The head of non-household (NHH) water market operator MOSL has called on wholesalers to address high consumption users in the non-household sector as a means to manage demand and achieve reduction targets.
MOSL chief executive Sarah McMath criticised companies for not including re-use scheme proposals in draft water resource management plans (WRMPs).
Speaking at the annual Waterwise conference, McMath said it was “a massive missed opportunity” to not focus on high consumption business customers in WRMPs.
The NHH sector accounts for 30% of all water consumption and 1% are bulk consumers using half of that total amount. Therefore, McMath called on companies to focus plans on those users that could make significant savings.
McMath’s comments come a week after the chair of the Strategic Panel Trisha McAulay wrote to wholesalers urging them to bolster the inclusion of the NHH sector or risk missing reduction targets.
McMath suggested the barriers to water efficiency were money, incentives and lack of accurate consumption data. “We know the will is there, technology is available, companies want to work together with retailers and customers to look at innovative solutions. But the money simply isn’t there to work at scale.”
She called for more innovation focused on the NHH space such as water reuse for business customers that do not require potable water to acknowledge the contribution the sector can play to driving down demand for treated water.
McMath cited an oil refinery as the single biggest consumer of water in the UK, which uses 35 megalitres daily – equivalent to the consumption of a town the size of Guildford. She called it “fundamentally wrong” that the company used drinking water to cool the outside of tanks because alternative solutions were not in place.
The need for greater NHH emphasis was echoed by Nicci Russell, director of Waterwise, who summed up the water efficiency challenges that included fixing the NHH market “so it delivers water efficiency we were promised when that market was opened”.
Elsewhere Russell argued there was need for better understanding of water efficiency and scarcity among the public, and for government to prioritise efficiency when making decisions on economic growth, energy bills, carbon targets and climate change.