Draft Drought Plan 2018-2023 - Non technical summary - South East Water Corporate
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Draft Drought Plan 2018-2023 Non technical summary
southeastwater.co.uk
Contents Introducing our drought plan 5 What is a drought? 5 Purpose of a drought plan 6 Our supply area 7 Level of service 8 Testing the robustness of the draft drought plan 8 How the plan works 9 What actions will we take if there is a drought? 10 Actions to increase water resource supply 12 What is a drought permit or order? 12 Actions to reduce demand for water 13 What is a temporary use ban? 14 How would we implement water use restrictions? 15 Drought orders 16 Emergency drought orders 16 Communicating during a drought 18 Post drought actions 19 Potential environmental impacts, assessment and monitoring of the drought plan proposals 20 Together we know h2ow 22 Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary
4 southeastwater.co.uk
5 Introducing our drought plan South East Water’s water supply area covers an area of some 5,657km2 across parts of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire. Within this area we provide clean drinking water to a population of around 2.2 million customers in nearly 900,000 domestic households and 76,000 commercial properties. This makes us one of the largest water supply only companies in the country. We must make sure there is enough water for all our customers and we do this by planning a minimum of 25 years into the future through our water resources management plan which is updated every five years. These long-term plans ensure we can cope with periods of drier than average weather, such as a hot summer. Find out more at southeastwater.co.uk/waterresources However if we have many months of dry weather, leading to an exceptional shortage of rainfall, (particularly over two consecutive winters when our resources require rainfall to recharge) we have a separate drought plan to help us manage the water we have available. This brochure is a summary of this drought plan. The drought plan sets out the actions we use when facing the early signs of a drought, during a drought, and after a drought has ended. Our actions seek to address both the supply of water by us, and the demand for water by our customers. We are legally required to prepare and maintain a drought plan, to set out our proposals and to consult widely before finally adopting it. You can read the full plan at southeastwater.co.uk/droughtplan What is a drought? Droughts are natural events that vary in severity and length each time they occur. The Environment Agency definition is: “A drought happens when a period of low rainfall creates a shortage of water for people, the environment, agriculture, or industry due to a prolonged shortage of water”. The South East of England is one of the driest regions in the country and is classified by the Environment Agency as an area of ‘serious water stress’. While droughts are most likely to occur during very hot dry weather, periods of low levels of rainfall during the winter months can have a significant impact on our water resources, particularly so if we experience back-to-back dry winters. Groundwater and surface water sources (rivers and reservoirs) are recharged by rainfall during the autumn and winter months, so lower than average rainfall during the winter can reduce the amount of water available in the following summer. Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary
6
Introducing our drought plan continued
Purpose of a drought plan
Our drought plan follows the Environment Agency guidelines which say that the drought plan
should “set out the short-term operational steps a company will take before, during and after
a drought”.
The plan allows us to respond quickly to different types of drought conditions when and
if they occur, and to review our actions through a drought and as the drought event changes
or ends.
During a drought we have a range of activities we can implement to help us manage supplies.
We work with others, such as neighbouring water companies, environmental groups,
community stakeholders and customers who all play a part to support these activities.
Figure 1: Some of the activities we carry out during a drought to help manage supplies
Managing Increasing
demand supply
Water efficiency Transferring
advice water
Reducing Upgrading
leakage disused sources
Restricting Fast-tracking new
water use source project
The drought plan sets out how and when we would implement these actions. This includes
how we may restrict non-essential water use, such as hosepipes, so that all our customers
can continue to receive adequate supplies for essential purposes, such as drinking, washing
and cooking.
We welcome and encourage comments on our proposed approach as part of the
consultation process.
southeastwater.co.uk
7
Our supply area
Our supply area is divided into the western region and eastern region as shown in Figure 2.
For the purposes of water resource planning these regions are further divided into eight
water resource zones.
The drought plan takes a similar approach and divides our supply area into three sub-regional
areas, the western region, the eastern region (west) and the eastern region (east).
We closely monitor resource levels and demand within these sub-regions to identify when
there is a risk of drought, and to respond accordingly with appropriate actions.
