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2

Closer to home – UK national and regional issues of water supply

Fact file 2

The O!ce for National Statistics predicts the population of the UK will rise by 10 million in the next 18 years - reaching 71.4 million by 2030, and 78.4 million by 2050.

Climate change projections for the UK also suggest that by the 2050s, summer temperatures will increase and summer rainfall will decrease. The worst-case scenario, according to the Environment Agency, is that total water demand in England and Wales could increase by 35% by the 2050s.

2011 was the second driest year since records began in 1910, and the driest since 1921 in Britain.

The dry weather continued during 2011 with large parts of Central, Eastern and Southern England having well below average rainfall.

In 2011, several Midland counties – such as Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire – had their driest year on record according to the Met O!ce.

Rutland Water in the Anglian Water region is the largest reservoir in England by surface area (10.86 square km) and the second largest by volume, holding 124,000,000 cubic metres of water (exceeded in volume only by Kielder Water). The Anglian Water region has 18 reservoirs.

Anglian Water supplies around 1.1 billion litres of high-quality drinking water every day to more than 4.2 million customers via 138 water treatment works and more than 37,000 kilometres of water mains.

Anglian Water is seeking to be more flexible and able to adapt to climate change, for example:

by changing from pumping water into reservoirs when it is cheapest, to pumping it when it is available

using groundwater recharging making its water treatment and supply network more flexible and resilient.

© 2012 Anglian Water