The UK has a major leakage problem. A fifth of water supplies are lost to leaking pipes, and hot weather has increased the colossal waste of this increasingly valuable resource.
The combination of heatwaves and low rainfall we have seen in recent months has dried out the ground and contracted the soil. This means the 265,160-mile network of underground pipes will have lost support as the soil shifts, with the resulting movement causing cracks and leaks.
Water companies in England and Wales are already leaking an astonishing 2.6 billion litres of treated water every day – enough to fill 1,150 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Parts of the UK, and the south and south east of England in particular, are running perilously low on water with most of the country currently in drought.
In England alone, 30 million people have had their water use restricted through measures such as hosepipe bans after the driest July on record saw just a tenth of the long-term average rainfall for the month, and less than half the long-term average in August. These have left already-strained reservoir levels nearly 20 per cent lower than usual at this time of the year, with recent rainfall doing little to replenish stocks.
But all of this is nothing compared to what we can expect in the future. The Government is forecasting a five billion litre shortfall each day for households by 2050 as climate change and a growing population vastly increase the demand for water.
The situation is so dire that it threatens Labour’s housebuilding targets, since water companies have a statutory requirement to supply water to all new homes and if they can’t supply enough they must inform the local authority who will block the development.
So what can be done? Fixing leaks would be the obvious place to start. To be fair to them, water companies have succeeded in cutting leaks by 40 per cent since their peak in the mid-1990s. But with such a vast network of pipes, many of them laid in the Victorian era, they have only pledged to fix half the remaining leaks by 2050 – and even that looks like a pretty tall order.
New reservoirs are the other big hope, with 10 new ones planned to open by 2050. They would be the first in the UK since the early 1990s.
The Environment Agency estimates that these new reservoirs could make up 40 per cent of the predicted 2050 shortfall. So that’s around two billion of the five billion litres needed to secure household water supply covered. But with the planning process sometimes taking decades due to strict environmental rules and multiple stages of consultation it’s far from certain that anything like that number will be brought in on time and on budget.
Assuming they are, however, that still leaves 60 per cent of the shortfall to be made up, or 3 billion litres of water a day. If the water companies are able to halve water leaks, then that’s getting on for another 1.5 billion litres saved, bringing the total to 3.5 billion litres out of 5 billion.
But that still leaves around 1.5 billion litres a day – and that’s a best case scenario, 24 years from now.
By the looks of things, it is going to fall to households to significantly cut their water use. Feargal Sharkey, the pop star turned rivers campaigner, told me a while back he would like to see the UK emulating Denmark, where citizens use just two thirds of the amount of water we do – 98 litres compared to about 150 litres a day here.
Danish households have reduced consumption by replacing old appliances with more efficient models, and because they are required to have water meters, which really focus the mind on water use.
According to the Environment Agency, the average person on a meter in the UK uses 122 litres per day, compared to 171 litres without; so buying one could really help you save water – and money.
The agency’s top water-saving tips include a low-flow shower head. These use around six litres per minute, compared to a standard one, which uses 10 to 15 litres per minute – so over a 10-minute shower, that’s a saving of up to 90 litres of wate.
A much quicker shower another good way to cut consumption. Southern Water estimates cutting your time by two minutes each day saves 6,000 litres a year, and around £265 if a family of four all do the same.
Your toilet is an extremely thirsty device, using up to a quarter of all of a household’s water. If you don’t have a dual flush – that is, the choice of a large or small flush – you can get a cistern displacement device (CDD). This simple tool can reduce each flush by at least a litre and is often available for free from water companies. Leaky loos waste between 200 and 400 litres a day. And just turning off the tap while you brush your tap will save around 5,000 litres a year.
Clearly, the onus is on water companies to fix their pipes, even as consumers watch their hosepipe useage. But tweaking your usage even slightly will feel worth it when your bill lands each month.
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