Figure 2: South East Water’s drought management areas
Maidenhead
Greater London
Reading
Newbury Bracknell
RZ6 Canterbury
RZ4
Sevenoaks
Reigate Maidstone RZ8
Basingstoke Aldershot Guildford
West RZ1
Ashford Dover
RZ5
RZ7 Folkstone
Horsham East (East)
Winchester RZ2
Haywards Heath
Petersfield
Burgess Hill
East (West) RZ3
Lewes Hastings
Chichester
Brighton
Eastbourne Drought regions
RZ Resource Zones
Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary8 Introducing our drought plan continued Level of service Our water resources management plan is prepared in consultation with our stakeholders, including our customers. In the plan we agree how much water will be available for use and how frequently we may need to implement water use restrictions or vary how much water we can take from rivers by asking for permission to change our abstraction licence through a drought permit. While these actions are rare, they are occasionally necessary to manage supplies during droughts. To design a water supply system that removed hosepipe restrictions under any circumstances would be environmentally unsustainable and prohibitively expensive. Our preferred levels of service to water supply customers are: • temporary use bans* – no more than once in 10 years (10 per cent annual probability of occurring) • non-essential use bans** – no more than once in 40 years (2.5 per cent annual probability) (* see page 14 for an explanation of temporary use bans ** see page 16 for an explanation of non-essential use bans) In relation to the environment, our target environmental level is that we should only have to implement measures to vary abstraction licences through drought orders and/or drought permits no more than once in 50 years (two per cent annual probability). Testing the robustness of the draft drought plan Each drought is different. Some are short but severe, whereas others are less intense but last for prolonged periods of time. It is essential that the plan is flexible to cope with a range of types and frequencies of droughts. The drought plan builds upon lessons learnt from past droughts in 2005-2006 and most recently 2012. We are confident we have developed a robust drought plan to deal with a range of scenarios. In guidelines produced in July 2015, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency set out requirements for all water companies to plan for more severe droughts than have been experienced historically. To satisfy this new requirement, we have tested our plan against the following criteria: • historic droughts • d rought scenarios that vary in terms of severity, duration and impacts. These are plausible more severe and prolonged droughts than we have experienced in the past and test our resilience • simulated ‘third dry winter’ events Our comprehensive testing against these criteria found that our plan is robust and is resilient to a one in 200 year event and the third dry winter simulated drought. Full details of these scenarios and the results of the tests are found in the drought plan. southeastwater.co.uk
9
How the plan works
Drought Management Team
Bringing together heads of departments within the company, each with their own technical
expertise. The management team is jointly managed by the Assets and Operations Directors,
who report directly to the Executive Team on a frequent basis.
The team carefully monitors over time both how our water resources are performing, and how
demand for water is varying. This information is used to trigger actions to respond to changing
situations across each of the sub-regions. A three stage process has been adopted to determine
the most appropriate response to an emerging drought.
Figure 3: Summary of the three stage process
Stage 1
Monitoring
• Water levels are
measured at 18
observational boreholes
• Water levels are monitored at
Ardingly Reservoir
• Water levels are monitored at
Arlington Reservoir Stage 2
• Nine rain gauge stations provide Severity
rainfall levels assessment
• Regular communications • Trigger levels are
with other water companies collated from Stage 1
which we receive
supplies from • A drought status for each
individual source of monitoring
data is produced
• A score is determined for each of Stage 3
the three drought regions Action plan
• An assessment of the projected • Identify drought
progression of the drought actions
is made
• Implement drought
actions
Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary10
What actions will we take if there is a drought?
We classify the development of a drought using the following system:
Normal status Developing drought Moderate drought Severe drought Post drought
A full description of all the actions we would take to increase supply and reduce the demand for
water can be found in the drought plan itself. However this diagram gives a high level summary
of the key activities we will take.
Figure 4: Summary of our drought plan actions – please see Table 3.7 in the full draft drought plan for a more
detailed table of activities. This figure gives an indication of some of the likely actions, however every drought is
different so the management team would tailor the approach in collaboration with stakeholders.
