Latest news with #AlanLovell
UPI
18-07-2025
- Business
- UPI
Water pollution issues on the rise in England
Employees from Thames Water work to shut off a broken water main in London in July 2012. The U.K. Environment Agency announced Friday that the company was responsible for several incidents of pollution in 2024. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo July 18 (UPI) -- The British government announced Friday that water company pollution issues in England have seriously jumped, to 2,801 incidents in 2024 from 2,174 in 2023. In a press release, the U.K. Environment Agency, or EA, said that it conducted more than 4,000 inspections of water company assets and found that 24% of sites examined last year were deemed noncompliant. Any water company found to be noncompliant will face enforcement actions, the agency said. According to the EA, three water companies were responsible for 81% of occurrences in 2024, and that all nine water and sewage companies in England combined for what it deemed to be overall deficient performance. The EA declared that of the 81% pollution offenses in 2024, the most are linked to Thames Water, which was found responsible for 33 of them. Southern Water caused 15 and Yorkshire Water, 13. EA Chairman Alan Lovell announced in the press release that "We have made significant changes to tighten our regulation of the water industry and ensure companies are held to account." "With a dedicated larger workforce and increased funding, our officers are uncovering and acting on failures to comply with environmental law," he added. The Water [Special Measures] Act, which was signed into law in February, gives the EA more power to act against any water companies found responsible for pollution. One measure currently under consideration would be to fine such companies to repay any money spent on enforcement.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Population explosion could lead to water shortages by 2055
A rapidly growing population could lead to water shortages by the middle of this century, officials have warned. England will have a daily shortage of five billion tonnes of water for homes and businesses by 2055, the report by the Environment Agency (EA) found. An extra one billion tonnes a day will also be needed to meet environmental, energy and food-production demand. Without efforts to fix the water deficit there will be a likelihood of environmental damage, restricted economic growth, interruptions to supplies and a lack of resilience in areas such as energy and food production, the EA said. A growing population and more homes being built was one of the factors leading to the forecast deficit, officials said, as well as climate change and environmental pressures. 'More homes and people will mean more water using appliances, more water needed to generate energy and produce food, more water to cool data centres, and a greater demand for water-using services such as leisure activities,' the report warned. Alan Lovell, the EA chairman, said: 'The nation's water resources are under huge and steadily increasing pressure. 'This deficit threatens not only the water from your tap but also economic growth and food production. 'Taking water unsustainably from the environment will have a disastrous impact on our rivers and wildlife. 'We need to tackle these challenges head on and strengthen work on co-ordinated action to preserve this precious resource and our current way of life.' The heavily populated south east of England faces the biggest shortfall, with an estimated extra two billion litres of water a day needed by 2055, the report predicted. Almost half a billion litres a day extra is needed just to cope with the population boom in this region alone, which includes London. The figure of 71 million people living in England by 2055 comes from the modelling done by the water companies across the country, which are based on official estimates. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates include an annual net migration of 340,000 people a year onwards. Analysis performed by Thames Water found up to one in 13 Thames Water customers would be illegal migrants. A report, produced for Thames Water, by Edge Analytics, demography and data experts at Leeds University, aimed to quantify the 'hidden' and 'transient' users of their services to enable them to better meet demand. For London, served by Thames Water, it produced a range of 390,355 illegal migrants at its lowest to 585,533 at its highest, with a median figure of 487,944. With an estimated population of 7,044,667, excluding irregular migrants, the highest figure would mean up to one in 13 of the city's population would be an illegal migrant. The report stated that for the next 15 years, 80 per cent of the projected water shortfall needed to be met by water companies managing demand from households and businesses, and halving the amount of water lost to leaks. The rest would come from boosting supplies, such as building new reservoirs, desalination plants which turn seawater into drinking water, and schemes that can transfer water from wetter parts of the country to drier areas. The warning comes in the EA 's national framework for water resources, published every five years and setting out the actions needed by utilities, regulators and businesses and the public to manage under-pressure resources. It also comes in the wake of England's hottest spring on record, and the country's driest for more than 100 years, with the north west and Yorkshire in drought, some reservoirs at extremely low levels, farmers struggling to grow crops, and households facing the prospect of hosepipe bans. The EA wants to see a rollout of smart meters, including upgrading existing standard meters, which the agency said would help households reduce their water use while also enabling companies to target efforts to curb demand as well as better identifying leaks. The EA also said there were small steps the public can take, such as shortening showers, turning off taps when brushing teeth, using full loads for dishwashers and washing machines. Emerging industries such as data centres and hydrogen production, which use large amounts of water for cooling systems, need to look at more options for using recycled water rather than public water supplies to meet their needs, the EA said. The report estimates that the water needs for carbon capture and storage technology, used to store greenhouse gas emissions from power stations or industry deep underground, and hydrogen production alone will amount to 767 million litres a day by 2050. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The Independent
17-06-2025
- The Independent
The unconventional way we can help save water and avoid shortages
The Environment Agency (EA) is urging the public to help manage pressure on data centres, which require large amounts of water for cooling, to avoid a potential water shortage in England in 30 years. The EA warns that England could face a shortfall of nearly five billion litres of water a day due to population increase, climate change, and the growth of UK data centres driven by AI. Large data centres are estimated to use around 360,000 litres of water a day, contributing to increased energy consumption. The EA suggests five steps the public can take to help stop a water shortage, including deleting old emails, shortening showers, and using full loads for dishwashers and washing machines. EA chairman Alan Lovell stresses the need for coordinated action to preserve water resources, highlighting the threat to economic growth, food production, and the environment.
