The UK government has announced a water credit pilot in Cambridge through retrofitting water-efficient devices, such as tap aerators, into buildings at a cost of up to £4.5 million ($5.8 mln) to enable the development of thousands of houses.
The “one-off” commitment will see the government introduce a ‘market operator’ for developers to offset development through trading water credits, until water companies can follow through with their separate investment commitments, the government said in a paper.
Initial government investment will retrofit properties in Cambridge to provide the credits through devices such as “water-efficient showerheads, tap aerators”, and water flow restrictors, it said.
The plan is set to launch later this year, although the need for water offsetting will remain under review while other plans for investment in the water system roll out over the next eight years.
“We are investing up to £4.5 mln to deliver retrofitting of water-efficient devices such as efficient sensor taps and boundary flow regulators in homes, schools, leisure centres, and other commercial buildings in Greater Cambridge,” the government said.
“Installation of water-saving measures in homes can save on average 32.5 litres per household per day, while businesses such as schools can save up to 3,100 litres per day.” Education and retail sectors are the highest water users in Cambridge, with 221 schools in the city.
The plans follow over 9,000 homes and 300,000 square metres of commercial space being stuck in the planning system, due to the Environment Agency (EA) saying that any developments must not increase the risks to already vulnerable water bodies around Cambridge.
Once the system is up and running, the market operator will match buyers to sellers of water credits, it said.
The government will work with the local planning authority, developers, the EA, and other key stakeholders, to consider how the scheme will interact with the planning process.
Systems with the trading of water rights are not used on a global scale, but water trading mechanisms have been implemented in regions including Australia, the US, and China to manage scarcity.
The announcement follows project developer CreditNature laying the way for a freshwater credits system in the UK by developing a ‘living rivers index’.
Developers in England already have to comply with biodiversity net gain (BNG) legislation that came into force last month, requiring 10% improvement to biodiversity overall.
NATURE-BASED PILOT
Nature-based solutions can increase biodiversity and wildlife connectivity, the government said. These use natural habitats like wetlands instead of manmade infrastructure like dams for solving issues such as water shortages.
“Nature-based solutions could have a significant benefit for sustaining groundwater and river flow levels, with results showing that they could offset up to 8.1 mln litres per day,” it said.
The government is funding a trial of nature-based solutions in the Cambridge area, to see if this theoretical modelling works in practice, by non-profit Water Resources East.
The pilot aims to generate “additional benefits to public water supply, including supporting biodiversity recovery, mitigating soil and carbon losses, reducing the chance of downstream flooding, and reducing nutrient loads in waterbodies”.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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