The Government has made a strong start on implementing reform of England’s outdated water abstraction and permitting regime, including its 2017 abstraction plan, to improve efficiency and protect the environment from unsustainable abstraction.
Substantial improvements in water quality and flow rates have been delivered, but further challenges remain on tackling leakages and availability, with both climate change and population increasing pressure on resources.
These were among the key conclusions in DEFRA’s statutory five-year report to Parliament required under S.57 of the Water Act 2014 on progress made in reforming the regime for managing water abstraction in England from 2014 to 2019, released on 13 May.
A core objective of the work focuses on management to ensure resilient future water supplies while protecting the environment.
The report says the passage of the Water Act 2014 marked a step-change in progress of abstraction reform. This saw the removal of water companies’ compensation rights for revocation or changes to their abstraction licences, as well as unblocking action on the Restoring Sustainable Abstraction programme, allowing commitment to challenging targets in the abstraction plan.
It says environmental improvement actions are "on track to deliver the ambition of moving 90% of surface water bodies and 77% of groundwater bodies to the required standards by 2021". Over 23bn l of water have been returned to the environment since 2014, with another 217bn l recovered from phasing out of unused or underused licences, which should help to lower the risk of further deterioration, it says.
The report also notes that in 2018, trial projects started in four catchments with the aim of focusing more strongly on catchment areas, of fostering cooperation between catchments and of maximising sustainable access to water. The catchments were: East Suffolk, Cam & Ely Ouse in East Anglia Area, South Forty Foot in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire Area, Idle and Torne in the East Midlands Area. All have unmet demand for additional water, and potential for sharing of water between abstractors.
Catchment groups with a wide range of stakeholders have been established by the Environment Agency in these areas, promoting discussion of innovative solutions. These groups are now refining and prioritising their ideas, while the EA will oversee technical and regulatory feasibility, informing abstraction licensing strategies during 2020, with DEFRA looking for further catchments that could be added. Longer term, DEFRA hopes to see the Catchment Based Approach for water resource management rolled out across England, "alongside successful solutions to improve access to water where they are needed".
The report also highlights the impact of prolonged dry weather in 2018 on ensuring improved access to water for business and other users while protecting the environment, a challenge that risks intensifying as population and global warming increase. The EA used this as an opportunity to trial flexible licensing approaches such as rapid trading and abstracting at high flows, as well as working successfully with farmers in East Anglia to access water without environmental damage, and it will now incorporate these into daily practice where environmentally sustainable, it says.
One of the most important aspects of reform is EA’s modernisation of the abstraction licensing regime, much of it dating back to the 1960s. This involves moving away from paper-based licensing with fixed allowances unrelated to current flow concerns to digital, online platforms since March 2018, allowing viewing of real-time flow and more sustainable, dynamic, timely management of use in line with pressures on the resource such as droughts.
Another ongoing aspect of this modernisation process is the moving of abstraction and impoundment regulations into the environmental permitting regulations (EPR) "to provide a more modern and consistent legal framework for the day-to-day management of abstraction". A working group with stakeholders has been set up to ensure problems are identified and resolved.
DEFRA also points out it launched a consultation in January on proposed additional powers "to protect the environment from unsustainable abstraction and improve access to water", increasing circumstances where EA can vary or revoke licenses without compensation, such as where abstraction is environmentally damaging or where licences are underused.
An increasing area of focus for the implementation of the 2017 water abstraction plan is how it meshes with DEFRA’s flagship 25-Year Environment Plan for recovery of nature and natural capital published in January 2018. The 25-year plan highlights ‘clean and plentiful water’ as a priority and the role of the new abstraction plan in achieving these targets, with which it will be closely coordinated.
The 25-year environment plan recognises the need for "a ‘twin track’ approach of both reducing demand and increasing supply", through cutting both leakage and usage, while delivering new water resources infrastructure, including transfers and reservoirs through a national policy statement for water resources infrastructure (NPS) to be finalised later in 2019.
River Basin Management Plans, created by EA and required by the EU Water Framework Directive, set out how stakeholders plan to use resources sustainably and improve them in each river basin. These plans, updated every six years, are now the principal vehicle for delivering improvements in the 25-year plan. The next in 2021 "will align with and build on the government’s 25-Year Environment Plan", with an ambition "to return least three quarters of our waters to close to their natural state as soon as possible".
Water companies in England and Wales too have responsibilities to update Water Resources Management Plans identifying secure supplies over 25 years every five years under the Water Industry Act 1991, amended in 2003. The plans have since evolved to take account of climate change, the environment and population growth, explaining how options were chosen.
Overall, the report points to substantial progress on water leakage reduction since 1994, falling by a third, but progress has slowed more recently, and leakage rates remain at around 22%. This has led DEFRA, through its 25-year plan and strategic plan, and water regulator Ofwat to set expectations that companies reduce leakage by 15% by 2025, with the water industry committed to slashing leakage by 50% by 2050 at the latest. Together, these measures would cut overall leakage to 10% of supply, the report says.
On surface water bodies, the report reveals that about 84% of these support the required flow standards, compared to 82% reported in the 2017 abstraction plan 2017. This is expected to show as ecological improvement in the water body classification due in 2022, as ecosystem recovery takes time. About 9% of water bodies have been confirmed as still suffering unsustainable abstraction, it says.
On groundwater bodies, it reports 72% of abstractions to be sustainable, programmed to reach 77% by 2021, but anticipates 15% of abstractions remaining unsustainable.
Introducing the report, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Environment Thérèse Coffey stressed that: "Through modernising the service and adopting a stronger catchment focus, we are able to support abstractors to access the water they need to operate efficiently, whilst addressing unsustainable abstraction and encouraging innovation."