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RSK director says weak regulation of household consumption drives UK water supply issues

by Trevor Loveday

Poor regulation of household water consumption driven by “outdated belief that water meters are for bill collection rather than in-house consumption reduction,” is a chief source of water resource issues in the UK according to environmental consultancy RSK director Mark Smith.


Smith was responding to THE WATER REPORT on the extent to which water resource problems in the UK might be attributable as much to water governance issues as water shortages. Smith made the same assertion relating to East Africa at the close last week of the United Nations’ 2023 Water Conference. He indicated UK leakage targets for 2050 would not make adequate inroads, describing them as “too conservative,”


Former chief executive of the Water Research Council, Smith, criticised developed nations in the West as “still dismissive of water when we decide what we're going to do on infrastructure.” He said that applied not only at home but also in international infrastructure construction projects:" All too often, Western financing does not lead to sustainable local solutions.”

He said Western investment tends to go into developing large water infrastructure, but fails to consider operation beyond the short term.


This, he said, was extensive in South America, where water infrastructure has been built only to break down after two years because local communities don't have the resources to maintain it. “Western developers need to work much more closely with local communities so that local people become the experts in their water treatment plants, and if something breaks down they aren’t in a situation where they can't get a part because the part was made in Europe,” said Smith.

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