Duncan Leathley, area sales director of the Water Utility Division, UK & Ireland at Grundfos, has explained why the UK must get smart about solving its rising water crisis and why intelligent solutions need to be found fast.
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day, which took place on 5 June 2024, was ‘land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience’. The theme highlighted the growing issue of water scarcity and severe droughts that the UK is currently facing. From hosepipe bans to regional droughts and flooding, in recent years the UK has witnessed a surprising pattern of extreme ‘hydrological volatility’ and has repeatedly found itself unprepared to deal with the crisis that often ensues.
This year is set to be no different, with scientists already warning that the UK could be set for another summer of water shortages which will have major consequences for agricultural industries and public supply. The Environment Agency has warned that by 2050, the UK will face a shortfall of nearly 5bn litres of water per day and last month an estimated 32,500 properties were left without water due to supply issues.
Despite this negative outlook, intelligent solutions do exist and are already in action in many places around the world. The UK should therefore look abroad to see what proper infrastructure, technology and water management systems look like, so the country can deal with the crises it is facing. As demand for water is only set to grow, these solutions need to be found and implemented fast.
The UK is vulnerable to what scientists have dubbed the ‘all or nothing rain pattern’ due to its lack of infrastructure to manage, store and process water in efficient and effective ways. It has been 30 years since the UK built new reservoirs, despite an estimated 30 additional reservoirs being needed to manage the current level of demand, according to the National Infrastructure Commission. More untreated water in storage is a missed opportunity to meet the demand of public supply and shortfalls during regional droughts.
In October 2023, a proposal to invest £96bn into the UK’s water and sewage infrastructure – the largest ever – was submitted to the economic regulator Ofwat. This is a welcome step in the right direction and whilst no one solution is going to be a silver bullet, this highlights how much more even the UK, with its relatively sophisticated sewer infrastructure, can do to combat water scarcity and drought in the UK. It is going to take collaborative and multi-pronged efforts.
Clearly a critical issue facing the UK water system is the increasing levels of sewage and pollution which have recently made headlines. Sewage spills are at record high levels as the number of releases topped more than 477,000 over 4m hours in 2023, which had led to a surge in pollution in waterways such as the River Thames.
Innovative and sustainable water processing methods can tackle this problem. Energy efficient sewage pumps, for instance, can eliminate water clogging and pollution in wastewater around the globe. Take Finland’s oldest city, Turku, which strives to be one of the world’s first carbon neutral cities by 2029, thanks to a sewage treatment plant and energy efficient pumps. In the past two years, the city has increased its water efficiency and had zero incidents of sewage clogging thanks to Grundfos’ wastewater pumps. The UK needs to take note and consider the opportunities that lie in implementing innovative and smart solutions such as this.
We need to find more tools to meet the wastewater and water scarcity challenges that the UK is currently facing – and technology is central to this. 60% of UK households already have a smart water meter, which does encourage water conservation, but more needs to be done.
For example, using data-driven, real-time information, smart sewer management technology can generate highly accurate predictions that can detect and mitigate blockages, prevent wastewater spills and create a cleaner, greener environment. Predictive tools such as Metasphere’s ART sewer technology are already helping wastewater utilities to achieve strategic water management initiatives and deliver positive results.
In addition, Grundfos’ research has demonstrated that demand driven distribution (DDD) technology results in 30% energy savings and a significant reduction in water loss. Using sensor data to ensure optimum network pressure and a stable supply in water pumps, DDD is reliable, energy efficient and easy to use.
These smart and effective solutions can contribute to substantial energy and water savings for the UK and are already actively helping utilities around the world to drastically reduce, identify and improve issues of water scarcity, storage and pollution.
Water scarcity is a pressing issue across the UK, but through combined efforts we can hit the ground running and address the challenges we face. This innovative and future-looking technology is attainable and something that both the public and the private sector can work towards to find smart, intelligent and effective long-solutions to the UK’s water shortage problems.