Affinity Water is getting ready to begin a consultation its draft Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) on 14th November 2022.

The water company is asking its customers and stakeholders to get involved and say how they would like it to plan for its water supplies in the short and longer terms with the challenges that an increasing population and climate change present.

The draft WRMP sets out the Affinty Water’s roadmap to provide a reliable, resilient, sustainable, efficient, and affordable water supply to its customers between 2025 and 2075. It highlights the challenges it will face and how it intends to maintain the balance between water supply and demand, while protecting our environment.

Affinity Water supplies 950 million litres of water every day, to a population of more than 3.8 million people in parts of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey, the London Boroughs of Harrow and Hillingdon and parts of the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Enfield. It also supplies water to the Tendring peninsula in Essex and the Folkestone and Dover areas of Kent.

Ellie Powers, Affinity Water’s Head of Water Resources and Environment explained:

“Affinity Water’s regions are home to around 10 per cent of the UK’s chalk streams, a globally rare habitat. We know that 65% of the drinking water we supply to the public comes from the chalk aquifer, the same aquifer that chalk streams rely on for their flow. The publication of our draft Plan is an opportunity for customers and stakeholders to have their say.

“We have reduced abstraction from chalk stream catchments by 71 million litres per day since 1990 levels. We have plans to reduce abstraction by a further 27 million litres per day from chalk stream catchments in our Central region by the end of the 2024/25 reporting year. Our Revitalising Chalk Rivers programme is also working to restore and enhance chalks streams.”

Ilias Karapanos, a Senior Asset Manager at Affinity Water and a qualified hydrogeologist added:

“Affinity Water does not have a hosepipe ban (TUB- Temporary Use Ban) at present because we are groundwater dominated, not surface water dominated. As this drought has evolved to date, it has impacted surface water systems more than groundwater systems. For 2022 we have decided not to put a hosepipe ban because groundwater levels are just below average for the time of year. This coming winter we need to have average or above average rainfall to take us out of the drought situation. “

"The groundwater system and the chalk aquifer where we get our water supplies from, mainly responds to winter rainfall. It is heavily reliant on the rainfall over the next few months, up to March 2023 when the recharge window typically closes. If we do see significant recharge between now and then, we will start spring and summer 2023 from a higher groundwater level position. If we don’t, then we are likely to introduce restrictions next year at some point.”

Affinity is planning to progress with a number of Strategic Resource Options (SROs). According to the hydrologist, the company needs to understand the groundwater systems a lot more, including when and how abstraction impacts the aquifer, which has its own flow patterns. The water company also welcomes contributions to the body of knowledge about the groundwater systems through Citizen Science projects.

Ilias Karapanos continued:

“We welcome every piece of information, every piece of knowledge, and we work with Citizen Science groups who are interested in contributing to science, whether it is taking river photos, measuring flows, ecological sampling and so on. It will complement our data and that of others so we can put the picture together as best we can and understand what is going on.”