EWSC Project Reports

Several UK water companies are making great efforts to reduce water consumption but often those planning water efficiency measures have little understanding of the potential impacts on sewerage infrastructure downstream.

Widespread water efficiency measures will impact wastewater quantity, wastewater composition, solids concentration, nutrient concentration, and wastewater temperature. These changes to wastewater could impact our sewerage systems in several ways, including increased blockages, longer stagnation periods, impacts to treatment efficiency but could also extend capacity and boost efficiency of resource recovery.

The tools and knowledge for assessing these impacts has been made available through academic research but is not in a form that makes it ease-to-use by the water industry. This pamphlet, primarily derived from the author’s PhD research and publications, aims to display the information and methods available to assess these impacts in a format that is accessible for decision making.