'Water in transition: Rising costs and the decline of free environmental services'

(by Karma Loveday)

Water bills have risen — and will stay high for the foreseeable future — not only to cater for growth, a changing climate, higher standards and ageing assets, but also because it is no longer possible or legitimate to use natural services for nothing.

That’s according to a report out last week from the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) and The UK Water Report.

Water in transition: rising costs and the decline of free environmental services contends that water and wastewater ‘services’ that the environment has long provided to the global water industry for free are in decline, and need to be replaced by paid-for alternatives. Examples include the need to 'manufacture' water from wastewater or sea water because rain is less dependable and catchments depleted; and the need to treat wastewater to higher standards (and to store stormwater until it can be treated), because rivers are struggling to cope.

This shift amounts to a fundamental transition, akin to the energy transition. As the air environment can no longer be used as a free disposal route for greenhouse gas emissions, the water environment can no longer be used to draw free resources from, or to discharge waste to at low cost.

In fact, the decline of free environmental services is a landmark point of change, and sets the global water industry on a path to sustained higher investment and bills. But this is not money down the drain; it is investment in a healthier, more resilient environment that is capable of supporting growth and a flourishing future for all.

The report also argues that the water transition has implications for policy, regulation (including how efficiency targets are set) and customer communications.

Adam Lovell, executive director at WSAA, said: “Just as the energy industry is in a fundamental transition, so is the water industry. The underlying driver of change in the water industry is the reduced reliance on the environment to provide ‘free’ inputs or services to industry. The sector is now investing in systemic changes in infrastructure, management and consumption.” Lovell added: “Without a detailed understanding of the fundamental transition underway, policy makers risk drawing the wrong conclusions and creating the wrong policy settings for the industry.”

Christopher Gasson, publisher of The UK Water Report and its parent Global Water Intelligence, said: “Although this report focuses on the situation in Australia and the UK, it is a common theme throughout the world. Whether it is the states in the US South West wrestling with the fact that 29% of the free water they were allocated from the Colorado River in 1922 no longer exists, the European Union contemplating spending €10 billion a year to remove a chemical few people have ever heard of (trifluoroacetic acid) out of drinking water, or African cities like Cape Town and Dakar investing in new desalination plants, people all over the world are discovering that nature no longer owes us a free drink.”