EA National Framework for Water Resources

Environment Agency Overview

  • Protects and improves the environment.
  • Helps people and wildlife adapt to climate change.
  • Reduces impacts of flooding, drought, sea-level rise, and coastal erosion.
  • Improves water, land, and air quality by tackling pollution.
  • Works with businesses for environmental regulation compliance.
  • Collaborates with Defra, government, councils, businesses, civil society, and communities.

Forewords

  • Emma Howard Boyd (Chair of the Environment Agency):
    • England faces water shortages by 2050 if no action is taken.
    • Water is essential for businesses, industry, farmers, and the environment.
    • A healthy environment is crucial for a healthy population and economy, requiring investment in clean water.
    • Increasing population, agricultural and industrial demands, and drought resilience efforts strain water resources.
    • Climate change exacerbates these pressures.
    • Strategic and regional collaboration is necessary to manage and share resources effectively.
    • The framework aims to rethink water management for resilience and environmental enhancement.
    • Restoring the environment requires buy-in from all of society.
  • Jean Spencer (Independent Chair of the Senior Steering Group):
    • Reliable water supplies require careful management and planning due to increasing pressures.
    • The national framework results from collaboration across the water sector, including Water UK, regional groups, agriculture, power generation, industry, drainage authorities, navigations, environmental NGOs, regulators, and government.
    • Developed using the latest science from the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester.
    • The framework provides strategic direction for long-term water resource planning.
    • Aims to improve drought resilience, minimize interruptions to water supplies, and support economic growth.
    • Regional groups will assess their needs in detail to improve the environment and ensure a sustainable future for water resources.

The National Framework

  • Explores England’s long-term water needs.
  • Sets out the scale of action needed to ensure resilient water supplies for all users.
  • Aims for a greater level of ambition for restoring, protecting, and improving the environment.
  • Regional groups will produce one plan to:
    • Manage water supply for people, business, and other users.
    • Identify all necessary options and how the plan will deliver best value and adapt to different futures.
    • Increase resilience to drought (no more than once every 500 years).
    • Address the needs of the environment collaboratively for long-term improvements.

Water Needs

  • If no action is taken, an extra 3,435 million litres per day (Ml/d) will be needed for public water supply between 2025 and 2050.
  • Includes:
    • 1,150 Ml/d to increase resilience to drought.
    • 1,040 Ml/d to supply the growing population.
    • 720 Ml/d to replace unsustainable abstractions and improve the environment.
    • 400 Ml/d to address the impact of climate change on water availability.
  • Around 50% of the national need is in the South East.
  • Other sectors use 1,000 million litres of water, varying across regions and seasons.
  • Water companies provide 14,000 million litres of water per day for public water supply.

Regional Plans

  • Inform water company Water Resources Management Plans.
  • Will:
    • Reduce demand to 110 litres per person per day by 2050 and drive down water use across all sectors.
    • Halve leakage rates by 2050.
    • Develop new supplies, such as reservoirs, water reuse schemes, and desalination plants.
    • Transfer water to where it’s needed.
    • Reduce the use of drought measures.

Regional Water Usage

  • West Country: 193 Ml/d
  • East: 444 Ml/d
  • North: 192 Ml/d
  • North West: 233 Ml/day
  • East: 639 Ml/day
  • South East: 1765 Ml/day
  • West Country: 227 Ml/day
  • South East: 570 Ml/day
  • West: 283 Ml/d

National Framework Objectives

  • Align with the government’s 25-year environment plan.
    • Leave the environment in a better state.
    • Improve the nation’s resilience to drought.
  • Strategic regional planning involving five regional groups.
  • Collaborative process involving regional groups, major abstractors, government, regulators, and stakeholders.
  • Address the challenges and realize opportunities through water resource planning.
  • Water Resource Management Plans developed by water companies may not deliver the right strategic solutions, necessitating regional planning.

