Globally, water is an increasingly scarce resource. Increased demand, combined with poor and leaking infrastructure has increased pressure on existing water supply. The situation is expected to get worse, with water consumption by the public, industry and agriculture is anticipated to rise by ~16 % over the next 10 years.
In the absence of further actions to those already planned by water companies to balance supply and demand, under a high population and high climate change scenario, UK water supply deficits are projected to become more widespread by the 2050s \[Source: ASC's Climate Change Risk Assesment Report, 2017\].
In particular:
* The north west of England and the Yorkshire and Humber region are projected to be highly susceptible to supply-demand deficits, as well as London and the south-east. However, deficits are projected in other parts of the UK as well, including areas of south Wales and the central belt of Scotland.
* At a national scale, England, Scotland and Wales are projected to be in deficit by 800 million to 3 billion litres per day by 2050 (5--16% of total demand) and by 1.4 billion to 5 billion litres per day by 2080 (8-29% of the total demand).
Solutions are needed to alleviate these problems and efficient use of resources is a key strategy. With an increasing drive to reduce water consumption, it is desirable to reuse water rather than ration it through low- flow showers and low- flush toilets that don't meet public expectation when water consumption can be reduced in larger quantities by recycling shower and bath water instead.
In response to this exact market need, we (Cascade Water Products Ltd) are developing an integrated 'hard' waste water recycling system 'Aqua-Gratis'. Our technology is based on collecting grey water from showers and baths in a house, treating the water with a suitable biocide and then distributing to toilet cisterns for use as required which when fitted into urban domestic and commercial new builds.
Aqua-Gratis will provide significant cost savings and deliver tangible benefits to the householders through reducing household water consumption by at least 34% resulting in lowering water costs by an average of £170/house. It will also achieve sustainable water consumption through resilient product and actively promote water and energy saving.