sustainable drainage

Latest in sustainable drainage

Government has given the green light to making sustainable drainage systems a mandatory requirement for all developers. This is the huge step the water sector has long been calling for but there is much more work to be done. Utility Week talks to Thames Water and United Utilities about their strategies to avoid surface water flooding, while the Greater London Authority discusses the hurdles to adding sustainable drainage in a dense, complex urban space.
Analysis
The mandatory inclusion of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in all new developments has been approved following a review by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with implementation expected from 2024. The same review also removes developers' automatic right to connect surface water runoff to the public sewer network.
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Industry experts have called for the prioritisation of work to better understand and remove surface water without it entering overburdened sewers as a key challenge of climate change resilience. The chief executive of Thames and Northumbrian Water agree that the sector needs to work harder, and collaborate further on managing surface water.
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Collaboration, innovation and more involvement from company boards have all been highlighted as essential components in the creation of drainage and wastewater management plans in new guidance issued by the Environment Agency, Ofwat and Natural Resources Wales. The framework reflects the priorities of the government's strategic policy statement to Ofwat and the recently passed Environment Act, which aims to reduce harm from storm overflows.
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