Developing our DWMP

We are already seeing greater intensity and frequency of:   

• Temperatures and heatwaves – increasing temperature will impact on the biological processes at both our wastewater treatment works and in rivers. This may result in waterbodies becoming more vulnerable.   
• Rainfall and storminess – heavier rainfall means it will be increasingly more challenging to effectively drain it away, which can lead to increased surface water and sewer flooding.
• Drought – water shortages will affect the flow in our rivers and can mean they are at increased risk of ecological harm.
• Sea level rise – our coastal infrastructure is likely to be at increased risk from coastal erosion and from salty groundwater getting into the sewers, reducing sewer capacity, corroding pipes and impacting on our treatment processes.    

The Southeast is expected to have the highest levels of population growth in the UK. We expect a further 800,000 people to be living and working here by 2040. We will need to plan for our wastewater systems to accommodate this growth. 

Urban creep is when families choose to extend their houses rather than move. We expect this to be an increasing problem for us, as it often means an increase in rainfall from larger roofs and hardstanding ending up in our sewers.  

We will work with communities to promote green, sustainable drainage systems to minimise rainwater entering the drains. 

A high-quality water environment is fundamental to supporting local tourism, shellfisheries and recreation. Only 14 – 15% of inland waterbodies in England are currently assessed as having a “good” standard.  

Ever stricter and increasingly ambitious effluent standards for our treatment works and overflows are likely to be required in future to tackle these challenges from persistent chemicals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics and key environmental nutrients, such as Nitrogen and Phosphorus.    

We expect good quality bathing water to continue to be important to our customers. We have seen a rise in popularity of wild open water swimming and recreational pursuits and a pressure to designate inland waters as bathing waters. Significant investment will be required to achieve bathing water standards inland 

Technology will not remain static. We expect to be helped in meeting these future challenges using technology we don’t yet know about. We have already embraced several new developments in recent years.  

We have invested significantly in our artificial intelligence (AI) and monitoring capability. We now use these systems to proactively clean sewers with high pressure water jets to disperse potential future blockages before they are an issue.  

Membrane Bioreactor technology replaces gravity settlement in some of our wastewater treatment systems, using high efficiency ultrafiltration membranes that can separate tiny particles including bacteria, to a much higher level. We expect this technology will help meet tighter future standards.  

We anticipate that changes in personal vehicle use may change the nature of road use. Heavier vehicles, due to battery weight, may generate higher levels of micro-plastics and chemicals that could end up in our sewers and need effective treatment in drainage networks.  

A switch to greater autonomous vehicle use and shared ownership may see a fundamental shift in how we use our roads, which may create an opportunity to redesign road infrastructure around Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) to keep rainwater out of sewers.  

Our carbon reduction plan is working towards our operations being carbon neutral by 2050. We are committed to pursuing nature-based solutions to support a more sustainable future.