As heatwaves continue across the UK, policymakers have a rare opportunity to accelerate ambitious water and drought resilience measures while public attention is focused on the drought. Our expert, Shai Kassirer, explains why now is the moment to push forward transformative water policy reform.
The UK has endured sustained periods of exceptionally hot weather since June, and currently around 20 million people across Southern England and parts of Wales are facing hosepipe bans. While many people have understandably focused on the immediate discomfort of rising temperatures and temporary restrictions, the longer-term consequences for reservoirs, rivers, groundwater supplies, and wildlife will be felt long after summer has ended.
By the autumn, temperatures will cool, rainfall will return, bans will be lifted, and public attention will move elsewhere once our lawns have regrown. But the underlying pressures on our water systems will remain. The current period of hot weather provides a unique and vital window for action, when public concern, media, and political attentions align. There is an opportunity, a ‘critical discourse moment’, to commit and propose more ambitious policy interventions than would normally be impossible.
My PhD research examined how governments can capitalise on these moments. The lesson was clear: when a crisis places an issue firmly in the public attention, decision-makers have a unique opportunity to pursue changes that might otherwise be considered politically difficult. Droughts are critical discourse moments where new ideas are more accessible and there is desire from all stakeholders to make changes that will fix the problem and prevent its reoccurrence.
For water policymakers, that moment is now.
What does ambition look like?
Effective drought resilience requires the six “rs” of integrated water management: reducing water use, reusing water wherever possible, recycling wastewater (for reuse), water retention for recharging natural water systems and reservoirs, and ultimately respecting water as a finite resource.
Many of the solutions already exist. The challenge is not a lack of evidence or technology but a willingness to move beyond incremental change.
Reducing demands for the long term
One of the simplest places to start is reducing demand. Water efficiency is often overlooked compared with energy efficiency, yet the potential savings are substantial.
The average person in England currently uses around 136 litres of water per day. Yet international experience demonstrates that demand can be reduced dramatically and not just for a short term.
During the Millennium Drought (1997-2009), Melbourne reduced per-capita water consumption by almost 40%, demonstrating how sustained public engagement, water-saving programmes, and restrictions can deliver substantial long-term reductions in demand, which remain after the drought has ended.
Low-flow taps and showerheads can significantly cut household water consumption at a very low cost. During previous droughts, Israel introduced programmes to encourage the installation of water-saving devices, achieving considerable long-term reductions in domestic water use.
The UK could adopt a similar approach, either through updated building regulations or by requiring water companies to fund the installation of water-efficient fixtures. Dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals are proven technologies that remain underutilised in the UK. Policymakers could also establish minimum water efficiency standards for appliances entering the UK market, building on existing water labelling regulations in much the same way that energy efficiency requirements have evolved over time. Wider adoption of these technologies could reduce demand without compromising service quality.
Public engagement is equally important. Most households interact with their water infrastructure only when something needs repairing. Plumbers therefore occupy a unique position as trusted advisors. Introducing water efficiency training as part of professional standards could help create a network of informed practitioners who are able to recommend technologies and behaviours that reduce water consumption.
Reducing water demand also depends on access to timely consumption data. Many countries have adopted universal water metering because it helps households understand how much water they use and where waste occurs. Barcelona’s last drought demonstrates the value of smart metering. Extensive smart meter deployment enabled water managers to monitor household consumption almost in real time, identify leaks and excessive use and directly contact households that exceeded consumption thresholds. Metering makes leaks easier to identify and creates stronger incentives for repairs to be carried out at-home and, as importantly, to the supply system.
Alongside metering, policymakers could explore tiered pricing structures similar to those used overseas. International experience suggests that pricing structures can support conservation when carefully designed. Under such systems, essential levels of water consumption remain affordable, while higher levels, of discretionary use, attract increasing charges (e.g. filling swimming pools). This creates an incentive to conserve water while ensuring access to a basic necessity remains protected.
The UK needs more sponge cities – retention for recharge
As climate change intensifies, the UK faces the dual challenge of managing both drought and flooding. Addressing one without considering the other risks creating unintended consequences. The concept of the sponge city becomes particularly valuable to support water retention and recharging. Sponge cities are designed to absorb, store and gradually release rainwater through a combination of natural and engineered features, including wetlands, rain gardens, permeable surfaces and other green infrastructure. Rather than allowing water to flow rapidly into drains and eventually the sea, these systems retain it within the landscape, making it available for later use.
The benefits extend well beyond drought resilience. Sponge city approaches can reduce flooding, enhance biodiversity, recharge groundwater supplies and help cool urban areas during heatwaves.
Given the scale of these benefits, policymakers should consider embedding water-sensitive urban design requirements within planning regulations. Measures that discourage excessive paving and encourage permeable, biodiverse landscaping could form part of a broader strategy to future-proof towns and cities against a changing climate. United Utilities with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the Mersey Rivers Trust lately presented a £30m package of measures to make Liverpool a “spongier” city.
Reusing and recycling – small infrastructure changes for long lasting change
From a technical standpoint, water reuse is not inherently challenging. Improvements to existing wastewater treatment facilities would further open up opportunities for large scale recycling, for industrial and agricultural use and for irrigation of parks and public green spaces. The technologies are well proven and can be configured to produce water that meets a wide range of quality requirements. Cyprus reuses between 85% and 90% of its total treated urban wastewater, giving it the highest national wastewater recycling rate in the European Union. Over 90% of wastewater in some areas of Spain is reutilised in the agricultural sector, and there is a national target of 20% by 2027.
The option of reusing water that has already entered into the system should also be explored. Greywater recovery systems, at the household, building, or campus level, can quickly become the standard through changes to building regulations and incentives (similar to those for solar panels, heat pumps, and home insulation).
The evidence already exists
The encouraging reality is that the UK is not short of evidence.
Eunomia’s research for the Environment Agency explored how water should be managed in the UK through to 2100 and how the extreme drought response can be improved, while our work for FORENV has highlighted the adaptations needed to secure future water supplies in a changing climate.
Many of the solutions are already known. What remains uncertain is whether policymakers will use this moment to implement them.
The current heatwaves have brought water resilience into the public consciousness. That attention will not last forever. If the UK is serious about preparing for a hotter, drier future, now is the time to move from discussion to action.
The most important lesson from international drought experience is that resilience comes from accepting that drought is no longer an exceptional event. Australia now speaks of “living with dryness” rather than simply managing drought. The Netherlands prepares for periods of water scarcity as part of normal water management. If climate change means hotter and drier summers become more common in the UK, then our goal should not simply be surviving the next drought. It should be building a water system designed to thrive despite it.
The evidence exists. The solutions exist. The opportunity exists. The question is whether we seize it.
Eunomia is well placed to provide support on integrated water management as well as assessment of socio-economic impacts and available as a supplier, along with a network of specialists, on the ES RDE framework. For wider policy work for the Defra Family, Eunomia is a lead supplier on numerous sublots of Defra’s Environmental Science Research, Development and Evidence (ESRDE) Framework, including sublot 5.1 (Flood & Water: Evidence reviews for water quality, water resources, flood & coastal erosion risk management & drinking water quality), where we are supported by our strong network of partners, such as Haskoning, Middlesex University London, Imperial Consultants, University of the West of England (UWE), University of Sheffield, Sayers and Partners, Enebio, Environmental Policy Consulting, Ric Eales Consulting Ltd, David Baxter Environmental Ltd, Paula Orr, Environmently (Dr Fatima Ajia) and Prof Nigel Watson.