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Sustainability briefing

What's the Problem with Water?

• Water is our most precious resource. Just like the air we breathe, we need it for life itself and we expect it in abundance.
• Climate change seems to be perplexing us with drought on the one hand, and storms and flooding on the other: When drought makes water scarce we feel cheated; when floods make water destructive we feel powerless. But we don't believe we have any control over the situation as individuals.
• We are in the midst of a water crisis - yet enough rainwater falls in the UK to more than meet our needs. How can we redress the balance?
• Many areas of the South East are now affected by hosepipe bans. Folkestone and Dover have been granted water scarcity status for the next 10 years by DEFRA.

Our water consumption is increasing year on year. In the South East consumption is greatest (160 litres per person per day),However, the amount of water available per person is lower than most other European countries. The areas of greatest population growth and lowest water availability tend to be the areas where there are plans for new homes development.

Is water a right or a responsibility?

• We tend to expect water to be as freely available as the air we breathe and have little sense of our collective responsibility in managing water resources. Is conserving and managing water first and foremost a matter of public service, or is it a personal responsibility?
• Sustainability has been the watchword of the water industry for some time now. But how much does the public understand about water management and can they play a role in it?

Sustainability in water management

• Companies like Hydro International work together to achieve a 'joined-up' approach to water management. For more than 20 years, Hydro has been working with industry and policy makers, developing sustainable and low maintenance solutions for total water management in the UK from rainwater harvesting right through to sewage treatment.
• Hydro have been closely involved in the development of 'Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems'; or SUDS. With its three key parts, quality, quantity and amenity SUDS is an now accepted part of integrated urban planning for water management.

What is the cost of water?

• Water has a tremendous value to us as individuals but how do we calculate its true cost?
• Central to SUDS lies the principle that rainwater should be controlled as closely as possible to the place where it first falls. In the US this requirement has a direct cost. The individual's contribution to the management of water is made clear through a precise monetary value. In some states, water utilities make a charge for water based on the area of impermeable land in their properties. What would the implications be if this were to be adopted in the UK?
• Recent legislation in some states has also imposed a direct taxation on developers of any impervious surface totalling over an acre and channelled the revenue generated into stormwater volume and pollution control. This measure could well be introduced in the UK in the near future.

What can one person do?

• At the moment, one person alone can have a tiny impact on saving and managing the UK's water resources sustainably. So why should anyone bother?
• Because collectively, if people were more conscious of reducing demand for our water resources, we could make a significant impact together.
• If enough people had rainwater harvesting systems and took more care to save their water, we significantly reduce the UK's demand for drinking water supplies. People are now more used to understanding the contribution they make to the environment through recycling waste so why not through water saving?
• Rainwater harvesting is also a way for householders to make an individual contribution to managing the control of rainwater into the drainage system. During storms, the system holds back rain water that otherwise would surge into the drainage system with the potential to cause flooding.

Rainwater Harvesting is just one way in which we can begin to understand water's true value to us, and the personal contribution we make to managing it.

Find out how to fit a simple rainwater harvesting system that could save you up to half your water bills.

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