Policymakers publish drainage plans principles
Policymakers and regulators have set out a checklist of their expectations for the new Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs) water companies are currently working on.
Defra, the Welsh government, the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and Ofwat identified the following six key principles in guidance released last week:
Be comprehensive, evidence based and transparent in assessing current capacity and actions needed in five, ten and minimum 25-year periods, considering risks and issues such as climate change. Plans should also align, as far as possible, with other strategic and policy planning tools.
Strive to deliver resilient systems that will meet operational and other pressures and minimise system failures.
Consider the impact of drainage systems on immediate and wider environmental outcomes including habitats, and in developing options for mitigation include consideration of environmental net gain and enhancement.
Be collaborative across sectors, setting out how this will be achieved, and how stakeholders have been engaged with and responded to.
Show leadership in considering the big picture for an organisation’s operational capacity to develop and deliver the plan, and be mindful of linkages with other strategic planning frameworks.
Improve customer outcomes and awareness, and ensure solutions and actions provide both value for money and consider societal benefits.
In addition, for Welsh companies the policy makers said DWMPs should also demonstrate how they have been developed in line with the behaviours set out in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015; how they will contribute towards the wellbeing outcomes; and how they will help the water companies and their stakeholders deliver their obligations under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016.
Water companies are developing DWMPs covering a minimum of 25 years looking at current and future capacity, pressures and risks to their networks, and detailing how they plan to manage these pressures and risks through their business plans and wider work. Draft plans are due this year for consultation and final plans for 2023. In this first five year cycle, the plans are non-statutory will be used to inform PR24. The production of DWMPs will be made statutory, through the Environment Act, when the first cycle ends in 2023.
Comments