Regional Groups

  • Water Resources North: Northumbrian Water, Hartlepool (Anglian) Water, Yorkshire Water
  • Water Resources West: Severn Trent Water, United Utilities, South Staffs Water, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water
  • Water Resources East: Anglian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water, Cambridge Water, Severn Trent Water, Affinity Water
  • Water Resources South East: Affinity Water, Portsmouth Water, South East Water, Southern Water, SES Water, Thames Water
  • West Country Water Resources: Bristol Water, Wessex Water, South West Water.

Role of Regional Planning

  • Develop a detailed picture of future water resource needs.
  • Each regional group must produce a single plan that builds resilience to uncertainties.
  • The plan should:
    • Present the best value to customers, society, and the environment.
    • Increase resilience to drought.
    • Deliver greater environmental improvement.
    • Achieve long-term reductions in water usage.
    • Reduce leakage.
    • Reduce the use of drought permits and orders.
    • Increase supplies.
    • Transfer water to where it’s needed.

Shared Environmental Ambition

  • Replace approximately 700 million litres per day of water from unsustainable abstractions between 2025 and 2050.
  • May require a reduction in abstraction of between 1,200 million litres per day and 2,200 million litres per day by 2050.
  • Detailed investigation is needed to understand the relationships between abstraction and the environment.
  • Alternative water supplies take time and will need significant changes to water management.
  • RAPID supports the delivery of strategic schemes.

Future Water Needs at 2050

  • Based on:
    • Increasing resilience to a 1 in 500-year drought
    • High population growth
    • High environmental improvement
    • Individual water company analysis of climate change impacts

Water Resources North

  • Additional public water supply needs between 2025 and 2050: 233 Ml/d
    • drought resilience: 41 Ml/d
    • population change: 60 Ml/d
    • climate change: 132 Ml/d
  • Estimated total demand from other users: 192 Ml/d
    • 38% power generation
    • 33% industry (extracting minerals and materials, navigation, food and drink, paper and pulp)
    • 23% agriculture (spray irrigation)

West Country Water Resources

  • Additional public water supply needs between 2025 and 2050: 227 Ml/d
    • Drought resilience: 71 Ml/d
    • Population change: 86 Ml/d
    • Environmental improvement: 47 Ml/d
    • Climate change: 11 Ml/d
    • Other: 12 Ml/d
  • Estimated total demand from other users: 193 Ml/d
    • 63% industry (manufacturing mineral products)
    • 23% agriculture (livestock and spray irrigation)

Water Resources South East

  • Additional public water supply needs between 2025 and 2050: 1765 Ml/d
    • Drought resilience: 640 Ml/d
    • Population change: 459 Ml/d
    • Environmental improvement: 431 Ml/d
    • Climate change: 111 Ml/d
    • Other: 124 Ml/d
  • Estimated total demand from other users: 175 Ml/d
    • 32% industry (paper and pulp, golf courses)
    • 30% agriculture (spray irrigation)
    • 20% power generation

Water Resources East

  • Additional public water supply needs between 2025 and 2050: 570 Ml/d
    • Drought resilience: 226 Ml/d
    • Population change: 193 Ml/d
    • Environmental improvement: 75 Ml/d
    • Climate change: 76 Ml/d
  • Estimated total demand from other users: 444 Ml/d
    • 64% agriculture (spray irrigation)
    • 17% power generation
    • 14% industry (food and drink, paper and pulp)

Water Resources West

  • Additional public water supply needs between 2025 and 2050: 639 Ml/d
    • Drought resilience: 167 Ml/d
    • Population change: 237 Ml/d
    • Environmental improvement: 167 Ml/d
    • Climate change: 68 Ml/d
  • Estimated total demand from other users: 283 Ml/d
    • 59% industry (chemicals, paper and pulp)
    • 27% agriculture (spray irrigation)
    • 12% power generation

Understanding Regional Needs

  • Reducing demand for water and new infrastructure.
  • Analysis based on achieving a higher level of drought resilience (1 in 500-years) and greater environmental protection.
  • Three levels of water use by 2050:
    • High: 127 litres per person per day, no change to non-household consumption, 30% leakage reduction
    • Central: 119 litres per person per day, no change to non-household consumption, 50% leakage reduction
    • Low: 110 litres per person per day, 4% reduction in non-household consumption, 50% leakage reduction

Each scenario assumes:

  • Drought measures with higher environmental risks are not available
  • 2% savings through temporary use bans during drought are achieved.

