Op-ed by Bent Jensen, EVP, CEO Commercial Building Services, Grundfos A/S.
Despite water being an essential resource for the UK’s population, environment, and economic activity, discussions around this critical resource have historically been absent from national politics.
This summer, however, was a turning point, with UK prime minister Andy Burnham attending a COBRA meeting on the drought and wildfires ravaging much of the country. Addressing this issue could not be more urgent.
Record-breaking heat waves with a lack of rainfall this summer have depleted rivers, reservoirs, and aquifers across the country. Reservoir levels alone have fallen to 69% (11.6% lower than usual), meaning water restrictions for vital industry that are causing stress to businesses. Further, crop yields are expected to fall, putting even more strain on food supplies, while livestock farmers are facing feed shortages.
As we look forward, water scarcity’s impacts will become progressively harder to ignore. Recent findings suggest two thirds of the 1.5 million housebuilding target set by the government will be affected due to insufficient water supply.
Climate change is certainly driving this summer’s drought, but it has also exposed structural vulnerabilities in the UK’s water system.
Public behaviour
Recent coverage of available solutions has largely focused on reducing demand by restricting public behaviour, such as the hosepipe ban imposed on 27 million across England and Wales.
But even a nationwide hosepipe ban would only save an estimated 4% of distributed water. By comparison, the UK loses roughly 20% of its treated water to leakage. Meanwhile, long-term efforts to boost supply, such as nine planned reservoirs, are only expected to come online in 2050.
And even if this target is met, they would only provide up to 670 million litres of extra water per day – less than one fifth of the predicted five billion litre a day shortfall expected by the 2050s.
Addressing near-term water scarcity, which is expected to cost the UK economy £25 billion over the next five years, cannot be achieved by arbitrary bans that are difficult to enforce. It requires resilience measures that can be deployed within the next five years, tackling immediate challenges while also preparing the system for the future.
Intelligent water management
Addressing leakage is, rightly, a central objective for the government – but much more can be done.
Accelerating the rollout of intelligent water management would reduce losses even within existing infrastructure. Denmark loses just under 8% of its water to leakage, despite operating aging pipe networks comparable to those in the UK. A key difference is that Denmark employs advanced distribution systems across the network, which dynamically adjust pressure and flow to real-time demand, reducing strain on infrastructure and cutting down leakage by up to 15%.
Additionally, such systems can reduce pipe bursts by 35% and cut energy consumption by 25%. Crucially, these technologies are mature and deployable within the current decade.
Reducing consumption
Reducing final consumption is also essential, but this cannot be enforced exclusively on individual users. Water circularity, where intake is reduced, and water is reused and reclaimed to provide an alternative water source to drinking water must be adopted by water-intensive industrial operations.
Existing technologies and practices offer safe decentralised water circularity, but these are deployed below their potential. Research on the EU’s light industry, which accounts for 7% of the region’s water withdrawal, found water circularity could achieve 50-70% consumption savings when implemented across all relevant processes.
Such strategies are essential to meet new industrial demand sources, including data centres, for which the UK government could mandate the use of non-potable water and the deployment of advanced cooling technologies.
England’s ‘green and pleasant land’ cannot survive without water resilience. Water scarcity threatens everything from essential agriculture to the UK’s long-term housing delivery. We need immediate action to address system leakage and fresh approaches to reducing industrial demand.
I urge the UK to accelerate adoption of advanced water management strategies and mandate water circularity requirements for industrial users, coupled with financial incentives to encourage adoption of more efficient technology. Such measures are deliverable in the near-term, mitigating the current crisis, while also strengthening long-term water resilience.
Learn more about Grundfos Commercial Building Services at www.grundfos.com/about-us/what-we-do/commercial-building-services.
