Thread by @DanielJ88

Yesterday, @DefraGovUK proposed a new statutory national water efficiency target under #EnvironmentAct.
So far so good.
But the proposed 20% reduction in water company 'Distribution Input' by 2037, per capita, is pathetically weak.
It means no action at all, here's why... 1/n

Putting the target on a 'per capita' basis means any gains in water efficiency for the environment could be negated by population growth.

In an extreme scenario, if popn growth is 20%+ by 2037 then MORE water could be taken from the environment and target would still be met

ONS's projections suggest population will rise by ~10% between now and late 2030s. If so, it means actual use of public water supplies need only fall by 10% to achieve the target.

Public water supplies have three major uses:
- households (55%)
- non-households: hotels, offices, industry and agri use of potable water etc (21%), and
- leakage from water company networks / customer properties (21%)
Source: National Framework for Water Resources (p21)

Action on any of these three will help meet the actual ~10% reduction in DI target by 2037.
But as the @WaterUK companies have reaffirmed today, they have already committed to halve leakage by 2050, and triple the rate of leakage reduction by 2030.

See: water.org.uk/news-item/mile…

@WaterUK Leakage in England in the baseline year for the target (2017/18) was around 3,000 Ml/d. The water industry's projection is to get to around 1,800Ml/d by 2037.
So action on leakage alone means DI will fall by almost 10% (40% reduction in leakage x 21% share of DI = 8.6%).

With water company action on leakage doing the heavy lifting, no real action is needed at all on household consumption nor non-household water use.

Whereas the @EnvAgency's National Framework for Water Resources says that household consumption needs to fall to 110 l/p/d by 2050, a 20-25% reduction, say a 12.5% reduction by 2037.
This is what water companies are building their Water Resources Management Plans around.

So yesterday's proposed target can be met with:
- No action at all on reducing non-household consumption, and
- Less action than water companies already planning to do on reducing per capita consumption.

The whole point of setting a statutory water efficiency target is so that more water is left in the environment for nature.
This will be critically important as the climate continues to warm, and rainfall patterns change.
It should require & spur additional action, by all sectors

But yesterdays proposal from @DefraGovUK is fundamentally flawed, requiring less action to achieve than already being planned for by water companies.
By setting the target on a per capita basis in the context of a growing population.
And setting the target at only 20%.

It should be said that the proposal ignores the advice of Defra's own Senior Water Demand Reduction Group (I sit on this group).
See letter from independent chair @nicci_vasey waterwise.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

@nicci_vasey But it's not too late, it's only a proposal.
If you care about:
- #riverhealth and #naturerecovery in the #climateemergency.
- #waterpoverty, rising #energybills and achieving #netzero (because using water for showers/taps accounts for 17% of home energy use).

Then tell the Defra water minister @pow_rebecca to think again.
Have your say here, closes 11th May: consult.defra.gov.uk/natural-enviro…
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'@Waterwise @CIWEM @CommonsEAC @JessCook_NEA @WaterREast @CCWvoice @CitizensAdvice @ruthmchambers @theriverstrust @AnglingTrust @Feargal_Sharkey @RachSalv