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The Environmental Impact
Climate change is making it harder to protect water resources than ever before. Especially for the driest region in the country, where we receive on average, a third less rainfall than the rest of England.
Finding the most innovative, cost effective and environmentally friendly initiatives that not only combat climate change but keep our taps flowing, playing a vital role in achieving our purpose to the social and environmental prosperity to the region we serve through our commitment to love every drop.
Future proofing our water supplies
We’re creating hundreds of kilometres of new interconnecting pipes to help us move water more freely around the region. It’s one of the largest infrastructure projects in the UK and will help future proof water supplies for future generations. We will be able to divert water from the wettest areas in the north of our region to the driest areas in the south and east, where water isn’t as easily sourced. This will reduce the amount of water taken from the environment, as well as strengthening local resilience by reducing the number of homes and businesses which rely on a single water source.
Investing in our region
The Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) will be a multi-million-pound investment, once complete, the new network will be longer than any UK motorway. It is a significant part of our planned investment in the region over the next five years. The success of SPA is fundamental to supplying free flowing water throughout the region, making us more resilient to risks of drought. The programme also enables sustainable economic housing development for a rapid growing population. The scale of the work and pace we need to deliver it can’t be underestimated. But our core commitment is to look after the environment as we go, creating an environmentally sustainable water supply which will protect our streams and rivers and the diverse wildlife that depends on them.
Caring about the environment
This project will help meet our targets to reduce the amount of water we take from the environment by 84 million litres a day, and combat climate change, but our team also had to think about the impact on wildlife and habitats too. That's why we specifically designed the pipeline to bypass sensitive ecological sites where environmental surveys found protected species like badgers, water voles, bats and Great Crested Newts.
Cutting down carbon emissions
Bringing water from the north of the region to the south without increasing carbon emissions is a tricky business, especially as a high proportion of our region sits on flat and low-lying areas. A lot of energy would normally be needed to pump water from place to place. But our teams have been using smart engineering and cutting-edge technology to design these pipes to be energy efficient to minimise the carbon impact of this project. The entire pipeline has also been designed to have the lowest carbon footprint possible, in line with our pledge to reach net zero carbon by 2030.
Read more here about the Strategic Pipeline Alliance.