Breaking Waves

Every day more than 3 billion litres of water is lost to leaks and without significant changes many areas of England will face water shortages by 2050.

On World Water Day we launched an initiative inspired by the United Nations’ “Be The Change” campaign. We’re encouraging customers to sign up to one of our five achievable pledges to be in with a chance to win an Automatic Meter Reader that can help them take control of their business water.

The draw will run until the end of Waterwise’s Water Saving Week on Friday 19 May, giving businesses ample time to pledge their support and start making a difference.

Oli Shelley, Head of Operations said: “Businesses in the UK are responsible for around a third of all water use so at Wave we’re committed to raising awareness of the importance of water saving and finding ways to help our customers make positive changes. Not only can becoming more efficient benefit our resources and the environment but it can also help save our customers money on their bills by fixing leaks quickly and using water more sustainably.”

Be part of the change, make a pledge.

As a water retailer, we're the point of communication and support on most aspects of the water and sewerage services our customers receive. To allow us to deliver a great service, we require the support of wholesalers, who remain the asset owners and are responsible for many of the market data items. For example, this means your business' water meter and the data on the location of that meter is owned by your wholesaler.

In September 2022, the market operator, MOSL, launched the first phase of a central bilateral hub where requests for wholesaler actions are submitted. The project has been a huge success with around 80% of requests now being submitted seamlessly through this hub.

MOSL estimates the programme is generating more than 120,000 hours in efficiency savings across the 16 processes that are now in the hub. As well as efficiency savings, there are also a range of benefits for customers, from faster, more reliable processing of requests and better handling of enquiries.

MOSL are now underway with the second phase of the project which will introduce the remaining process between now and 2025, including some critical customer requests such as leakage allowances. Wave fully support this second phase and our Head of Wholesaler Management, Matthew, has successfully been appointed to the MOSL Bilateral Steering Group to ensure the voice of the retailer and our customers continues to be heard and to help the project deliver on time and on budget.

Wave had the pleasure of hosting another corporate volunteering day in March, this time planting trees with Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT) in Wittering, Peterborough.

As Wave’s Marketing Executive, I was excited to use my Volunteering Day to take part (and get some great shots for our new Instagram account). We were joined by some of our customers, Mitie Energy and Bakkavor, as well as returning customers Frasers Group, who volunteered with us last September at Standedge Tunnel. It was a great day, and luckily a dry one too!

A team effort

We started the day with a round of coffees from local café The Coffee Stop, while we gathered in the church and listened to an opening talk from our HR Director Jane Austin, followed by Mike Horne from Langdyke Countryside Trust and Tony Cook from PECT. Then we headed out to the field to start our planting.

The team was split into three groups and spread out over the field, each given the task of planting a different species of tree. One group focused on planting Hornbeam trees in the wetter soil near the church, as these were larger and would thrive there. This required the group to dig larger holes for the root balls and trenches for roots that extended up to two metres outwards. This group definitely had the most strenuous task!

The other two groups focused on planting smaller species of tree such as Holly and Blackthorn. These were placed between larger trees that had already been planted in the area, acting as an underlayer for local wildlife to use as cover. PECT advised us that they would go in later and plant wildflowers and other species of plant that would act as a further ground layer as well.

It was a rewarding day, and fascinating to learn about the science behind planting trees. We learned which trees thrived in which conditions, how to dig correctly, and that we should fill the holes back in with the top layer of grass first, so it can rot and provide essential nutrients for the roots. It was fantastic to see previous customer volunteers joining us again. Frasers Group, who have volunteered with us before, said of the day, “very knowledgeable team and another good example of Wave’s commitment to the environment.”

Get involved

If you want to join us at one of our future corporate volunteering events, please speak to your account manager.

2022 brought some extremely high temperatures and with it a significant increase in water demand around the country. This was within the context of more general water stress, targets for abstraction reduction and rising global temperatures, meaning water companies were forced to introduce measures to reduce customer demand. These measures were largely aimed at household customers through the application of Temporary Use Bans (TUBS), traditionally referred to as “hose pipe bans”.

This was the first time since the non-household market opened in 2017 that multiple wholesalers were rolling out preventative measures and there was industry acceptance of the need for joined up communication to prevent confusion and to make sure the measures had the desired impact.

A cross-industry forum was developed to help reshape the existing National Drought Code of Practice, feeding in lessons learned and seeking to better reflect the changed nature of the water market post 2017.

There are warnings of further restrictions this year, as South West Water has extended their Temporary Use Ban on 25 April 2023 to cover further areas, and this is a theme we can expect to continue to see as average temperatures rise in coming years. The picture can vary significantly from area to area and the market operator, MOSL, has launched a new national map on their portal showing when drought restrictions are applied and to which postcode areas.

Wave will continue to actively participate in this industry group and inform our customers of any risk of restrictions. We'll continue to encourage and support efficient use of water and quickly respond to leaks to help prevent water wastage.