The project will look at strengthening future water resource planning guidelines, and allowing a more integrated approach to water resource and drought management plans.
The steering group for the project will include water companies, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh government, Ofwat, the Environment Agency (EA), Natural Resources Wales and Natural England.
The group will consider the need for a national policy statement on the resilience of water resources, and will aim to report on the project in mid-2016.
The English and Welsh water industries face “major challenges” over the short-, medium- and long-term, Water UK said. These include reduced run-off and recharge rates as a result of more frequent droughts caused by climate change, the need to achieve sustainable levels of abstraction, and major population growth over the next 35 years.
Many water companies have already extended their water resource management plans to consider worst-case climate change, population growth and sustainable abstraction scenarios, and their demand management approaches are being “driven by maintaining the balance between supplies and demand”.
However, although demand management will remain at the forefront of future planning frameworks, Water UK pointed out it is “unlikely to bridge the whole gap” between supply and demand, and new upstream resources may be required.
Upstream resource options currently outlined in companies’ plans include desalination, water reuse, groundwater recharge and winter storage.
But Water UK said “new solutions will need to be considered” to provide resilience, including extending the interconnectivity between water companies’ existing resources, understanding the potential impact of other sectors, considering opportunities for the operation of assets owned by EA, and new storage schemes.