Water & Wastewater Treatment

16 | APRIL 2015 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Project focus: demand management reduction was sustained throughout the six months the posters were in place. However, the eventual consumption reduction of 30% exceeded expectations. "I had seen some results from similar initiatives using psychology, and generally a 7-15% reduction could be expected, whereas with a retro• tting approach, it is more like 15-30%," says Jai Restall, Business Water E… ciency Manager at A… nity Water. "So the general feeling within the water e… ciency market is that retro• tting is the way forward. Despite the journal experiment which had achieved 23%, I really wasn't expecting to exceed this because of the process use with the swimming pool. It was a pleasant surprise that it performed quite as well as it did." Since the leisure centre's users gained no • nancial bene• t from reducing their water use, the project also demonstrates that there are drivers for water e… ciency other than • nancial self-interest, adds Atif. An additional bene• t of a poster campaign in a public location is that it is seen by many users who may then amend their behaviour on water use at home, although this e' ect is di… cult to measure. A… nity is now investigating the possibility of a wider poster campaign at a chain of leisure centres in their region, and want to measure the e' ect of combining such measures with the use of water-saving devices. The company also believes there is potential for using the 'Zoo in the Loo' approach in schools: feedback has shown that children are particularly keen on the posters, and there are obvious bene• ts in educating the next generation about water. Hotels are another possibility being explored. Demand management is key to A… nity Water's plans during AMP6 and beyond. With new houses in its supply area expected to add 17% to its customer base by 2040, and pressure to reduce abstractions from the environment, it has warned its customers that consumption must be reduced in order to meet this supply- demand imbalance. The supply company's plans to reduce demand for water – known as the Water Saving Programme – consists of three › Perspectives Chris Sneddon, Commercial Manager, St Margaret's Sports Centre: "Since the posters were installed in our communal and staff areas, I can't believe we have saved a massive 30% of water during the trial, compared to the same period last year. We have seen increased visitor numbers this year, so the savings are likely to be more than we have been able to measure." Haroon Atif, Asset Technician, Affi nity Water: "What we did here was to fundamentally rethink how we could save water in the commercial environment. Practitioners have previously concentrated on refurbishment and the retrofi tting of devices, but we rethought this, and in this case, it was people's behaviour that was the source of the water saving." ● It is estimated there will be an extra 600,000 people living in Affi nity's supply region by 2040 ● At the same time, the company has committed to reducing abstraction by 42 million litres per day by 2020 and by 70 million litres per day by 2025 ● Demand management plays a key role to redress this balance in Affi nity's Water Saving Programme, along with leakage reduction and metering › Drivers

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