Soapboxing

Caroline Brown finds a fresh way to turn off the tap.

“Parts of England get less rain than Istanbul, but we’re using more and more water every year... The real trick in cutting consumption is to create a market in water savings.”

The way we consume water, anyone would think it fell out of the sky. Since parts of this country receive even less rain in a year than Istanbul, it’s small wonder that hosepipe bans are a regular feature of the English summer. Yet this isn’t just about rainfall - it’s about consumption, too. Each year we get through more and more water, and as 78% of households don’t have a water meter, there’s little reason to turn off the tap. Don’t believe there’s a problem?

Then consider the south-east of England. People there consume more water than almost anyone else in the UK, although it’s one of the driest regions in the country. Not only that, but the government’s planning to build hundreds of thousands of new homes in the region. Soon there won’t be enough water to meet demand.

“Since water savings would be worth something in both existing and new housing, average water consumption would fall dramatically.”

What to do? Start with the basics. First, raise awareness of water consumption. Do you know how many litres of water your washing machine uses per cycle? Few of us do.

We need a rating system to tell us. Something similar to the energy ratings on fridges would be fine, but it must cover everything from taps to dishwashers. This would not only help consumers, but would also make efficiency an issue for product manufacturers. Second, increase the proportion of homes fitted with water meters.

Water companies are supposed to promote them, but both effort and take-up is patchy. It should stop being optional and start being compulsory. Next, we should update building regulations, which at the moment don’t even mention water efficiency. Including it would, at a stroke, raise the issue of consumption in both new construction and refurbishment.

But we’ll need to do more than this if we want to push water efficiency as far and as fast as possible. We’ll need to offer incentives to developers to go beyond the standards laid down. In Santa Barbara County, California, developers whose properties are designed to exceed water efficiency standards by at least 15% can jump the queue for planning approvals.

Why not do it here? But the real trick in driving large-scale water efficiency is to create a market in water savings. Essentially, this means that planning permission for any new development is conditional on the achievement of local water savings equivalent to the estimated amount that will be consumed in the new buildings.

No water savings, no permission. Given the current situation, south-east England would be a perfect testing ground for such a scheme. Sounds a bit radical? When Morro Bay, California, ran short of water in the late 1980s, the local authority simply required anyone wanting a building permit to save twice as much water as the new building would use.

Water savings had to be achieved locally, with the result that one third of houses in Morro Bay were retrofitted with efficient plumbing fixtures within two years. A UK scheme might operate in the same way and, like carbon trading, offer developers the opportunity to ‘buy’ water savings from other organisations. The payment could be in cash or in kind. For example, a developer might retrofit water-efficient showers into housing association homes, or they might negotiate a cash deal.

Since water savings would be worth something in both existing and new housing, average water consumption would fall dramatically. Architects would also be forced to think hard about their designs. The reason is simple: the smaller the amount of water consumed in the new building, the smaller the savings needed to get planning permission.

Doing all this would help protect the environment and save lots of cash. Instead of building expensive new reservoirs and treatment works to meet growing demand, we could upgrade existing infrastructure and implement further water-saving initiatives. Not only that, but we’d reduce our vulnerability to climate change too. Sounds like win-win-win to me.

Caroline Brown is senior research fellow in the School of the Built Environment at Edinburgh’s Napier University.

21 July 2005

Caroline Brown