Defra Water Review – Waterwise Recommendations on Scope and Objectives

Waterwise welcomes the review of the water sector announced by Secretary of State for Defra, Steve Reed, last month – to ‘shape further legislation that will fundamentally transform how our entire water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good’ and ‘deliver a radical, long-term approach to reform the water sector and ensure we can sustain our communities and the environment in the decades to come’. 

For this to work, water efficiency needs to be at the heart of the review, and reflected in its scope and objectives. So we’ve sent Ministers our list of things we think must be included in scope and objectives of the Water Review, to ensure that water is used wisely every day, everywhere, by everyone – and that we have enough water to go round, for economic growth, social justice and the environment. 

This includes rebalancing some priorities – and scooping up policy on things like housing, energy, transport and the economy, which sits with other government departments. We remain really supportive of the new government’s support for water efficiency, and as the campaigning organisation, we will also keep up pressure for ambition and delivery. There’s a gap between the water we have and the water we need of 5 billion litres a day in the next couple of decades, and water efficiency is expected to make up half that gap.