We see ourselves as guardians of the environment and a key part of that is maintaining and enhancing the natural world around us.
Every day we strike that delicate balance of only taking the water we need while also leaving plenty so the environment can continue to thrive.
The Abstraction Incentive Mechanism (AIM) encourages water companies to reduce the environmental impact abstraction has in environmentally sensitive areas during periods of low surface water flow.
There are three points where we abstract water from rivers which are in environmentally sensitive areas – Kingston and Charing in Kent as well as and Itchel in Hampshire. We are committed to reducing the amount of water we take from these rivers so we do not over abstract.
These sites each have over abstraction trigger points, and we have committed to not reach these trigger points throughout the 2020 to 2025 period.
A negative AIM score is what we are trying to achieve, signifying average abstraction is less than the baseline.
How have we performed?
Overall, for the 2022/23 reporting period, we have achieved a negative (good) AIM score.
This is a result of effective management across the year of our sources (Kingston, Charing and Itchel) during low flow or low groundwater level conditions. Kingston was the only site where, due to demands put on the source during AIM periods, the source ended with an AIM performance above zero.
Across the whole company the AIM performance was good with a final score of -79.
Regular monitoring of each AIM site will continue to attempt to improve our performance further.
