Water Resources Forum Thursday 14 th March 2019
An update. • Further consultation on our revised draft WRMP19 (October – November 2018) • Initial feedback received from Ofwat on our draft Business Plan (January 2019) • Continued to work closely with Government, regulators, other water companies and stakeholders • On-going dialogue with our customers Today we will provide an update on our WRMP19 and outline the next steps.
Today. 10:00 Welcome and introductions Richard Aylard 10:10 Update on our WRMP19 Chris Lambert & Adrian McDonald 10:50 Update from Affinity Water Doug Hunt 11:15 Break 11:30 Making the best use of resources Tony Owen 12:00 Update on key developments Tony Owen & Trevor Bishop 12:45 Lunch 13:30 Overview of future work Chris Lambert 14:00 Protecting vulnerable chalk streams Chris Lambert 14:30 Open discussion Richard Aylard 15:00 Meeting close
How to get the most out of the Forum • There are no stupid questions! • Come prepared to help shape our plans • Let us know if there’s a better way to engage for you
Update on our WRMP19 Chris Lambert, Thames Water 5
The planning challenge – a recap. By 2045 there will be an additional two million people living in our area . That’s the equivalent of Birmingham and Glasgow moving in. Our climate is changing. There will be less rain when we need it most, with more extreme weather events. Our abstractions must be sustainable. We need to balance the water we take for our customers with what we leave in the environment. These challenges face the whole of the South East region, not just Thames Water’s supply area 6
Engagement has shaped our plan. Date Activity Since 2015 Engagement with customers, stakeholders and other water companies to inform the development of our draft plan Spring 2018 Public consultation on draft WRMP19 including customer research and local engagement Summer 2018 Considered >540 representations received to the public consultation and new information, and made changes to our draft plan September 2018 Published our draft Business Plan October 2018 Published our response to the consultation (SoR No 1) and published our revised draft plan Autumn 2018 Further public consultation on the revised draft WRMP19 including customer research and local engagement January 2019 Feedback from Ofwat on our draft Business Plan Early 2019 Considered > 750 representations and refined parts of our revised draft plan
Further consultation – Autumn 2018. Email and Written Online 386 751 365 For the email and written responses: Regulators and appointed organisations : EA, NRW, Ofwat, NE, HE, CCW and CCG Stakeholders: ~ 15 including councils, environmental and campaign groups GARD (>200 pages) and individuals opposing the reservoir: ~240 CCT and responses supporting the restoration of the Cotswold Canals : ~ 95 Angling Trust and linked responses: ~ 5
Common issues. Topic Issues • Leakage reduction Scale and timing of the targets . • Confidence in delivery • Visibility of an action plan • Managing demand Overall support but concerns about over-reliance • Teddington Direct Welcomed responsiveness to environmental concerns • River Abstraction Concern that a central plank of the plan was removed at a late stage • Challenge that mitigation opportunities had not been fully examined • Deephams reuse Potential impacts on navigation and river ecology of the Lee and Tideway • Suggestion that environmental concerns have been over-emphasised • Most polarising option for customers • Oxford Canal Concerns about the availability of water, reliability and Impact (EA). • Transfer Concerns about heritage assets (Historic England) 9
Common issues (2). Topic Issues . • Strong local opposition – visual impact, local flooding, Reservoir environmental impact, safety concerns • Comments on regional planning and partnership with Affinity Water • Profiteering • Concerns – reliability, reliance on other regions, risk of invasive Severn - Thames Transfer species • Support for the restoration of the Cotswold Canals • Abstraction and Support for action to address damage caused by current licences • protection of the Support for commitment to reduce abstraction from vulnerable environment chalk streams • GARD suggested that there are alternative solutions which can achieve the same outcome. Preferred programme • More transparent and accessible explanation • Improve explanation of the role of various tools • Use adaptive planning techniques 10
April 2019 – Documentation. Brochure • Summary of the consultation and responses • Overview of our revised draft plan • Next steps SoR Main Report SoR Appendices • Overview of the consultation • Regulators and appointed organisations • Common issues • Stakeholder and Individuals – specific points • Changes to the rdWRMP rdWRMP19 • Update note • Update to Sections 10 & 11 and appendices W and X • Addendum to SEA, HRA and WFD
Our revised draft WRMP19 …. • Provides a robust and resilient plan for the long-term, providing protection against severe drought • Aligns with customers’ views and responds to feedback from stakeholders • Prioritises leakage management and demand reduction programme, this is combined with resource development • Collaborates with water companies across the South East and beyond • Delivers best value for customers now and in the long term • Supports improved environmental resilience • Is adaptive and flexible - responsive to future uncertainty: CaMKOx growth, 1 in 500 year drought resilience, further environmental protection and infrastructure built in a timely way 12
Our approach to decide on our preferred plan
Updates to our revised draft plan • Our revised draft plan has not changed in substance • Minor corrections/additions e.g. Directions • Improvements to the narrative and provided further information on the next steps: Section 10 - Programme appraisal: − Overview and improved framework − Adaptive alternative options approach – options decision tree − 2022/23 decision point − Confirmation of alignment with neighbours and WRSE Section 11 – Our preferred plan: − Preferred plan at WRZ level and supply area overview − Overview of further work − Monitoring plan 14
Our Adaptive plan to 2030 On-going programme of leakage reduction - reducing by 20% over the next 5 years (2020-2025) Continued installation of smart meters – 700,000 meters Helping our customers use less water - smarter home & business visits Buy surplus water from other 3 rd party organisations (29 Ml/d) – RWE Didcot & CRT Oxford Canal Develop new groundwater sources (28 Ml/d) and water reuse scheme (Deephams 46 Ml/d) Strategic Option Studies – 2022/23 decision point Monitoring Plan Our Plan includes an adaptive approach to ensure resilience to key challenge points: 1 in 200 drought protection in 2030 and regional need from 2037/38 15
Our alternative options decision tree Green = Preferred path; Blue = Alternative paths; Orange = Paths not currently feasible 16
Key decision point - 2022/23 Our adaptive plan sets out the need for a decision in 2022/23. • Allows delivery of schemes in the short-term to provide resilience to severe drought e.g. Deephams / Beckton Re-Use scheme have up to 8 year lead times. • Allows for completion of further studies on strategic options • Aligns with WRSE and facilitates regional water resources plan as part of next round of WRMPs • Aligns with Affinity Water’s decision point for strategic option required in 2038 • Shows that ‘up front’ investment represents best long term value for customers • Allows for stakeholder engagement within regulatory timelines 17
Thoughts from our Expert Panel Professor Adrian McDonald 18
The Expert Panel • Remains : informal, open, organic. • Continuation: question, challenge, suggest. • Focus: process improvement not decision making
Further roles • Source of answers to wider questions • Understanding futures • Ramifications and concerns • Ask naive questions
Questions and comments 21
Affinity Water - WRMP19 Update Thames Water Resources Forum 14 March 2019
Affinity Water – Our supply area Our communities • We supply over 900 million litres of water a day to around 3.6 million people. • We divide our supply area into eight communities , some of which have the highest demand for water in the country • We supply water in some of the most water stressed areas in the UK and economically critical infrastructure e.g. Heathrow, Stansted and Luton airports • Continuing substantial, housing growth and population with over 50% by 2080 • Groundwater dominated supply (65%) and have no raw water storage of surface water • Continuing to be collaborating with other companies in the South East to improve customer resilience. 23
Recommend
More recommend
