We are committed to ensuring there is enough water for both our customers, as well as the environment.
We are one of many businesses that take water from the environment, but because of our unique position and expertise, we work with local farmers and landowners who also abstract water, to plan how they can be more water efficient benefitting both themselves and the environment.
Two catchments, River Cuckmere and River Stour, have been identified as a focus, and our target is to successfully engage with local abstractors through uptake of one or more of the following:
- Water efficiency audit and advice package
- Training package (related to water efficiency, water application, sustainable water use)
- Calibration tests (related to irrigation, pumps etc)
- Involvement in crop trials/other trials to improve knowledge in water demand management/water efficiency/water harvesting and storage;
- Provision of payments to use alternatives to reduce water demand or to fix water leakage; and
- Provision of payments for Ecosystem Services to improve farm infrastructure (to provide resilience by storing water on the farm, investment in grey water/reuse systems, measure actual abstraction and impact on flows, farm improvement to slow water flow and improve recharge).
How have we performed?
The final year of the current performance commitment culminated in the successful engagement of 100 per cent of abstraction license holders within the River Cuckmere pilot catchment.
Furthermore, a substantial 28 per cent of license holders in the Little Stour catchment were also engaged. When combined, these figures represent a total engagement of 38 per cent across both pilot catchments, significantly surpassing the Ofwat target of 20 per cent.
You can find out more about our environmental work here.
