Using water wisely is good for the environment and your pocket. Reducing the amount of water used in the home means we don’t have to take as much from water the environment. For our customers on water meters, saving water saves them money on their water bill. To reflect this important activity our economic regulator Ofwat has this year introduced mandatory water efficiency saving target of 2.95 million litres per day for our company. In order to achieve this we have expanded our water efficiency programme. Find out more about using water wisely.
The current programme focuses on initiatives aimed at all domestic and commercial customers, to encourage reduced water usage.
During 2009/10 we have increased the volume of water saved through domestic water efficiency measures (not including leakage) by nearly 90% – up from 0.54 million litres per day in 2008/09 to 1.02 million litres per day in 2009/10.
Water saving products
We offer all our customers free and reduced cost water saving products, a free domestic water meter option and guides to using water wisely. We also run promotional events and are piloting an education programme across schools in the North West. Leaks on customers’ supply pipes are the responsibility of the customer. In order to help our household customers, we offer one assisted supply pipe repair per year, to reduce potential water leakage. We also offer a subsidised lead pipe replacement service. By replacing these older pipes, we remove the potential for future wastage.
During 2009/10 we distributed 50,470 water efficiency self audit packs and saw an increase in the numbers of free cistern devices (70,332) given out. We provide information to encourage customers to use water wisely via annual billing leaflets, local press releases, educational and public relations services. [suggest delete this] We continued to hold water efficiency events with our key customers, providing water butts and Save-a-Flush cistern devices to their staff. Events have taken place at organisations such as: Heinz, Stockport Town Council and Blackpool Victoria NHS Hospital.
Water meters offer a significant contribution to water efficiency as they offer customers the information and financial incentive to reduce their demand for water. Most households on a meter use less water than un-metered properties. We offer a free water meter installation service and in 2009/10 we installed 51,454 free metres through this route. Over 26% of households are now on water meters.
Partnerships
We have continued to maintain partnerships with external bodies to promote water conservation and to deliver water efficiency information. Examples of these partnerships include:
- Groundwork Trust, who target small to medium sized business customers
- Action for Sustainable Living
- Wirral 21 Network
- local councils
- housing authorities
- the Environment Agency
We have also continued to distribute our ‘Hotel Wise’ cards to hotels and guesthouses around the region. The ‘Hotel Wise’ cards are aimed at encouraging hotel guests to think about their water usage while on holiday and once they return home. Hotels around the region are able to request as many cards as they require. We have also developed a website that promotes water efficient items for the home and we are currently monitoring its effectiveness.
START is a national initiative lead by The Prince of Wales to promote and celebrate sustainable living. Its goal is to help people across the UK take clear, positive and practical steps towards a better future. We are one of six water companies who have joined together under this initiative to promote using water wisely. Our contribution to this initiative is the Water Efficiency Pledge where we ask our customers to pledge to use water wisely through selecting a number of behaviour changes that will help them start to make a difference.
During 2009/10 we undertook several research projects to help inform our strategy to meet our water efficiency targets from 2010/11 and to contribute to the water efficiency evidence base. The results from this research have helped shape our strategy. We continue to investigate innovative research on new water efficient products and services.