There are many reasons a company might want to switch business water supplier. Poor value for money could come from higher prices, but it could also come from a failure to reliably deliver clean, fresh water when you need it.
Whether that is interruptions in supply or pollution, the consequences for your business can be far more costly than any increase in what you are paying for your water, as it may damage production by depriving you of an essential resource that is either an ingredient in a consumable good or necessary in the production process.
Failures of supply can come from different causes. The first is when there is a problem with burst or broken pipes, or other technical problems that mean the water cannot get to you. The second is if overall supplies run short.
A Record-Breaking Summer
The latter has been a headline topic for much of the summer. A dry spring followed by what the Met Office believes will be the hottest meteorological summer on record has left reservoir levels low all over the UK.
Across the country, domestic customers have been asked to use water sparingly and some regions have seen the introduction of hosepipe bans. That may not be good news for gardeners, but this is a mere inconvenience; in agriculture, a lack of water can spell calamity.
Even up in Scotland, normally the wettest part of the UK, this is becoming a real threat, with the Scotsman reporting on the impact restrictions are having on farms in Fife. Down in England, the north has suffered some of the driest spells, meaning other areas known for high rainfall are facing problems.
Some other areas are struggling, but restrictions have so far been avoided. Anglian Water, for example, has managed without a hosepipe ban, which it will only impose if absolutely necessary, even as chalk streams in the region, which has the UK’s lowest rainfall, run dry.
How Can Water Companies Respond?
If climate change is going to bring us many dry summers – although the increased volatility some projections imply also suggests we may get some very wet ones as well – the key is that water companies cannot simply shrug their shoulders and blame the weather for supply shortages. Since everyone has been told this is coming, it follows that action is needed.
This comes in several forms. One is to be better at preventing leaks and swift at fixing problems that do arise, preventing avoidable water losses.
A second concerns storage. The current government came to office with a promise to build the first reservoirs in England since the early 1990s and has been proceeding with plans to build nine new ones in England. Notably, all are in the Midlands and the south.
Some of these plans were already in the pipeline before the change of government, but if progress accelerates, that may help resolve some issues.
However, it may be asked whether this alone will help. Indeed, many of those objecting to the planned new Thames Water reservoir near Abingdon have argued that it may store less water than the company loses from leaks.
Those who sought a judicial review of the Abingdon reservoir plans also argued that water should be piped down from the north west of England, but as the latter region has had a very dry few months (apart from June), this may not be a silver bullet.
A Combination Of Measures Needed?
What all this suggests is that water companies do need to combine a series of different measures in order to ensure that they remain reliable when it comes to supply, especially for businesses that need the water and cannot manage without it.
This means that when assessing whether to stick with an existing supplier or look elsewhere, you may ask what exactly they are doing about all their supply and infrastructure resilience issues. Some of that may be focused on minimising leaks, some on new reservoirs, but also on their alternatives.
For instance, could low reservoirs be topped up from elsewhere? Water extraction from lakes and rivers is a possibility in some cases, as is tapping underground aquifers. But even these are limited options, especially in summer when rivers and natural lakes will also be low.
Time For Innovation
It may even be that a supplier can help by providing your firm with some water storage of its own, when, for instance, you may be able to effectively use water tanks to stock up on extra water at times of heavy rain (another anticipated feature of a warmer climate) to fall back on in drier spells.
A changing climate and ongoing needs require innovation. As a business customer, you should ask your existing provider and potential alternative providers whether they are being innovative enough to keep the taps running.
