The West Country Water Resources (WCWR) group has launched a consultation on its Emerging Regional Plan for water resources - the first ever regional water resources plan for the South West of England.

Launching the consultation on the new plan, WCWR said the overall aim was to understand stakeholders’ views on the emerging plan in terms of the strategic issues facing the region and the potential response.

“We are especially interested in stakeholders views in areas such as the role of reducing long term water usage and the water needs of the environment as the long term water needs are sensitive to these factors.

The West Country Water Resources region covers the Western Peninsula of the UK from Bristol and Wiltshire down to Devon and Cornwall. In total, currently 1,400 million litres of water are used every day in the region, 85% of which is for homes and business customers.

Historically, water resources management, especially for public water supply in the region, has shown a surplus of available resources compared with the demand for water. However, looking ahead, WCWR said changes in climate, water usage, the condition of the environment, the desire to increase resilience to drought and the Government pledge to leave the environment in a better state, will all impact on the need for water in the region.

The Group’s assessment of the regional position in 2050 indicates that:

• In a ‘Policy’ future government policy aims for demand reduction are planned along with meeting the minimum requirements for the environment: demand reduction will partly offset the impact of climate change and the future needs of the environment, but there will still be a net deficit in water availability by 2050
• In futures where there is enhanced environmental protection, demand does not reduce as planned or higher carbon emission climate change scenarios, the region faces significant deficits in water availability
• The range of potential deficits in water availability is large and there is uncertainty over some of the driving factors, particularly if the government policy aims in reducing the demand for water cannot be met and the details of the environmental requirements.

Using these forecasts, the emerging plan describes the potential strategic supply-side options that are currently being investigated in the West Country, alongside demand reduction options, as part of a twin track approach to meeting the future water needs and plugging any deficit in water availability.

The demand reductions align with the requirements of the government policy for 50 % leakage reduction by 2050 and reducing individual water consumption to 110 litres/person/day also by 2050.

Supply options set out in the plan include new reservoirs, enhancements to existing reservoirs and effluent recycling.

WCWR believes that additional intra-region transfers and infrastructure improvements will be required, given that neither future need for water driven by the environmental requirements nor demand reduction savings will be distributed evenly across the region. The plan also sets out how these could in the longer term help inter regional transfers.

WCWR said that strategic supply options would only be firmed up when full and detailed technical and environmental assessments are completed.

Commenting on the proposals, WCWR said:

“The measures required to deliver the demand reduction are dependent upon Government policy actions, such as water efficiency labelling and regulatory support. The work in this January 22 emerging plan however shows that there is a high degree of uncertainty on whether these demand savings will be achieved as they go beyond any level previously seen in the region or nationally.”

New strategic resource may be required in less than 15 years’ time

The emerging plan concludes with the main findings from the view of future water needs and proposed strategic themes for meeting them – the conclusions are

• Understanding the future water needs of the environment is critical to decision making
• The impact of climate change is material to water availability
• We only have a rudimentary understanding of non-public water supply needs
• Demand-side reductions are part of the solution for the region, but delivery uncertainty is significant
• Strategic water resources schemes have been identified as needed and will require more detailed individual assessments
• Lead-times for strategic schemes are too big to adapt to demand-side delivery uncertainty
• Inter-regional transfers are dependent on reducing uncertainty in water availability
• A new strategic resource may be required in less than 15 years’ time

Emerging strategic themes in the plan are:

1. Reduce the uncertainty associated with environmental needs and demand reduction

2. Improve the use of existing water sources

3. Ensure future strategic options can be implemented

4. Improve understanding of non-public water supply needs and improve connectivity and storage to support them

The emerging plan for the region to deliver the strategy is set out in the following phases:

• Short-term: Phase 1 – Foundation phase (0 - 10 years) - low regret actions such as demand and leakage reduction, delivering known environmental water needs and work to develop strategic options.
• Medium term: Phase 2 – Resilience phase (10 - 20 years)
• Long term: Phase 3 – Final environment phase (beyond 20 years)

The 0plan also proposes that it would be prudent to plan for new strategic supply schemes in the period 20 years from today. Any strategic supply scheme needed for public water supply, would also need to be validated by each individual water company for input in to their Water Resource Management Plans.

Deadline to submit comments and responses to the emerging plan consultation is 1^st March 2022. The Group will then consider consultation feedback to develop a Draft Plan in the late summer of 2022

Click here to download WCWR's Emerging Plan in full

Click here to access the consultation online