These are challenging times for the water industry. Ageing infrastructure, pollution, flooding, drought, they all test the industry on a daily basis. However, progress is being made and one of the people acknowledging the work that has been done is senior Environment Agency official Dr Pete Fox, left, who has praised the progress that the industry is making in tackling the problems.
Dr Fox, Director of Water, Land and Biodiversity, said that, although much remains to be done, and billions of pounds of investment is still required, the water industry is making genuine progress
The Agency has a wide range of responsibilities, one of which is to prevent pollution damaging water courses, and Dr Fox said that, despite several recent high profile prosecutions for pollution incidents, not all of them concerning water companies, the overall picture was optimistic.
He said: “The water companies are making great progress, although there have been some prosecutions and those times when something goes wrong is a frustration to the water companies and ourselves alike.
“Such incidents may be caused by human error or a technical problem and when they happen we work with the water companies to see what went wrong and how we can avoid it happening again.”
The overall effect, he says, is that UK rivers are cleaner than ever before, with the resultant return of fish life, although Dr Fox thinks there is a long way to go on the Water Framework Directive (WFD) before it can be said that there is no need to target improvement.
He said: “We have seen great improvements in the past twenty years, including in rivers that were considered biologically dead, but I do not think we are anywhere near the point where we can say that the job is done.
“The UK Water Industry Research has estimated that the cost of implementing the WFD could be £27 billion in the UK alone between 2010 and 2030.”
However, pollution is not the thing that most concerns him, as it might have done twenty years ago at a time when the UK was considered ‘the Dirty Man of Europe’.
Now, Dr Fox thinks that the biggest challenge is the effect that climate change will have on water supplies, either through excessive rainfall that causes catastrophic flooding or lengthy dry spells leading to drought.
A Water UK report published last year underlined the concerns when it said that there is a ‘significant and growing risk of severe drought impacts arising from climate change, population growth and environmental drivers.’
It predicted that hotter temperatures will drive up demand for water, as well as increasing evaporation during spring and summer, adding: ‘While water resources in some areas are resilient to climate change, others are expected to experience a significant impact on water availability. For example, a dry climate could treble the risk of experiencing a severe drought in the East of England.’
Dr Fox said: “I think climate change will be the biggest challenge to the water industry in the years to come. We have seen a succession of wet winters and wet summers which has resulted in flooding.
“As a result, we are seeing water companies taking a range of measures, for instance, to stop sewage overflowing. Very often, the first sign that people have that rivers levels are rising too high is when the toilets overflow or when sewage enters their properties.
“The water companies’ plans that they are drawing up for the years to come include upgrading ageing infrastructure so that does not happen as well as putting in place other measures.
“Drought will be another challenge. Because we have had wet winters and summers in recent years, we have not really had many droughts but there have been times, particularly in the south of England, when there have been concerns.
“What we are seeing is water companies carrying out work to ensure the resilience of their water supplies. Their focus is increasingly on the extreme weather that we can expect to experience.”
Complicating the picture is the opening up of the industry to competition with all the increased pressure that can bring on budgets.
Dr Fox said: “It is too early to say what effect increased competition will have. There could be some benefits but undoubtedly there will be some tensions and we need to keep an eye out for any perverse outcomes. We will not be sure what effect it will have for some time.”
Overall, though, he is optimistic. He said: “Water companies pay a pivotal role and sometimes I think that the public take them for granted.
“They turn on the tap and water comes out but I think the time has come for water companies to receive more appreciation of what they do.”
