UK Leaders Look at Raising Water Prices for Big Industries

The UK is known for its rainy weather, but it is actually running low on water. Right now, nearly three-quarters of England and all of Wales are in a drought. About 27 million people are facing limits on how much water they can use. To help fix the problem, government ministers are looking at making water more expensive for big industrial companies.

The Environment Agency, the government group that manages natural resources, says England could be short by five billion litres of water every day by the year 2055. That is a huge amount, and officials say it will keep getting worse as the climate crisis grows and more people and businesses need water. Helen Wakeham, who leads the water department at the Environment Agency, says the way people pay for water needs to change. She explained that big companies pay almost nothing for the value of the water they take — they only pay a small fee to get a permit to use it.

Right now, millions of regular households are paying record-high water bills. But for large industrial companies, the rules work differently — the more water they use, the less they pay per litre. Wakeham said there is a 'lively conversation' happening about completely changing the way the country values and pays for water. She confirmed that government ministers have already asked her agency to study how the current system works and how it might be improved.

A recent report found that less than one percent of businesses in England use more water each day than 10 million people combined need. Some of these businesses — like oil refineries, chemical plants, and paper mills — do not have to cut back their water use at all. Dr. Doug Parr, a scientist at Greenpeace UK, called this unfair. He said that while everyday people are saving water and paying higher bills, big businesses get cheap access to huge amounts of it.

One growing concern is data centres, which are large buildings full of computers that store information for the internet and artificial intelligence. Data centres use enormous amounts of water to cool their equipment. Water UK, the group that represents the UK water industry, has said the country may not have enough water for future data centres. Right now, data centres in England use about 6.6 million litres of drinking water every single day just for cooling.

The government wants to triple the number of data centres in England by 2030. If that happens, daily water use by data centres could jump to nearly 20 million litres. Jon Chappell from Water UK called this situation 'unforgivable' and 'a genuine failing of government.' Wakeham agreed that using clean drinking water to cool machines is a real problem that needs to be solved.

Officials are now working on new ways to price water so that the right kind of water goes to the right places. For example, data centres might be allowed to use non-drinking water for cooling, which would save cleaner water for people. If water becomes more expensive for industrial users, companies will have a stronger reason to use less of it. As Wakeham put it, water is so cheap right now that many companies do not bother to manage it carefully.