Will we learn from the energy crisis of today?

As we all know both from the media coverage and now the impact we are seeing on our living costs, the price of our energy is soaring.

Due to the actions of a country 1000’s of miles away from the UK the cost of household and business energy bills are accelerating at a record breaking rate. The impact on manufacturing is huge and means higher material costs and operating costs which eventually will always end up being passed onto the consumer.

The UK government have been talking about a new ‘energy policy’ for a decade and in part the war in Ukraine has finally forced the government to take action and publish details of it’s plan to reduce the UK’s independence on imported gas and oil and also to sustain the ever growing demand on energy in an ever growing population.

As quoted by the BBC’s Business Editor “ To its advocates it’s the moment when the government called time on a decade of drift in energy policy, to its critics it’s a plan full of reheated ideas that has come too late. “

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61019261

Back in 2020 the Environment Agency released a report “ Meeting our Future Water Needs: a National Framework for Water Resources “ detailing the next crisis with a resource that humans cannot live without!

Click Here to view the report in full

The UK government is aware of the problems facing the supply of water in the UK and although there have been some regulations set within the planning laws to reduce the use of water within a household, this is still not enough.

There is only so much ‘low flow’ devices can achieve and do we really want to destroy our beautiful countryside with more large holes full of water?

To put it into concept the EA are stating that an extra 3,435 million litres will be required per day by 2050, the largest reservoir in the UK, Kielder Water in Northumberland holds 199 million litres!

Rainwater Harvesting can save up to 50% of your mains potable water usage within the household. This is free water that is collected from your roof and can be used for toilets, washing machine and external use.

According to the ONS since 2008 over 2 million new dwellings have been built. In that time Rainwater Harvesting Limited has calculated that we have supplied systems to 0.4% of those dwellings.

The total storage of water that those 0.4% hold across the UK is 35 million litres. If the UK encouraged and incentivised Rainwater Harvesting into new homes the volume of water stored and being reused within the home would be huge!

This would reduce the impact of higher water bills on the homeowner and reduce the dependency on potable mains water supply.

The report by the EA states that action must be taken by 2025, that’s 3 years from now.

Does the government wait until hosepipes are switched off and water restrictions kick in, allow an increase in the cost of a resource that falls from the sky before taking action or will we learn from the energy crisis of today?

Rob Cooper – Partner – Rainwater Harvesting Limited – April 2022

House money photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com