WWT ROUND TABLE 2009
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specialists, look through every decision that
the company takes on sustainability
grounds. I was interested to know whether
you have a parallel mechanism within
Ofwat for doing that.
Rob Ashley We have an individual team
who do the sustainable climate change
work and they would review policies
generally but all our stuff should follow the
broader sustainability duty. Our job is to
motivate companies to do that broader class
of sustainability and all of it falls into that
regulatory framework. Do we do more than
that? No, not at this point.
Bob Baty One of the issues that confuses
customers a great deal, and which has been
alluded to in some respects, is that, when
you talk to them about water sustainability,
the conversation goes onto the clean water WWTpublisher Angela Himus, and editor Natasha Wiseman
side and that’s it. Many of the costs and the
effort, however, are actually required on the the water actually going in to the property governments. What they have done in
wastewater side, but there is no distinction. and the optional use of it: one is public energy is that, by putting the energy
There are water-only companies but, health and one is for general use, isn’t it? efficiency commitment with companies,
generally speaking, people see that the bill they have actually said that the market
they pay is purely for the water coming Martin Hurst The approach that tends to needs to determine how best and most
through the tap – and yet two-thirds of it, be taken is that you start to design new cost-effectively water can be saved. I think
in many areas, is for handling that properties with a view towards greywater that is the idea behind the Ofwat reg
wastewater side. re-use, which makes sense. The prospect of incentives. Rather than us saying what route
I was interested in Martin’s point about retrofitting a fairly aged housing stock for a they must go down, it is better to say to
the single pipe in and the single pipe out. different fundamental water system is one water companies, perhaps: “You need to
Over the years, there have been proposals that, every time you do a cost-benefit save this much water. Now you go and
about whether we should have a dual analysis on it, it fails dramatically, so it is find out the most cost-effective way of
supply system. Taking that to the extreme, marginal. There are some areas where you doing it – you, with the markets.” Actually,
should you be delivering the drinking water may be able to retrofit – say, for example, if that may take you in some very different
as a milk service, with the quality of the you are redeveloping little bits of a directions. It may take you down the route
water through the pipework being sufficient property, then we might use building regs of the retrofitting of aerated power showers,
for general domestic use rather than health to make people do that in a more sensible or it might lead you to do some quite
purposes? This has been debated many fashion. radical things.
times and I do not think any government We are also moving building regs to
would ever have the courage in our sort of make newbuilds more water efficient, so it is Stephen Bird You can do that tactically, and
society to take that apparent backward step already code level three for sustainable you can do that all the time. Given the
but, in terms of sustainability, that would be homes for social housing, and the points you made earlier about pricing, isn’t
a sensible, practical way forward. government says it will move towards code first base for changing the whole premise
level of five or six which will start to require full meter penetration and then varying price
Martin Hurst There is a distinction that we serious thinking about greywater re-use by signals that address social needs as well as
draw between new homes and existing some time in the next decade. We have to environmental needs? Then at least you are
homes: retrofitting. balance this against cost and the other starting to have a dynamic conversation with
things that you want out of new housing, your customers, as electricity and gas
Bob Baty I am talking about the quality of given that developer margins are not companies are. They can reflect the vagaries
colossal at the moment, to put it mildly. I of supply and demand markets by varying
“I do not think the
think it will come, although it will have to their prices and, while people may resent
come incrementally because I really cannot the price variation, they can at least
country would object to
see a big retrofitting programme at the recognise that it comes as a result of
moment. whatever is going on in the oil or gas sector,
increased bills for people
One of the lessons from energy is that or in Russia or elsewhere.
the government might be quite good at Until you have 100 per cent meter
who are using large
picking problems but it is not very good at penetration, and until you can condition the
picking winners in terms of looking at customers by price signals – we have the
amounts of water” solutions. That is a standard lesson for all advantage of 65% meter penetration and
June 2009 Round Table 13
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