To address the forecast water shortfall of 5 billion litres per day by 2055 as outlined in the EA’s National Framework for Water Resources (NFWR), published yesterday, Ofwat has said it is critical that it delivers new water supply infrastructure.
Since its inception in 2019, the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) – an alliance between water regulators Ofwat, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) – has made major progress in tackling the water scarcity challenge, by promoting regional and cross-sector collaboration and overcoming regulatory barriers to aid the development of essential new water supply schemes.
At Ofwat’s Price Review 2024, the RAPID programme was expanded to 28 schemes with over £2bn of funding allocated to progress their delivery at pace over AMP8 – unlocking around c.£50bn investment in the long-term.
A range of schemes in the RAPID pipeline – from reservoirs and large-scale water transfers to water recycling and desalination schemes – will help to ensure the security of the future water supply. These will deliver a minimum of a billion litres a day – one fifth of the shortfall outlined in the Framework – although the final contribution is expected to be higher.
Paul Hickey, Managing Director of RAPID, said:
“The latest National Framework for Water Resources sends a very clear message about the need to build new infrastructure to increase resilience in our future supply.
“Since our creation in 2019, RAPID has driven greater collaboration across the sector and the development of new large scale strategic water supply options by the water companies which has led to an expanded programme of 28 schemes.
“Beyond national water resilience, delivering these schemes will unlock wider economic benefits by boosting jobs and providing capacity for new homes, as well as protecting and improving the environment – such as our precious chalk streams – by leaving more water for nature.
“As new pressures on water resources emerge, we will continue to support optioneering to further broaden and diversify our water supply solutions beyond the current RAPID pipeline.”
These water resource options will be key to ensuring sustainable and resilient supplies for generations to come, alongside the demand management and leakage reduction interventions announced in Ofwat’s Price Review 2024.
