Here in the South East we face a future world with more people and less water availability. Our population is growing fast, and climate change is bringing greater risks of both drought and flooding. Across the globe and in the UK, climate change is having a massive impact. Summer temperatures are predicted to increase by up to 5.4⁰C by 2070 while winters could be up to 4.2⁰C warmer. At the same time rainfall patterns are radically changing, with longer and more severe droughts causing water scarcity and higher intensity rainfall causing extreme flooding, all of which has a significant impact on global water demand.
Despite this, the historical reliability of water supplies mean it is often taken for granted and overlooked when it comes to considering the role it plays in critical aspects of life such as health and wellbeing and facilitating future economic growth. Consequently the sustainability of water resources, future infrastructure requirements and the need to use water wisely are not front of mind in consumers’ daily lives. In contrast, much has been done to promote action on energy efficiency. Now, however, water efficiency is beginning to enjoy a similar profile. It plays a prominent role in the recommendations of the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC) report “Preparing for a Drier Future”, which includes ambitions for a 50 per cent reduction in leakage by 2050 and the need to reduce demand. But greater links must be made across sectors including energy, agriculture and food.
Target 100 is Southern Water’s carefully developed response. It is an industry-leading demand reduction and water efficiency programme and when I think about what this could achieve, it is game-changing. At its heart Target 100 means changing perceptions of the value of water and working collaboratively with our consumers, stakeholders and regulators to achieve real change in reducing average consumption to 100 litres per person per day.
Target 100 is also fundamentally a modern social contract, perhaps the first of its kind in the industry. It embodies our commitment to, and agreement with, our customers and consumers to manage water resources wisely. We will help customers to contribute through providing education at all levels, incentivising reduction through community reward schemes and more direct support through many thousands of water efficiency home visits. This builds on work started in 2010 when Southern Water was the first company to introduce our pioneering Universal Metering Programme, which has helped customers reduce water usage by 16 per cent. Our customers now use an average of just 129 litres each per day compared to the UK average of 141.
Through our PR19 consultation we know that customers associate water efficiency with leakage and there is, rightly, an expectation that we fulfil our side of the bargain as a water utility. I’m pleased to say that Southern Water already leads the sector in reducing leakage, having cut it by 60 per cent in the last 30 years, but we want to go further. So we’ve committed to further reduce our leakage by at least 15 per cent by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2050.
In addition, as part of our wider plan to manage demand and improve water supply resilience we’re building new water treatment works in Brighton and Thanet, replacing 30 service reservoirs with eight new ones and investing in an integrated and smarter water network. This also includes working with neighbouring water companies across the South East through Water Resources in the South East (WRSE) to develop a smarter water resources plan which meets the needs of the whole region. We’re also working across other sectors such as farming to use water more efficiently and improve the environment.
Putting all of this together, for me, enshrines Target 100 as a social contract. It’s the right thing to do but we can’t do this alone. To achieve greater efficiency more action is needed – by water companies, government, regulators, non-government organisations and citizens across all our communities to create a water resilient future for the South East. Reducing demand, and increasing efficiency, is critical to securing the resources we will all need in the future.
What is it?
Target 100 is Southern Water’s programme to reduce average water consumption to 100 litres per person, per day by 2040. The company’s initiative is leading the debate on water efficiency in the UK.
A ‘social contract’ is an active relationship between companies and consumers – and water – to the benefit of people and the environment.