Normal status Developing drought Moderate
Supply Demand Supply Demand Supply
• Routine • Ongoing water • Optimise • Escalate • Defer
monitoring efficiency operations seasonal water non-essential
promotion conservation maintenance
• Discuss
campaigns programmes
• Ongoing bulk supply
leakage arrangements • Increased • Implement
reduction with leakage engineering
neighbouring reduction solutions to
water companies activities increase supply
• Step-up regular • Regional • Consider and
meetings with communications prepare drought
stakeholders campaign order and
drought permit
applications
Environmental actions
Communication actions
southeastwater.co.uk11
drought Severe drought Post drought
Demand Supply Demand Supply Demand
• Enhanced • Apply for • Regional/ • Remove drought • Lift temporary
leakage emergency national permits and use ban
detection drought orders communications drought restrictions and
activities campaign orders drought orders
• Prepare to
• Water efficiency implement • Work with • Internal review • Briefings to
audits emergency plan local resilience of drought confirm back to
forum activities to normal operation
• Consider
include, decisions
implementing • Work with • Review and
taken and any
temporary use water retail sharing of
necessary
ban companies and regional lessons
updates to the
users to reduce learned working
drought plan
demand with the wider
industry
see page 20
see page 18
Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary12 What actions will we take if there is a drought? continued Actions to increase water resource supply During a drought there are a number of actions we can carry out to increase the supply of water available in the regions impacted. Activities would include: • looking for ways to optimise our treatment works to increase water available • i mprovements to the way water is distributed around the network so we can transfer water from areas with a surplus to those in drought • increasing the abstraction of water at sources where it is possible to take more water • recommissioning disused sources • considering whether or not improvement schemes already planned could be fast tracked • r eviewing existing bulk transfer arrangements with other water companies, including investigating new temporary or permanent bulk supplies • i n severe droughts we may apply for drought permits to allow us to take more water from rivers than we are usually able What is a drought permit or order? During normal circumstances we have a licence from the Environment Agency which allows us to take water from rivers to either refill reservoirs or to treat ready to supply our customers. The amount of water we are allowed to take is limited to help protect the ecology of the river. This is based on the height of the river level. During periods of dry weather the river level can decrease to below the height we are allowed to take water from. At which point we usually release water from our surface water storage reservoirs to help top the river back up. If the dry weather continues there is a risk that our reservoirs will begin to get too low. At this point we would apply to the Environment Agency for a drought permit. This allows us to take water even when the river level is lower. southeastwater.co.uk
13 Our drought plan gives details of which rivers we may consider applying for drought permits on. The plan includes an environmental assessment which: • assesses how the permit or order will affect the environment • sets out how we’ll monitor the effects of the permit or order on the environment • sets out what we’ll do to reduce any negative effects of the permit or order on the environment The environmental assessment includes details of how the permit is likely to change water flow or water level regimes. It also explains how these changes could affect any features that are sensitive to them. Before applying for a drought permit we would have worked hard to reduce demand for water, so that we are all doing our bit to help reduce the impact on the environment. The Environment Agency may, in some circumstances, decide to escalate the decision on the permit to the Secretary of State who may then approve this as a drought order. Actions to reduce demand for water There are a number of measures set out in our drought plan which help us to reduce the demand for water. These include: • doing even more than usual to reduce leaks • reducing water pressure which can help reduce leaks • stopping maintenance work which may use water – such as our pipe flushing programme • c arrying out a water efficiency publicity campaign to let the public know what we’ll do to reduce demand • temporarily restrict water use through temporary use bans or drought orders Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary
14
What actions will we take if there is a drought? continued
What is a temporary use ban?
A tried and tested method for protecting
supplies during a drought is to ask customers
to play their part too and use less water,
something that our customers support.
In the early stages simple water efficiency
advice can make a difference. But if a drought
extends for a long period, it may be necessary
to strengthen the message and implement a
temporary use ban, commonly referred to as
hosepipe bans, although it can be more than just
hosepipes that are affected.
It is the Flood and Water Management Act 2010
that gives water companies powers to restrict water
use in a drought. These powers relate to the timing
of temporary controls on water use and the potential
implementation of a full ban on non-essential water use.
As it is this action that is likely to have the most interest,
especially for customers, we have explained this in more
detail here and welcome your comments on our approach
(see page 22 for how to comment).
Before 2010 water use restrictions applied only to hosepipe
or sprinkler bans, but are now much wider with 11 categories
of non-essential use. They are:
• watering a garden using a hosepipe
• cleaning a private motor-vehicle using a hosepipe
• w
atering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises
using a hosepipe
• cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe
• filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
• drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use
• filling or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe
• filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain
• cleaning walls, or windows, of domestic premises using a hosepipe
• cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe
• cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe
It is possible to continue to use buckets, watering cans, water butts
and recycled water, such as from a bath or washing up bowl.15
How would we implement water use restrictions?
Water companies are able to determine which category of temporary use ban to impose,
what concessions and exemptions to offer.
To keep the message simple we propose to use four phases to gradually increase the
restrictions as a drought develops.
Figure 5: The four stage phasing of demand restrictions – for full details see 51 of the draft drought plan
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
Temporary use ban of all 11 categories Drought orders to implement a
to restrict water use primarily to restrict non-essential use ban to primarily
domestic hosepipe use. restrict water use for business users.
Concessions include: All concessions Concessions include: All concessions
removed removed
• blue badge holders • blue badge holders
• drip or trickle • pools serving
irrigation systems industrial centre
fitted with a pressure training where
reduction valve and justified
timer
• small businesses
• business specialising whose sole operations
in hand car washing are cleaning of non-
that use hosepipes as domestic buildings
part of their process
Before implementing a ban we will give customers two weeks notice of the
restrictions proposed, allowing a further week for us to consider any representations
and responses received.
