The water industry has identified a myriad of barriers to nature-based solutions. Utility Week looks at what water companies can do to remove them before PR29.
Although water companies appear keen to utilise nature-based solutions over traditional grey infrastructure, the level of implementation to date has been lacklustre.
Nature-based solutions include catchment management, where water companies work with landowners and farmers to reduce the levels of agricultural chemicals and nutrient run-off from entering the water system, and treatment solutions, such as integrated constructed wetlands and reed beds. Such solutions are acknowledged to result in broader benefits than traditional grey infrastructure can provide.
Although catchment management is widely utilised and both government and Ofwat have been vocal in their support of nature-based solutions, treatment options particularly are not being implemented.
To help drive momentum United Utilities, in partnership with more than 20 other bodies, launched an innovation project worth £8.9 million in 2023 to identify the barriers to nature-based solutions. Unusually, Ofwat is directly involved in the project, signalling to the industry that it intends to ensure the industry transitions away from traditional grey infrastructure, and it has its eyes set on PR29. Amina Aboobakar, director of strategic development and stewardship at the Rivers Trust and United Utilities, says the regulator has brought forward the deadline for the project’s outcomes to 2026 to allow it to directly feed into the next price control framework.
Nature first strategy and implementation manager at Yorkshire Water, Sarah Mason, says water companies can’t keep operating separately and the lines between organisations need to become “blurred”, as this is where the real opportunities lie for utilising solutions that deliver more for customers.
“We need to be working within the catchment, at systems level, and that’s going to get messy. There’s going to be lots of people and we are going to have to lose control a little bit – we won’t be able to control everything,” says Mason.
United Utilities’ strategic catchment lead, Sarah Jenner says that in particularly urban settings a body within a specific geography is needed to bring different parties together. The devolution deal for Greater Manchester, which sets out a role for the combined authority as a test bed for integrated water management planning, is acting as a pilot.
Jenner says the ability to co-invest with other parties is often critical to making the business case for a project, pointing to key partners ranging from the Rivers Trust, Environment Agency to insurers.
She adds that the risk of receiving financial penalties for not delivering projects on time also means the ambition around blue-green infrastructure is being impeded, because water companies have to lock in the design of any blue-green infrastructure early in order to design any grey infrastructure which might also be needed.
Read the full article here: https://utilityweek.co.uk/digital-weekly/digital-weekly-network-reform-nature-based-solutions-uw-forum/
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