Severn Trent is asking customers for their views on its draft water resources management plan (WRMP), which includes a 25-year forecast for factors likely to impact the water sector.
Every five years water companies are required to produce and publish a WRMP, which should demonstrate the company has long-term plans to balance the supply and demand of water in the future.
Plans consider the impacts of issues such as population growth, drought, environmental obligations and climate change uncertainty.
Marcus O’Kane, water resources manager for Severn Trent, said: “Our water resources management plan sets out our plans to make sure that we have reliable and sustainable water supplies for all of our current and future customers. Severn Trent customers have not had a hosepipe ban since the severe drought of 1995-96, and our latest WRMP explains how we plan to maintain that proud record.
“Our WRMP consists of several elements, including 25-year forecasts of how much water we think our customers will need in the future, considering factors such as climate change and population, and how much water is available for use now and how this may change in the future.
“The plan also includes our options for how to meet demand, including leakage reduction and sustainable abstraction. The population of our region is likely grow by around 1.13 million people over the next 25 years and we need to make sure we have sufficient water supplies to meet their demands.”
Severn Trent proposes to reduce leakage to “record low levels never achieved before”, help customers to use less water and increase the coverage of water meters across the network.
Ofwat is urging water companies to reduce leakage by 15 per cent by 2025. In its final methodology for PR19, it said: “We expect companies to adopt ambitious leakage commitments, justified against our challenges: a 15 per cent reduction by 2025 and forward-looking upper quartile performance on leakage per property per day.”
The water company said it also plans to reduce abstraction from water sources that could in the future harm the environment, use river restoration techniques to improve habitats and ecology, work with landowners to protect sources of drinking water supply from pollution risks and explore new water trading opportunities in and out of its region.
O’Kane added: “We’d welcome thoughts on our assessment of future risks to water resource availability and our proposals for making sure we have sufficient supplies to meet future demand for water.”
The consultation runs until 14 May and Severn Trent said it will update the plan accordingly based on the responses it receives.