New water efficiency targets
New mandatory water efficiency targets for water companies come into effect from April 2010/11 to 2014/15. Our target is to reduce water usage by one litre per property per day – a five-fold increase on current savings. These stem from the consultation issued by Ofwat in June 2008 with the aim of contributing to the Government’s Future Water strategy goal of reducing individual water usage to 130 litres per person per day, down from its current level of about 150 litres.
The mandatory targets are made up of two parts – a base service target which is the minimum level of activity all water companies must achieve, and a sustainable level of water efficiency. The latter requires companies to consider additional water efficiency activities as part of a sustainable supply-demand balance.
Our base target equates to a saving of 2.95 Ml/day each year between 2010 and 2015. We’re also required to provide efficiency information to water users and to actively help improve the evidence base for water efficiency.
To help us meet these aims we appointed a Water Efficiency Strategy Manager. In 2009/10 we’ll focus on trialling different water saving devices and distribution channels to find out the relative cost effectiveness and saturation levels. This will help us determine accurately which devices and channels will best meet the targets during the next regulatory investment period between 2010- 2015 (AMP5). We’ve submitted details of our proposed programme to achieve the targets in our AMP5 business plan to Ofwat.
Research activities will tie in with our water resources and carbon approaches. Projects will include focusing on evaluating the effectiveness of our methods to influence customer behaviour to save water in West Cumbria (forecast to have a supply shortfall), and a project to help achieve zero-carbon status in new housing developments through low energy and water consumption.
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