There are many good reasons to switch business water suppliers. It could be the cost of your bills. It may be the reliability of service, either on a day-to-day basis or in terms of the speed of response when tackling a problem. But could water efficiency be another factor to consider?
Now that the summer is over, September has brought plenty of rain with more expected, which means the sight of reservoirs at alarmingly low levels and remaining declarations of drought may not be with us for much longer. But this change in the weather should not distract from the potential reality that companies may face over the years ahead.
Summer Lessons Cannot Be Ignored
With the Met Office recently declaring the summer to have been the fifth hottest on record and, more notably, that the top five have all been in the 21st century, pushing 1976 out of the list, the pattern seems to be clear.
Not all of those hot summers have been especially dry, of course, but some have. 2018, for instance, was particularly dry in early summer, when moorland fires were a major problem.
That poses an important question of resilience. Part of the solution to that may lie in fixing leaks faster and building more reservoirs, but it can also be about helping commercial water users to be more water efficient.
A good example of this can be sports clubs. Watering playing areas is important for clubs, especially golf, where the surface needs to be kept in particularly good condition. However, this still applies in other sports.
A New Initiative In Gravesend
Nonetheless, this can be done better in many cases and one example was recently reported by the BBC.
Gravesend Rugby Club in Kent has been given a £20,000 grant by Southern Water to implement new solutions to use water more efficiently and tap fresh supplies. The funds will help establish a borehole to supply water as well as a rainwater harvesting system, with a water filtration system and pipework to help supply water to the club’s pitches.
With three rugby pitches and a cricket square, the challenge of ensuring they are watered has been getting increasingly steep, but this new solution may provide the answers the club needs and may be an exemplar of how the partnership between a commercial water user and its supplier can work. A one-off grant could provide a long-term solution.
Mark Bruce, the club chairman, said: “We need a sustainable water supply for Gravesend Rugby Club and capturing water to reuse is key. The rainwater harvesting will have a real impact on our water bills.”
Opportunities For Business Water Users
This latter aspect is another issue you may want to take into account. Suppliers are often accused of being obsessed with profits while neglecting the environment or infrastructure. Therefore, evidence of investment being undertaken that can help secure supplies and lower bills for customers may come as particularly welcome news.
At the same time, that also highlights the reality that, as a business user, you can switch in a way that domestic customers can not. While households will hope the government’s plans to replace Ofwat with a new regulatory regime and clamp down on poor practice by water companies will make a difference, commercial users can shop around for the best deals.
Acknowledging Challenges
In the long run, there is a clear imperative that water companies will need to recognise. In the case of Southern Water, the risk of the south-east running out of water is an acknowledged concern.
It notes that, based on Environment Agency projections, the UK will need an extra five billion litres of water a day by 2050, with over half of that required by the south-east. Meeting that need while drawing less water from important environments (like chalk streams) means more resources have to be found elsewhere, as well as less waste and better maintenance.
The Southern Water region covers Kent, East and West Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with its projects including its partnership with Portsmouth Water on the Havant Thicket Reservoir, on which work has now commenced.
Eastern Promises
This is not to say that one water company has worked out the nature of the challenge ahead better than anyone else. Anglian Water, for instance, has stated it has similar challenges, rising from a combination of climate change and a growing population.
It has been planning two new reservoirs for several years. But it also acknowledges the need to combine this with other solutions.
Should you be looking at potentially changing your supplier, you might well look at the kind of initiatives and investments they are willing to offer to help your firm manage water resources better and ensure supplies even in the driest of spells.
