Big Water

TV and papers emphasise what individuals can do about global warming — save energy, save water, walk to work.

But if industry would mend its profligate ways, we wouldn’t have an environmental problem in the first place. Government joins in the chorus, blaming voters but not themselves, and never once criticising industry.

The water industry is a case study of waste on a grand scale. All those rotten 19th century water pipes leak around 25% of household consumption every day in the UK, and similar amounts in other “advanced” economies. The electricity generation and distribution industry is no better, with 50% of all electric power lost in the system according to the London Sunday Times.

Problem is, the water and power companies are regional monopolies. The water firms and their armies of small shareholders are running rings round Ofwat, the industry regulator. Ofwat sets targets for leakage reduction, but these are being missed by the worst offenders. Thames Water, for example, loses about a third of the water it puts into the system. Its 2004/2005 profits rose by 6.1% last year, while this year bills will rise by 22%. Is it fined or censured? I don’t think so.

“If water companies aren’t meeting their leakage targets, it means they are profiting from higher charges, rather than investing in leakage control and other environmental improvements,” says Georgia Klein of the National Consumer Council. “Frankly, it’s a scandal that Ofwat should address as a matter of urgency.”

And outside the water sector, some of the heaviest users of water are in the food and drink industry, farming, the electronics sector and the power industry, where hydropower and nuclear power both require large volumes of it. In the UK alone, the food industry uses 312m cubic metres a year, and the electronics industry uses 247m cubic metres.
Yet some food processing companies could save 80 per cent of the water they use simply by recycling it. Water used for washing vegetables, for instance, can be passed through a sand filter and reused. This costs more than just throwing the water away after a single use, but with water costs set to rise in the future as the effects of global warming make themselves felt, it should become more attractive. Every day, people in the US and the UK use up to three times more water than they need. This gives rise to problems of water scarcity even in areas generally regarded as plentiful in the resource. Last year, plans to build the UK’s first ever desalination plant at the mouth of the Thames in London highlighted the problems of water scarcity that have come with increasing urbanisation. Equally, however, the refusal of the city’s mayor to allow the plan to go ahead showed up some of the problems with the technology. Most desalination technologies use a process known as reverse osmosis, by which seawater is pushed at high pressure through an extremely fine membrane which removes any salt and other dissolved substances.

As water bills rocket, rainwater “harvesting” seems increasingly attractive. This is the best book on the subject of rainwater collection we’ve ever found. Information is presented in layman’s terms, and accompanied with plenty of illustrations.

This is basically a tank buried in the garden that collects rain from the guttering and pumps it into the house. A system costs from $2,000 (details of suppliers from the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association, www.ukrha.org). A “grey” water system reuses water from baths for the toilet, but the costs of domestic installation are prohibitive.

–
Rainwater collecting barrel – $119!!

A water butt in the garden is a cheap and easy way to conserve water. Most garden centres stock them; for mail order, try the Centre for Alternative Technology (from pounds 22, 0845 330 4592, cat.org.uk).

Watering the garden with a sprinkler can use as much water in an hour as a family of four uses in a day. One way to get around this is to buy drought-resistant plants – try Beth Chatto’s nursery (01206 822007, bethchatto.co.uk)

The details are controversial and complex. According to the Environment Agency, there is enough water to go round. This year, we need to be especially careful because of an exceptionally dry winter. That includes fitting water-saving fixtures (try the Green Building Store, 01484 854898, www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk), flushing the loo less (this accounts for 30%-40% of household consumption), showering instead of using the bath (two-thirds less water for a five-minute shower) and never leaving a tap running: this wastes around five litres a minute.

For inquiries/complaints about your water company, contact WaterVoice (0121-625 1367; www.watervoice.org.uk).

Jacob Tompkins, director of Waterwise, a UK organisation set up to encourage the more efficient use of water, explains that many companies have the wrong impression: “Businesses think that doing things which are good for the environment will cost them money, but saving water will save them money.” For instance, he points to a UK brewery that saved 26 per cent of its water use with efficiency technology that paid back the investment within 15 months. It had the added bonus of reducing the company’s energy consumption and need to use several chemicals, with additional cost savings. Water companies are themselves the biggest users of water technologies, from desalination to better ways of building sewage treatment plants. Little wonder, when finding new sources of supply can cost more than 3m.