Telegraph
17-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Population explosion could lead to water shortages by 2055
A rapidly growing population could lead to water shortages by the middle of this century, officials have warned. England will have a daily shortage of five billion tonnes of water for homes and businesses by 2055, the report by the Environment Agency (EA) found. An extra one billion tonnes a day will also be needed to meet environmental, energy and food-production demand. Without efforts to fix the water deficit there will be a likelihood of environmental damage, restricted economic growth, interruptions to supplies and a lack of resilience in areas such as energy and food production, the EA said. A growing population and more homes being built was one of the factors leading to the forecast deficit, officials said, as well as climate change and environmental pressures. 'More homes and people will mean more water using appliances, more water needed to generate energy and produce food, more water to cool data centres, and a greater demand for water-using services such as leisure activities,' the report warned. Alan Lovell, the EA chairman, said: 'The nation's water resources are under huge and steadily increasing pressure. 'This deficit threatens not only the water from your tap but also economic growth and food production. 'Taking water unsustainably from the environment will have a disastrous impact on our rivers and wildlife. 'We need to tackle these challenges head on and strengthen work on co-ordinated action to preserve this precious resource and our current way of life.' One in 13 would be an illegal immigrant The heavily populated south east of England faces the biggest shortfall, with an estimated extra two billion litres of water a day needed by 2055, the report predicted. Almost half a billion litres a day extra is needed just to cope with the population boom in this region alone, which includes London. The figure of 71 million people living in England by 2055 comes from the modelling done by the water companies across the country, which are based on official estimates. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates include an annual net migration of 340,000 people a year onwards. Analysis performed by Thames Water found up to one in 13 Thames Water customers would be illegal migrants. A report, produced for Thames Water, by Edge Analytics, demography and data experts at Leeds University, aimed to quantify the 'hidden' and 'transient' users of their services to enable them to better meet demand. For London, served by Thames Water, it produced a range of 390,355 illegal migrants at its lowest to 585,533 at its highest, with a median figure of 487,944. With an estimated population of 7,044,667, excluding irregular migrants, the highest figure would mean up to one in 13 of the city's population would be an illegal migrant. The report stated that for the next 15 years, 80 per cent of the projected water shortfall needed to be met by water companies managing demand from households and businesses, and halving the amount of water lost to leaks. The rest would come from boosting supplies, such as building new reservoirs, desalination plants which turn seawater into drinking water, and schemes that can transfer water from wetter parts of the country to drier areas. The warning comes in the EA 's national framework for water resources, published every five years and setting out the actions needed by utilities, regulators and businesses and the public to manage under-pressure resources. It also comes in the wake of England's hottest spring on record, and the country's driest for more than 100 years, with the north west and Yorkshire in drought, some reservoirs at extremely low levels, farmers struggling to grow crops, and households facing the prospect of hosepipe bans. The EA wants to see a rollout of smart meters, including upgrading existing standard meters, which the agency said would help households reduce their water use while also enabling companies to target efforts to curb demand as well as better identifying leaks. The EA also said there were small steps the public can take, such as shortening showers, turning off taps when brushing teeth, using full loads for dishwashers and washing machines. Emerging industries such as data centres and hydrogen production, which use large amounts of water for cooling systems, need to look at more options for using recycled water rather than public water supplies to meet their needs, the EA said. The report estimates that the water needs for carbon capture and storage technology, used to store greenhouse gas emissions from power stations or industry deep underground, and hydrogen production alone will amount to 767 million litres a day by 2050.
