Water Industry News

Spotlight On: Water Transfer Schemes

In June, it was announced that England could face a shortfall of five billion litres per day for public water supplies by 2055, with an additional one billion litre per day deficit for the wider economy, thanks to the combined pressures of climate change, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, a growing population and the need to protect the environment.

 

This was outlined by the Environment Agency’s most recent National Framework for Water Resources, with the organisation expecting that 60 per cent of the deficit will be addressed by water suppliers managing demand and reducing leaks dramatically.

 

The remaining 40 per cent of the shortfall will come from boosting supply through new reservoir construction and water transfer schemes, the latter of which is what we’ll be focusing on in this particular blog post.

 

What are water transfer schemes?

 

Simply put, water transfer is when resources are physically moved from one location to another in order to satisfy human needs.

 

It’s by no means a new concept and we can thank the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans for the idea, all of whom developed solutions to transport water between locations to facilitate urbanisation and the building of civilisations, as well as farmland propagation.

 

The Victorians then took this idea and ran with it, creating the infrastructure that’s very much still in use today (albeit in an increasing state of disrepair).

 

Where 21st century water management in the UK is concerned, it is becoming increasingly important to move resources from the water-abundant north and west to the more scarce areas of the south and east wherein you can find the most densely populated regions, as well as significant amounts of essential farmland.

 

As the country continues to expand and urban centres continue to take hold, coupled with climate change and population growth, water transfer schemes will only become more important over time… but how will they be delivered?

 

3 different types of water transfer

 

Intra-company water transfer

When water is moved from one place to another within a water supplier’s own catchment area, this is known as intra-company transfer.

 

Each supplier has different sources of water within their catchment area and each of these sources can be deployed at different times of the year to ensure that water is distributed effectively.

 

Groundwater sources, for example, are reliant on rainfall in the winter to recharge so they can be better used during the summer months. Rivers, meanwhile, are more effective in winter because rainfall at this time of year typically leads to higher flows.

 

Interconnection of sources means that suppliers can turn to non-critical sources as and when required.

 

Inter-company water transfer

 

When water is moved from one supplier catchment area to another, across one or more boundaries, this is known as inter-company water transfer.

 

This can be a useful strategy to employ if one supplier has a deficit somewhere that its own interconnections cannot resolve. The south-east of England, for example, is more prone to drought and is facing significant population growth and, as such, often makes use of inter-company water transfer schemes to address stress and scarcity issues.

 

For instance, one such scheme involves the transfer of resources from the north-west and midlands to the south-east during drought events.

 

Water would be taken from the River Severn, alongside further supplies from Severn Trent Water and United Utilities, to help support the River Thames either via restoration of the Cotswold canals or by a new pipeline.

 

Working in this way can help increase the country’s general resilience to drought, as well as reducing environmental damage relating to overabstraction that can take place during dry periods.

 

Water trading

 

When a water company purchases resources from another supplier or a third party provider, rather than developing its own supplies, this is known as water trading.

 

Trades can be arranged for both raw and treated water, typically agreed upon as part of any given supplier’s water resources management planning process to ensure that resources are resilient and secure over the long term in specific catchment areas.

 

Benefits of this include supporting more expensive investment for the development of new resources, reducing upward pressure on bills in the future, helping the environment by moving water to places where it is scarce and helping water suppliers share in cost savings from trading, while providing opportunities for them to profit and innovate from trades.

 

New water transfer project

 

To help support water sustainability in the future, a new water scheme is now in the offing – the Grand Union Canal Transfer, a joint project between Affinity Water and Severn Trent that will see supplies transferred from the Midlands to the south-east, supporting those facing water deficits.

 

A combination of new pipelines and water treatment plants, as well as other infrastructure and investment in the canals will be required to facilitate the scheme and enable water to be transferred.

 

Once it reaches its end destination, water will be piped from the canal and stored before being retreated at a new plant. From there, it will be transferred as clean drinking water into the supply network for Affinity Water customers.

 

Because of the amount of water being transferred, a development consent order is required, with the pre-application process now underway to seek permission to start construction.