Water scarcity is now recognised as a major concern for any organisation with large water production requirements. BlackRock are warning funders to be wary of investment in any companies without a substantial Water Security Plan for 2025–2050. The UK Government’s Environment Agency is also officially admitting that water shortages are happening now—in 2025.
EES Solutions’ Strategic Environmental team can provide a Water Security Plan and approach designed to reliably and permanently eliminate the risk of all future water shortages.
Meeting Our Water Needs for the Next 25 Years
With climate change and population growth, the demand for water is ever increasing. Many areas of England are already experiencing water shortages. In parts of Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk, additional demands on water supply from businesses and new housing developments are putting huge pressure on water resources.
By 2050, in order to support a growing population, the economy, food production and protect the environment, we are going to need a lot more water. Almost 5 billion litres a day… That’s on top of the water we already use.
Our current water provision is not enough to see us into the future.
— UK Government Environment Agency, Statement issued 21 March 2024
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Water, Water, Everywhere – Or Is It?
By 2050, the South East of England will need to find at least an additional one billion litres of water per day to meet demand in the region. That is about a fifth of the water used in the region today, and equivalent to the water use of seven million people per day.
Demand for water will exceed supply by 2030. A ‘warning threshold’ is set when about 20% of freshwater resources are abstracted, and at 40%, an area is classified as severely water stressed.
In 2024, analysis by the World Resources Institute showed that in the Thames River Basin (Swindon, Oxford, Hemel Hempstead, Luton, Stevenage, Southend, Maidstone, Greater London, Crawley, Guildford, Woking, Basingstoke), 52% of available resources are abstracted, while in the South East it is 35%.
— South East Rivers Trust & World Resources Institute, 2024
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Troubled Waters
We have high conviction that water stress is a key component of climate risks that are set to grow increasingly relevant to investors over time.”
— Extract from BlackRock Investment Institute’s publication: ‘Troubled Waters’, July 2020 (2020–2030 outlook)
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The document also “suggests the time to integrate them into investment processes is now.
BlackRock believed that action was needed in 2020. Five years later, their forecast for 2030—which included a map showing the UK South in a high-category water shortage danger zone—is even more pressing.
How We Help
EES Solutions Strategic Environmental is an experienced, independent support consultancy that has developed some particularly unique green power and water security options. These enable:
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Greater stakeholder and investor confidence
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Failsafe water production continuity
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Reduction in operating costs
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Delivery of green targets
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A competitive edge using intelligent, low-cost hydrogen-based strategies
And all of this can be achieved without significant changes to current infrastructure or equipment.
Proven Project Success
We have recently supported three key hydrogen-related developments:
- Creation of a High-Level Feasibility Study for an international coatings manufacturer with 15 factories, to facilitate their switch to water-based products.
- Review and delivery support for a major Japanese power group implementing a Hydrogen Power Programme for a UK distillery.
- Strategic Planning Support for the implementation of a Hydrogen Power Programme in the UK, which is now safely delivering conversion usage from standard gas to hydrogen for direct public use—and is operational.
We have also carried out ‘cold-eyed’ reviews of two £1bn+ green power programmes for a UK and European consortium.
References
UK Environment Agency (2024). Meeting Our Water Needs for the Next 25 Years. Statement dated 21 March 2024.
South East Rivers Trust & World Resources Institute (2024). Water Stress Analysis: Thames River Basin & South East England.
BlackRock Investment Institute (2020). Troubled Waters: Climate Risk and Water Stress in Investment Portfolios. July 2020.