Plan to make water services and infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather

A new plan published by Scottish Water outlines the efforts it will take to make services and infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather across Lanarkshire.

Action and investment are needed to reduce the risk of flood and drought and protect water supplies from the impacts of climate change across Scotland.

Over the past decade, the public utility has responded to the changing climate by assessing risks and building resilience into its operations and investment plans.

But, with growing impacts on assets and services from more extreme weather events locally and nationally, the new plan highlights the steps that must be taken to go further and faster in adapting the assets and services which serve people 24/7 to ensure they remain “reliable, resilient and sustainable”.

Scottish Water chief executive Alex Plant said that significant investment is needed over the next 25 years to protect water and waste water services against the worst forecast impacts of climate change.

He added: “Climate change adaptation is not something we can choose to do; it is something we must do.

“The world has already warmed by more than one degree over the past century.

“We can expect drier and warmer summers, wetter winters and an increasing number of severe storms that will affect our water and waste water services.

“Our assets were simply not designed to cope with the more extreme weather conditions we now face on a regular basis.

“They are also ageing and will deteriorate more quickly with climate change.

“This makes our objectives to improve drinking water quality, ensure a secure water supply and improve our environmental performance even more challenging.

“We need to invest to address these issues and build climate change adaptation into our forward plans if we are to ensure that we deliver a reliable, resilient and sustainable future service for our customers and for society.

“Transition of this scale, of course, comes at a cost.

“The report shows that adapting the assets that serve Scotland to be resilient to more challenging climate futures will need new investment of £2 billion to £5 billion over the next 25 years.

“All of this underlines the importance of maintaining a stable funding and investment trajectory over the short and medium term.”

Mr Plant stressed the need for collaboration, partnership and innovation to make a real difference in the long-term – and to keep costs as low as possible.

The full plan is available to view by searching “SCW2457_Adaptation Plan” at adobe.com.

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