Speaking at Utility Week Live, representatives from Wessex Water and South West Water, as well as water consultants, said abstraction reform legislation should be “flexible” and “wide ranging” to reduce demand and limit the volume of water that is abstracted from the environment.
Wessex Water director of environment David Elliott told delegates: “One of the areas of focus that needs to come in is the opportunity of creating demand side incentives to get customers to be part of the solution.”
South West Water finance and regulatory director Susan Davy agreed that abstraction reform needs to be “all encompassing” and go beyond just the abstraction of water, and include demand side measures.
She said: “We need to make sure it’s not held in a silo that is too narrow in focus. We need to make sure it is wide ranging.”
This wider focus should allow the water companies and abstraction licence holders “to trade outcomes, not just water,” according to Indepen consultancy manager, David Baxter.
He told the audience in the water theatre: “There are certain parts of the community that would accept lower flows in their system, reducing the need for abstraction.”
Chair of the session, Water Policy International managing director Ian Barker agreed that abstraction reform must allow for “flexible use” of licences, making the water resources more sustainable.
“It’s about think how the resource can be better used and allocated to those who need it,” he said. “There’s all sorts of opportunities and it is essential that the legislation allows us the seize them.”
These comments follow calls form the Environment Agency in March, for abstraction reform to be a dynamic process and encourages the water companies to become more adaptable to more variable water supplies.