The weather on the morning of the conference, with flooding reported in several parts of the UK, followed by further devastating floods across Cumbria only two or three days afterwards, remind us that the behaviour of rainwater in the UK seems to be just as ‘boom and bust’ as our own economy and construction industry.

Despite all this rain and the subsequent, numerous, flooding incidents which have occurred throughout the UK in recent years we have also experienced, often severe, drought conditions in some areas and even now it is suggested that water supplies are under either moderate or serious levels of stress in most of England south of the Humber, a situation that will be exacerbated by demands for additional housing, particularly in the south east of the country.

It was of no surprise therefore that this conference should be so well attended by such a diverse range of delegates from a whole range of different disciplines – Water Companies, Consulting Engineers, Environment Agency, Academia, RWH System Suppliers and several other organisations. The conference was supported by the UKRHA (The UK Rainwater Harvesting Association)

The conference was kicked off by John Griggs, Principal Technical Officer, CIHPE (Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering) with an overview of the development of National Standards for the design; installation, testing and maintenance of water reuse systems, for predominantly domestic applications. BS8515:2009 “Rainwater Harvesting Systems – Code of Practice” was launched earlier this year and a BS8525 covering Greywater system is currently being developed. John explained the drivers behind the development of these standards, such as droughts, flooding, water shortages and the sustainability agenda.  He also gave an overview of the content and relation to other relevant standards and an insight into future developments relating to RWH and GWR.

The next presentation from Paul Millard, Water Supply Regulations Manager at Anglian Water, followed on nicely and confirmed the need for standards to help achieve best practice. Paul used some examples of where things have gone wrong with RWH installation but highlighted the fact that good standards help underpin safety. The UKRHA had initiated the development of the BS8515 and are working with the water industry to develop a suitable training program.

Stephen Bottom and Shane Tyrell, both of GHD, described their experiences with RWH and GWR in Australia and talked about the potential application in the UK. It was clear from Stephen and Shane’s presentation that huge advances have been made in Australia during the last 10 years or so, driven to a great extent by water availability problems and drought, and that we could learn a lot in the UK from their case studies and how their integrated approach to water management has allowed them to make savings in potable water use of up to 84% in some instances.

John Billingham, Business Development Manager for Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies talked about water reuse from a contractor’s perspective and the role of RWH and GWR in new housing developments. After John had reiterated some of the data we had seen previously relating to target water consumption levels from the Code for Sustainable Homes and some of the drivers behind RWH and GWR, he outlined a more centralised approach to collecting water for reuse as opposed to the individual ‘plot by plot’ approach. John used several overseas case studies to outline this type of approach and even included reference to the collection, treatment and reuse of Blackwater for applications such as toilet flushing.

Philip Williams, Technical Manager, Environmental Sustainable Solutions Ltd., rounded off the morning session with a reminder of the flooding problems experienced in 2007 and showed some of the familiar pictures from locations such as Tewkesbury, Hull and Sheffield and linked into the point that we should retain as much of the water that falls on a site as possible through techniques such as Rainwater reuse, green roofs and stormwater attenuation.

Phil Metcalfe, Head of Waste Environment Group, ADAS UK Ltd helped us through the ‘graveyard’ shift with an interesting look at rainwater harvesting in agriculture. After outlining the benefits to agriculture for both irrigation as well as animal drinking purposes, he used some varied case studies to demonstrate that despite a huge range of costs and payback periods depending on the application and system adopted, there are many instances where Agriculture has made significant savings with RWH provided the system is appropriate to the farm size and type. The fact that funding is available to implement systems may provide an insight into what may make RWH more acceptable to mainstream housing and commercial developments.

Jeff Wherlock of Aqualogic and David Kay from the Centre for Research into Environment & Health (CREH), outlined the work they have been doing with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.  The Surface Water Management Strategy is aimed primarily at removing as much rainwater as possible from the currently overloaded combined sewer system.  This is aimed to reduce flooding and pollution as well as drive down energy costs and adapt to climate change. The presentation centred around the ongoing pilot work being carried out on the development of a low-cost, property level RWH system that can be retrofitted to existing houses which could hopefully lead to a significant reduction in the amount of sewage needing treatment by DCWW as well as less treated potable water being delivered to each house for non drinking / hygiene purposes.

Chris Shirley-Smith, Director, Water Works UK Ltd presented from a somewhat different angle and explained all about the role of small scale engineered wetland systems in greywater filtration and the production of what he termed ‘green’ water which is the term given to the non-potable grade of water delivered back to the property after it has been treated and converted from grey water. Chris showed some interesting examples of pilot level rigs as well as retro-fit installations and roof-top located solutions, finishing off with the green water treatment plant installed at BedZED.

The last speaker of the day, Peter Hiley, now an independent consultant after 30 years with Thames Water, rounded off the day with a presentation which continued with the ‘alternative’ theme and examined some of the pros and cons of our existing potable water supply system, rainwater harvesting, reedbed systems for treating greywater and in-house greywater treatment systems. Peter raised a lot of questions relating to issues such as the cost-benefit of treating greywater and whether it was a good idea to have a potable water supply in a house as well as a non-potable supply. He also suggested that raising water charges may be in the environment’s best interests.

This was an interesting point to finish the day given that OFWAT have just announced their final determination on water company business plans which will lead to average household water bill actually falling by an average of £3 per household over the next 5 years.

It was clear from the day’s proceedings and the lively question and answer and discussion sessions that took place that there is a great deal of interest in RWH and GWR.  These innovations will undoubtedly have a place in any integrated approach to water management and with the correct development of valid, well thought out standards and guidelines, these techniques will surely become main stream. Germany is estimated to be installing fifty times more RWH systems than we currently use in the UK and as we have seen during this conference Australia are leading the way with the uptake of RWH, borne out of necessity – how long before we’re suffering the same degree of water stress? 

The conference was held on 18th February 2009 at Austin Court in Birmingham.

To buy proceedings from this event please visit www.aquaenviro.com/proceedings