The UK has a sewage problem and the public knows it.
But it also has another problem that today’s water bill price hikes are also designed to pay for.
Water shortages.
“We’ve known for well over a decade that the southeast was going to be faced with significant water scarcity as a result of climate change and increased demand,” said Adam Bell, director of policy at Stonehaven.
“And we have singularly failed to build new infrastructure to manage that.”
Just as climate change disrupts rainfall and dries up parts of England, the population, and demand, is also growing, especially in the drier southeast.
Meanwhile, water companies suck up water from underground, which dries up some of England’s rare chalk streams that are home to otters, kingfishers and salmon.
In no uncertain terms, the Environment Agency (EA) said in March our “current water provision is not enough to see us into the future”.
By 2050, the shortfall will be five billion litres a day, it says – that’s over two million wheelie bins full of water every day, on top of the water we already use.
Yet the country hasn’t built a single new reservoir since 1992.
Who is to blame?
Well, that depends on who you ask.
Campaigners argue the water industry has underinvested.
The water industry says it had wanted to spend more to shore up water resources, and that both the EA and the government blocked a previous plan for a new reservoir in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
This government blames the previous, an argument that holds some water for now, but won’t forever.
It’s true the water industry was for years asked to keep bills low, foregoing some cash that could have invested in infrastructure (but we can have a separate argument about company profits and shareholder dividends).
Although this is the last thing people need to hear amid a cost of living crisis, a bill increase is overdue.
Read more: Thames Water closer to end game – analysis
The government’s infrastructure advisers, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), have long warned bills must rise to avoid water shortages and queues for emergency supplies in the future.
That’s why the £88bn water company plans approved today by Ofwat include around £6bn for water security.
A drop compared with the £21bn (at least) the NIC says is needed. But Ofwat ruled there is only so much more bill-payers can take.
What will the money pay for?
The cash will help pay for nine new reservoirs, plus one already under way near Portsmouth, and seven large-scale water transfer schemes to channel water from wet parts of the country to drier.
It will also pay for smart meters and to tackle leaks – progress on which has “largely stalled” in the last decade, NIC says.
And it’s worth remembering this is still a wet clutch of islands, and that we have some of the best water quality in the world.
A public information campaign could help reduce consumption – which NIC says must fall from 141 litres per person
per day to 118.
But first the water industry needs to “win back the support of the public”, said Jo Parker, vice president of engineering at the Institute of Water and chair of the Water and Sanitation Community Advisory Board of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
“It is important that all parties – the water industry, professional bodies, government, regulators, NGOs and media work to restore faith in our water industry”.