BBC News
17-06-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
England needs more hosepipe bans and smart water meters
England faces huge future water shortages and needs a "continued and sustained effort" to reduce demand, including more hosepipe bans and 'smart' water meters, warns the Environment watchdog says that without dramatic action, England, which uses 14 billion litres of water a day, will have a daily shortage of more than six billion litres by says more homes will need meters reporting how much water is used in real time and in future prices may need to rise when supplies are tight. The warning came with droughts already declared in Yorkshire and the north-west of England this year following what the Met Office says is the warmest and driest Spring in more than half a century. The EA made the warning in its five yearly National Framework for Water Resources report. It said 5 billion litres would be needed to supply the public and a further 1 billion for agriculture and energy EA said customers in England need to cut their water use by 2.5 billion litres a day by 2055 – down from an average of around 140 litres per person per day to 110 litres per warns future economic growth will be likely be compromised as water becomes scarcer and has already highlighted how water shortages in parts of Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk have limited housing and business Lovell, the chair of the EA, told the BBC he would like to see water companies making more use of restrictions like hosepipe bans when there are droughts to "bring home to people that the amount of water they use is making a difference." Growing pressure on supply The EA highlights England's growing population as a key driver of the deficit. Water companies expect it to increase by 8 million people by the same time, climate change is altering weather patterns, creating new challenges for water EA says England – like the rest of the UK – is already experiencing warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers. It expects that trend to become more pronounced and warns of more intense rainfall events creating the potential for a greater incidence of both drought and key factor is the need to reduce how much water is taken – or "abstracted" – by water companies and other users from England's rivers, the report risks wrecking some rivers, particularly the fragile ecosystems of the country's chalk streams, said Mr Lovell. "It ultimately could see the demise of those rivers to an extent that they will never come back in the same form," he told the BBC. Adding to the pressures on supply is the fact that water companies plan to dramatically increase their drought resilience. By 2040 they aim to cope with the kind of drought you would expect once in every 500 Hannah Cloke, a hydrologist at Reading University, believes we need to change our attitude towards water. "We really don't value water," she says. "We need to think about it as a really, really precious resource."Everybody should be looking after water and conserving it and thinking about what they do when they turn on the tap and when they choose not to." A joint effort Everyone involved in the water industry, including domestic customers, will need to play a role in meeting the deficit, the EA says it is "vital" that water companies deliver on their promise to cut the amount of water that leaks from their pipes by half by 2050 compared to 2017-18 levels. That should save around 900m litres a infrastructure will play a role too. Last year water companies were given the go-ahead by Ofwat, the body that oversees the water industry, to invest billions of pounds in ten new reservoirs and two desalination plants as well as pipelines and other equipment to enable more water to be transferred between aim is to create a "water grid" in the southern half of England, said Bob Taylor, the CEO of Portsmouth Water. "We're also looking at using existing rivers, canals and other means to transfer water from areas where it is plentiful in the UK to the south east and east of the country where it is less plentiful," Taylor explained. These new investments should ultimately deliver an additional 1.7 billion litres a day, the EA report calculates. But the first reservoir won't be completed until the end of this decade and the programme isn't due to be finished until the early 2040s.A further 2.5 billion litres a day will have to found by reducing customer demand, including from domestic customers, the EA says. And, because of the delays delivering the new infrastructure, initially up to 80% of the deficit will need to be met by customers using less well as water companies switching customers to the kind of smart meters and variable pricing already seen in the electricity industry, the EA is calling for the government to tighten building regulations on water use of new homes and consider minimum standards for water efficiency of EA report highlights the rapid growth in the number of data centres in England as an area of growing industrial demand for Squire, head of sustainability at Ark Data Centres, says water companies need to be much clearer with industrial customers about how much water they have available and how resilient the supply is."We need to know what the constraints are so we can design the system," said Squire. "We need energy, we need fibre optic connections, but we can build data centres that don't use water. They just cost more to run." Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.