We would make sure we have communicated the message to a wide audience, including
adverts published inviting comments in local newspapers and on our website. A full
communication plan, including press releases, interviews and use of social media will
be put in place.
Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary16
What actions will we take if there is a drought? continued
Drought orders (non-essential use ban)
Where a drought becomes severe, water companies can also apply to the Secretary of State
for a drought order to further restrict uses of water to non-domestic properties through a
non-essential use ban. In granting the order, which can last up to six months, the Secretary of
State needs to be satisfied that:
+
Either a serious deficiency of The reason for the
supplies of water in any area deficiency is an exceptional
or such a deficiency in the flow shortage of rain
or level of water in any inland
waterway as to pose a serious
threat to any flora and fauna
dependent upon those waters
exists or is threatened
If we decide to apply for drought orders then, like the temporary use ban, this will happen
in two phases (see figure 5). The first drought order application will be to restrict all of the
non-essential use categories. This is ‘Phase 3’ of the demand restrictions.
The second drought application would remove all concessions – Phase 4.
If the drought status is severe, we should be enforcing the maximum demand restrictions
available in order to preserve water for the essential uses of drinking, washing and cooking.
Emergency drought orders
An emergency drought plan would only be implemented in exceptional circumstances, such
as an unprecedented severity of drought, which meant we could no longer provide a secure
supply to our customers.
This would only be sought when all the other demand side and supply side measures in the
drought plan have been fully utilised. We have to seek the approval of the Secretary of State
for an emergency drought order.
southeastwater.co.uk17
Before an emergency drought order is granted, the Secretary of State must be satisfied that:
+
By reason of an exceptional The deficiency is such as
shortage of rain, a serious to be likely to impair the
deficiency of supplies of economic or social well-being
water in any area exists or of persons in the area
is threatened
Emergency drought orders are only made for three months (but can be extended by a further
two months). They allow water companies to decide how to restrict supplies to customers
through measures such as rota cuts, introducing standpipes and/or water tanks. Restrictions
on abstraction licenses can also be relaxed.
While it is important we prepare for these extreme actions, we want to reassure customers
that an emergency order would only be applied for in a severe drought situation after all other
drought measures have been exhausted.
As every drought is different in terms of severity, nature, timing and extent of drought, we
have not set a predetermined course of action for every eventuality. This allows the drought
management team to target those resources and supply areas most at risk during differing
types of drought.
Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary18 Communicating during a drought Year round we have a continuous water efficiency programme and water advice for customers. When we are in drought the level of activity increases significantly, in particular media coverage and liaison with key stakeholders is vital to get the right messages out to customers as quickly and effectively as possible. The key objectives of the communications plan are: • increase customer awareness of the limited availability of water resources • r egularly inform consumers, relevant organisations and regulators about the development of the drought and the implementation of drought management actions • s et out when and how we will communicate with wider interest groups and partners to help reduce demand in a drought • p romote and enhance water efficiency advice and information, including initiatives already in operation under normal circumstances and those used during a drought • e ncourage household customers to use water wisely in the home and garden and explain what they can do to help in a drought • w ork with non-household water retailers to encourage their customers to become more water efficient and explain what they can do to help in a drought • announce and reinforce any water restrictions that may be introduced • p romote the positive work we are undertaking, individually and in combination with others to manage the drought • monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of drought communication activities during a drought In April 2017, the non-household water market opened up to competition. This means a particular change to our drought plan is that we would work closely with the non-household water retailers to help deliver messages to non-household consumers, ensuring we operate in line with the current market codes. We would particularly welcome water retailers' views on our plan and how best we can work together during a drought. We will use a wide range of media tools to deliver key messages to stakeholders, media, community, customers (household and non-household), water companies (wholesale), water retailers. The full drought plan provides a detailed communication action plan and lists of the audiences we would target and channels we would use. These may include face-to-face meetings, roadshow events, media and press briefings and radio advertising. Full use will be made of the internet to post information on a dedicated drought page on our website and email bulletins will also be issued on a regular basis. Social networking sites will also be used. We will ensure that we regularly update our drought communications, which is especially important during a changing drought situation to keep everyone informed. As a drought becomes more severe, we will work particularly closely with neighbouring water companies through the Water Resources in the South East (WRSE) group and particularly where there are bulk supply arrangements to share information and ensure consistent messages are being given. southeastwater.co.uk
