Climate Change Adaptation Report
Published in 2021, this report represents the third round of Climate Adaptation (CA) reporting with the last being published in 2015. We've produced this in consultation with our customers and stakeholders.
Climate change is a significant issue in the South East. It's likely that as a result of the changing climate, we'll experience warmer wetter winters and hotter drier summers, increasing the risk of drought and flooding.
Currently, we're at the beginning of a long transformation process, and there is a gap between where we are and where we need to be in terms of our resilience and preparedness to tackle these risks.
Mitigating their impacts and adapting to them will make sure that we’re able to maintain high-quality, resilient services for our customers. This report assesses the most significant risks from climate change and what actions we can take to reduce them.
Increased temperature and more extreme variations in temperature
This could result in interruptions to essential services and drought measures being put in place. We've implemented a new incident management framework and increased capacity at our contact centre by 100% to avoid interruptions to service. We're also aiming to reduce demand on our network by reducing leakage by 50% by 2050.
Less rainfall or longer dry periods (drought)
We've improved our Drought Plan and are now better prepared for drought scenarios. Our Catchment First initiative is also investigating sustainable abstraction (water removal from rivers) methods that reduce the impact on the environment. Meanwhile, we're helping our customers to reduce water consumption with the aim of achieving 100 litres per person, per day by 2050.
More rainfall, or more intense rainfall (including an increasing number of extreme storms and lightning strikes)
We've invested £437 million to improve the resilience of our sewer network, helping to prevent flooding and pollution incidents during heavy rainfall. Our Pollution Incident Reduction Plan (PIRP) includes an £8.2 million investment up to 2025 to help us achieve a significant reduction of pollution incidents.
Sea level rise
We continue to carry out comprehensive flood risk assessments of our sites, exploring suitable options for temporary flood defences to make sure we can continue to deliver essential services during flooding.
Increased temperature and more extreme variations in temperature
This could result in interruptions to essential services and drought measures being put in place. We've implemented a new incident management framework and increased capacity at our contact centre by 100% to avoid interruptions to service. We're also aiming to reduce demand on our network by reducing leakage by 50% by 2050.
Less rainfall or longer dry periods (drought)
We've improved our Drought Plan and are now better prepared for drought scenarios. Our Catchment First initiative is also investigating sustainable abstraction (water removal from rivers) methods that reduce the impact on the environment. Meanwhile, we're helping our customers to reduce water consumption with the aim of achieving 100 litres per person, per day by 2050.
More rainfall, or more intense rainfall (including an increasing number of extreme storms and lightning strikes)
We've invested £437 million to improve the resilience of our sewer network, helping to prevent flooding and pollution incidents during heavy rainfall. Our Pollution Incident Reduction Plan (PIRP) includes an £8.2 million investment up to 2025 to help us achieve a significant reduction of pollution incidents.
Sea level rise
We continue to carry out comprehensive flood risk assessments of our sites, exploring suitable options for temporary flood defences to make sure we can continue to deliver essential services during flooding.
Key takeaways
This report has highlighted significant areas that are at risk from the impacts of climate change. It shows that we need to take steps now to address and adapt to these future challenges.
Our overarching purpose as an organisation is to deliver water for life to enhance the health and wellbeing of our communities, protect and improve the environment and sustain the economy. This will fulfil our vision of a resilient future for our customers in the South East, and a successfully implemented climate adaptation strategy will help us to achieve this.
Climate change is now part of our long-term plans. We’re improving the continuity of power supplies and forging strong partnerships with our customers, stakeholders, and other organisations to deliver shared outcomes that are beneficial to our communities and the environment.
