planning. Which is why we take a 25 year long-term view to make sure we can meet the demand for growth.”

“If more extreme weather patterns continue to impact and if we fail to deal properly with the consequences of climate change, many of our communities will be under threat, as will our water supply and water recycling network.”

Click here to download the report