19 Post drought actions As a drought begins to recede, it may be some time before water resources fully recover to a level where supplies are safeguarded. For this reason, some drought actions such as temporary bans may have to remain in place for a longer period, even over winter, while groundwater and reservoir sources return to acceptable levels. In a similar way, any drought orders or drought permits will need to remain in place until normal conditions are resumed. We recognise the particular need for regular communication during periods towards the end of a drought, when there may be prolonged rainfall, yet drought restrictions remain in force, which could be confusing if we aren’t clear with customers. When the restrictions are finally able to be removed, we will write to everyone that we communicated with during the temporary use ban and all customers who had been in contact to advise them and thank them for their support. A review of South East Water’s management of the drought will be undertaken once the drought has ended. This will be used both to improve drought planning methods, and to ensure that any lessons about the timing and implementation of drought actions can be learnt. We will engage with customers and stakeholders in undertaking this review to ensure everyone’s views are taken into account. The outcomes will inform not only future reviews of the drought plan, but also subsequent water resources management plans and our investment decisions across the water supply area. Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary
20 Potential environmental impacts, assessment and monitoring of the drought plan proposals We consider ourselves to be guardians of the environment and take our responsibility to protect the water sources we rely on very seriously. Therefore, in accordance with the Environment Agency guidelines, our drought plan includes an assessment of the environmental impacts of the drought plan actions, and we have proposed monitoring plans to measure the impacts of these actions. The former drought plan (2013) included drought permit options for the Cowbeech and Sedlescombe groundwater sources in Sussex. Following our monitoring of these sources we have decided it is best for the environment not to take these options forward, we consulted Natural England about this change which it supports. In preparing the draft drought plan, we have considered other legislation and regulations relating to the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) directive (2005). As the drought plan is considered a temporary operational plan, it does not set a framework for projects requiring development consent, it is considered that no SEA is required, however we have still undertaken an environmental assessment of options. We carried out a habitat regulations assessment (HRA) to demonstrate there will be no significant effects on European sites for any of the drought permits. southeastwater.co.uk
21 Environmental impacts have been considered for all options within the drought plan and the assessment has concluded that there are no likely significant effects on European designated sites. Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) have also been considered throughout the environmental assessment process with a conclusion that there are no likely significant adverse effects on SSSIs. Under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, we must act to conserve biodiversity through restoring or enhancing the population of species or their habitat. Protected species have been considered as part of the environmental assessment process and any risks identified will be taken into account when we prioritise drought options. As part of this process, the baseline information at the identified drought permit sites is regularly updated on a continuous basis giving us a comprehensive history of ecological conditions across the drought regions. Full details of the environmental impact assessment and what we would do to protect the environment during a drought can be found in the full drought plan. Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary
22 Together we know h2ow All our customers and stakeholders have the opportunity to have their say on all our work including our drought plan. Using our experience of previous droughts we have prepared a plan we hope will receive your support. We know that working together with our customers and stakeholders is vital to the success of our plans as it is only though collaboration that we can make the best plan possible. On 4 September 2017, following permission from the Secretary of State for the Environment, we opened our public consultation and have published the draft drought plan which is available to read at southeastwater.co.uk/droughtplan. Copies of this summary brochure are available free of charge from: The Water Resources Team Head Office South East Water Rocfort Road Snodland ME6 5AH The draft drought plan will also be available to read in hard copy at: South East Water Rocfort Road Snodland ME6 5AH We have allowed eight weeks for comments to be made and the closing date for comments to be received is 29 October 2017. Comments can be sent to Defra by email to water.resources@defra.gsi.gov.uk or by post to: Secretary of State Drought plan consultation Defra Area 2C Ergon House Horseferry Road London SW1P 2AL Comments should be returned to Defra by 29 October 2017. southeastwater.co.uk
23 We will review every comment received and will prepare a statement of response document which will be published on our website by 15 December 2017 and send to everyone who joins the consultation. All comments will be considered and where appropriate we will make changes to the plan, giving reasons for the changes. Where we consider no changes are necessary, we will explain the reasons for this. The Secretary of State will consider the comments raised and our response to the comments made on the draft drought plan. We hope at this point the final plan will be able to be published, however if necessary an inquiry, or hearing, may be required. Although at present we are consulting specifically on the drought plan, we are continuously talking to customers and stakeholders about our work and hope you will continue to give us feedback to help us ensure we have a resilient water supply for everyone now and in the future. Draft drought plan 2018-2023 non technical summary
You can contact us in the following ways:
southeastwater.co.uk
southeastwater.co.uk/contact
Customer Service Centre
South East Water
Rocfort Road
Snodland
Kent
ME6 5AH
0333 000 0001
South East Water Limited
Registered in England No. 2679874
Registered Office: Snodland, Kent ME6 5AH
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