South West Water has launched a public consultation on its draft Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) setting out its long-term plans over the next 25 years to maintain secure and sustainable water supplies to customers.

The water company provides water for 2.2 million people living and working in Cornwall, Devon, and parts of Somerset and Dorset as well as in the Bournemouth area and the Isles of Scilly.

Included in the plan are proposals to increase the recycling of water, nurture rivers and reservoirs, protect the wildlife that depends on water habitats and ensure a diversified mix of water resources.

There are also plans to protect household and business customers from the impacts of climate change and increasing hot and dry summers, while ensuring a resilient infrastructure that can support tourism and the long-term economic health of the region.

South West Water also has a number of other initiatives underway that do not currently feature in its baseline water resources for the draft WRMP, including the Cheddar 2 Strategic Regional Option – a second reservoir at Cheddar. The water company is currently undertaking engineering and environmental scoping of this project with neighbouring water companies as part of West Country Water Resources Regional Group.

While the project does not yet meet the requirements for inclusion in South West Water’s baseline water resources, the company is aiming to have it included in the baseline by the time of its Statement of Response.

Detailed proposals referred to in the draft WRMP include:

Investing in water network resilience

Alongside the work referred to in the draft WRMP, South West Water is also considering how it can increase the resilience of its water network to better respond to system shocks such as the loss of key pipelines, treatment facilities or extreme reservoir drawdown. A number of projects are being reviewed, although at this time the utility is focused on:

• Pynes to Allers treated water transfer (within the Wimbleball connection)
• Crownhill SR to St Cleer WTW treated water transfer (Roadford to Colliford link)
• Tottiford to Allers water transfer (connecting Wimbleball to Roadford).

The projects do not directly increase the water available for use and therefore do not appear as options in the draft WRMP. However, South West Water said they will improve the ability to move water around the network, creating flexibility to balance use of different sources of water. Schemes will also provide links between its Water Resource Zones, enabling further inter-zonal support and paving the way for more bulk transfers across its region. The scale of this program has not yet been determined but is likely to be between £50 million and £100 million. The projects will feature in the water company’s Business Plan (Price Review) submission to be made in late 2023.

A smarter network

New technologies, particularly smarter ways of understanding the flow of water through metering, will open up opportunities to work with greater intelligence. South West Water said it can exploit the smart tools to improve processes, automation, real-time remote control, and event forecasting. The company is also continually investigating innovations such as self-healing pipes that would provide new options for water resource management as well as making significant savings on cost.

Restoring uplands and moorlands

South West Water is aiming to restore over 100 more hectares of land across its catchments,to enhance the water environment and habitats. The utility will restore peatland across Exmoor, Dartmoor and Bodmin and is working upstream and downstream with landowners to change farming practices, to improve soils and reduce run off.

Fix more leaks

The utility plans to reduce the amount of water lost through leaks in its network by 50% by 2050 (from 2017-2018 levels) and says it has already “come some way towards this target.” A continued focus on reducing leakage at current rates will include using technology to predict and detect leaks, together with proactively replacing or repairing older components of its network that are more likely to deteriorate.

Infrastructure and interconnection

The plan says South West Water is adapting how it transfers water around the region and investing in greater interconnection to get water from where it is more available to where it is most needed. It will also need to invest in new reservoirs, for instance using disused quarries to increase its water storage capacity.

Diversified water resources

In response both to climate change and also the extreme circumstances faced in 2022, the water company says it has already embarked upon a diversification of water resources. Currently about 90% are taken from surface water supplies (the balance from groundwater). South West Water is currently moving at pace to develop additional resources from repurposed mines and quarries and also introducing climate independent sources into the mix, namely desalination at locations along the Cornwall coastline.

Plans for 2025-30 include:

• Extending the smart-metering programme
• Expanding the capacity of water treatment works to produce more by 13ML
• Continuing to reduce leakage to achieve a 35% reduction from a 2017/2018 baseline
• Bringing new reservoirs into supply
• Universal smart metering (over 90%)
• Reaping the benefits of new strategic water resources in the wider region, such as Mendip quarries and a second Cheddar reservoir
• Benefitting from a strategic wastewater recycling project in Poole

Climate change - drought of 2022 has been devastating for river flows, groundwater levels and reservoir stocks

Setting the context for the plan, Susan Davey Chief Executive Officer said:

“The South West is particularly vulnerable to climate change, given its 860 miles of coastline. The drought of 2022 has been devastating for river flows, groundwater levels and reservoir stocks, putting water resources under pressure for customers.

“By 2050, summers in the South West will be on average 2-3 degrees Celsius warmer than today, with at least 20 days a year of extreme heat. Also by 2050, the chance of summers as hot as the one we have just experienced in 2022 will increase to 50%.”

David Harris, South West Water’s Drought and Resilience Director, commented:

“2022 was an extraordinary and extreme year which provided a challenging combination of dry weather and low river flows, as our region experienced one of the hottest and driest periods in over 130 years.

“Our Draft Water Resources Management Plan 2025 - 2050 shows how we intend to manage water resources, including understanding how customer demand for water and supplies of water will change over time.

“We are determined to make the South West resilient to the increased risks of drought, to support sustainable economic and tourism growth, and to protect our environment, while reducing our carbon footprint.”

Deadline to submit comments on the plans is Tuesday 9 May 2023. The water company has published a wealth of documents setting out different components of the plan, together with a number of supporting appendices.

Click here to access the consultation documents online