Regional Pressures and Options

  • Water Resources North:
    • Significant water surplus.
    • Options identified in WRMPs are enough to meet the higher need estimate.
    • Potential for water transfers if users become more efficient.
  • Water Resources West:
    • Faces future pressures but has a significant surplus.
    • Potential for savings by reducing demand and supplying more water.
  • Water Resources South East:
    • Faces the greatest pressures on public water supplies.
    • Needs to develop options to supply more water.
    • Needs to track progress on demand management.
  • West Country Water Resources:
    • Relatively modest pressures.
    • Priority is to make the region more efficient and explore water transfers.
  • Water Resources East:
    • Faces significant pressure with little surplus water available.
    • Needs to reduce demand and increase available water.
  • Up to £469 million of funding is available between 2020 and 2025 for water companies to progress this work with the support of RAPID.

How Regional Plans Will Be Assessed

  • Must:
    • Take account of the National Framework.
    • Be reflected in Water Resource Management Plans.
    • Forecast supply and demand over at least 25 years.
    • Be a single strategic plan.
    • Take a multi-sector approach.
    • Look beyond regional boundaries, use technical approaches compatible with other regions.
    • Include enhanced environmental improvements and demand management.
    • Take a catchment-based approach.
    • Consider wider resilience benefits.
    • Be open to market mechanisms.
    • Take into account growth ambition.
    • Comply with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) legislation.
  • Should:
    • Engage widely with interested groups.
    • Set out how the region will respond to drought.
    • Join up with drainage and wastewater management plans.
    • Seek to improve resilience to events other than drought, particularly floods.
    • Look ahead 50 years or more.
  • Could:
    • Contain all the detailed information required for Water Resource Management Plans.
    • Contain all the detailed information required for Drought Plans.

Plans must identify how best to provide an efficient, sustainable, and resilient supply of water for all water users in the region until at least 2050.

Governance and Decision Making

Three groups support the framework’s development and delivery of coordinated regional plans:

  • Senior Steering Group: strategic steer and oversight.
  • Regional Coordination Group: deliver progress and ensure alignment.
  • Modelling Advisory Group: ensure technical methods are aligned.

Next Steps for the National Framework

Priorities include:

  • Delivering long-term environmental improvement.
  • Developing our modelling.
  • Supporting reductions in water demand.
  • Development of new supply infrastructure.
  • Enabling collaboration.

Timeline

  • September 2016: Water UK Water Resources Long Term Planning Framework
  • April 2018: National Infrastructure Commission report
  • August 2018: Regulators set out vision for strengthened regional planning
  • October 2018: Five regional groups established
  • December 2018: National Framework Senior Steering Group established
  • April 2019: Work to identify and prioritize barriers to collaboration completed
  • July 2019: Senior Steering Group supports increased drought resilience
  • October 2019: Senior Steering Group supports reducing per capita consumption
  • November 2019: Modelling work by Universities of Oxford and Manchester completed
  • March 2020: National Framework published, and regional groups set out their initial statement of regional water needs
  • July 2020: Regional groups publish their approach to developing their plans
  • February 2021: Regional groups will update their statement of regional water needs
  • August 2021: Regional groups share their draft plans
  • January 2022: Informal consultation on draft regional plans
  • August 2022: Regional groups publish final draft regional plans
  • September 2023: Regional groups publish final regional plans