It is estimated that about 20% of water supplied is lost through leakage; a huge difference could be made by investing in repairing the leaks and better maintenance. Between 1995 and 2002, water companies reduced their water that was lost through leakages by about a third across England and Wales. Mandatory leakage targets for water companies in England and Wales were set in 1996/7 which aimed to reduce breakage by 26 per cent by 2000. This target has been met and there are now policies in place to ensure these levels don’t rise again. This is a start but there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Aquifers are underground water reserves and the largest available reservoir of fresh water. Rainwater can take decades to get to the water table as it has to filter through sedimentary rock. This means, when it is extracted it is a lot purer and therefore requires less treatment. The problem with these is that they take along time to refill once they have been used up. As so much work has been done on flood control, often water in rivers is sped to the sea along canalised water courses, which means rivers no longer run their natural course also, water meadows are not left to flood. This means that the aquifers are not recharged. As much of the land is covered with concrete, tarmac and housing, rain that lands in urban areas is usually piped straight into a water course and this will not enter the natural hydrological cycle which would recharge the aquifers. However, they can be “artificially recharged”. This involves either redirecting rivers to run over recharge areas, inducing percolation from a body of water such as a lake or pumping surplus water in when there is too much. This method can only be used in a relatively small number of places, but it is relatively cheap and has only a small environmental impact.
Spatial planning can play an important role in ensuring that everywhere has sufficient water all the time. The relocation of water via a national grid would allow supplies to be taken where ever they were needed most. However, as water is very expensive to transport over long distances and the initial cost of the pipeline would be huge, I don’t think this idea is hugely feasible. Also, with hundreds of miles of pipeline to maintain there is bound to be a huge amount of water lost through leakages. However, this idea on a smaller, county to county, scale could help balance the spatial inequalities.
At the moment, the same quality of water is used through out the house. For example, water suitable for drinking is used to wash the car or flush the toilet. A third of all domestic water consumption is used flushing the toilet. The use of grey-water systems could have a significant effect on reducing future demand. Grey water is water generated by household processes such as washing up, clothes washing and bathing. Recycled grey water from showers and bath can be used for flushing toilets. A duel supply is unlikely to be set up. However, sewage effluent can be used for watering gardens or other non-consumable activities instead of going out to sea and being lost from the cycle. Grey water can be treated to safe standards on a household scale. Encouraging small scale grey water treatment in areas that are often short of water would be a very good way of not wasting as much drinking quality water. This could either be done through offering grants to do it or taxing those who don’t.
As Britain is surrounded by water, it seems only sensible to make use of it. However, desalination (converting saline water into potable water) on a large scale is very expensive as it requires a lot of energy to carry out. There are many different ways of desalinating water; the two most commonly used are reverse osmosis and multi-flash distillation. Rreverse osmosis is the process of pushing a solution through a filter that traps the dissolved salt on one side and allows just the water through. Multi-flash works by evaporating salt water and condensing it in a series of chambers to exclude the salt. Desalinisation can also so be done on a very small scale; solar distillation can provide an alternate source of clean water. However it is very time consuming and, in England due to its temperate climate, would be very unreliable and virtually unusable in the winter months.
As the UK has more than enough precipitation, I think the best strategy of water management would be rainwater harvesting and using it to recharge aquifers in winter. Also, investing in reducing the amount of water that is lost from leaks in the water pipes would be a very cost effective way to increase that amount of water available. A better education program to raise people’s awareness of the severity of the issue and what they can do to help would be an effective way of reducing demand for water.
Sources
Books
Environmental Science, Kevin Byrne
Websites
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
www.statistics.gov.uk
www.steppingforward.org.uk/ summ/figs/fig18.gif
http://www.steppingforward.org.uk/rf/water.htm
www.dwi.gov.uk
www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/documents/publications/qolc99/ch4q.pdf.
