Water Resources West has published its Draft Regional Plan for consultation - the plan presents an updated assessment of the region’s water needs, reflecting growth, climate change and environmental destination.
Water Resources West publishes Draft Regional Plan for consultation
Water Resources West has published its Draft Regional Plan for consultation - the plan presents an updated assessment of the region’s water needs, reflecting growth, climate change and environmental destination.
The draft Plan sets out which options are being proposed as solutions to meet the region’s water needs, as well as information on the water transfers schemes that have been selected to supply water from the North West to the South East.
WRW estimates that the plan will cost £9.7 billion but will bring over £2 billion net benefits to the region. The net benefit stems from resilient public water supplies, environmental improvements and economic gains from transfers bringing investment to the region, the estimated benefits of which outweigh the costs.
The core water company member companies of WRW are Welsh Water, Hafren Dyfrdwy Cyfyngedig, United Utilities, South Staffordshire Water plc and Severn Trent Water.
WRW has identified 36 options it wants to implement to improve the environment, most of which will support water resources by improving water quality and improving or creating new habitats. This is in addition to actions to reduce the quantity of water abstracted from vulnerable rivers, lakes and groundwaters.
By 2050, the plan includes:
- Action to reduce daily water demand by over 900 million litres across the whole region. This includes the government introducing water labelling to save 280 million litres per day.
- Severn Trent delivering a large number of supply options to offset abstraction reduction for environmental improvement.
- United Utilities developing new water resources in the North West to support water transfers. They also provide benefit to customers in the North West, by reducing the frequency of temporary use bans (hosepipe bans).
- Welsh Water upgrading the network in South-East Wales and recovering losses from a water treatment works.
The focus of the public consultation is to seek views on the plan as a whole, including the options selected in the Draft Regional Plan. Water Resources West said it will take these views into account when producing the Final Regional Plan, which will be published in autumn 2023.
Deadline to submit comments to the consultation should be emailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by 22nd February 2023
Click here to access the WRW draft Regional Plan consultation documents.
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