Southern Water has signed a landmark partnership agreement with the company behind Fawley Waterside on Southampton Water to make the planned intelligent city the world's first development with smart water systems built in from the outset.
The Memorandum of Understanding proposes that sustainable water and wastewater treatment will be constructed as part of Fawley Waterside's 'intelligent infrastructure'.
Ian McAulay, Chief Executive of Southern Water said:
“We are delighted by the positive attitude and understanding of our sustainability plans and goals shown by all of Fawley Waterside's leadership team. This Memorandum of Understanding is a vital step in delivering the first example of a community designed with water efficiency in mind.”
The landmark development will integrate new innovations including:
- Onsite wastewater treatment with a potential to connect with food waste recycling and processing to enable renewable energy generation.
- Separated drinking and toilet flushing water for the new homes. This is supported by potential grey water recycling/rainwater harvesting on a landscape scale.
- Smart water meters for each property with ‘in-home’ displays.
- An integrated Smart Urban Drainage System (SUDS) for the site which will use natural processes to retain rain run off for storage.
Fawley Waterside’s Chief Executive, Aldred Drummond said:
“We look forward to working with Southern Water. Sustainability and water resource management is at the forefront of the Fawley Waterside project, improving efficiency and reducing resident’s costs where possible. We are keen to demonstrate to the whole of the UK what a modern water efficient development can achieve.”
Ben Earl is the water efficiency manager at Southern Water. He is in charge of developing future strategy, implementing new business models and delivering ambitious water efficiency targets for the business.
He added:
“We have set the hugely ambitious targets for this exciting development. This is part of our UK- leading campaign called Target 100, which aims to help our customers to use an average of 100 litres of water per person, per day by 2040.
“Reaching these ambitious targets simply can't be done without new innovations and incentives for our customers – which is why we are thrilled to be working with Fawley Waterside to include features which will make the target not just possible but easily reachable.”
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