Environmental Impact
Like domestic customers, non-household customers, who consume around 30 per cent of the water supplied in England, are impacted by water-related environmental challenges, and can be part of the solution to mitigate and prevent them. Delivering timely, regionally-appropriate messages and services for non-household customers enables them to make the best decisions for their businesses, and the environment in which they operate.
To support this, we have enriched market data with further data on geographic context, provided by regional wholesalers, the Environment Agency, and other open data agencies. This enriched data has been used as the basis for the data insight and resources provided on this page. It is intended to support the market’s understanding of the varying geographic context and associated environmental challenges across England.
Resources provided on this page are categorised into environmental focus areas. Click on the navigation buttons to move to the relevant section on this page.
Water Efficiency
The water efficiency dashboard and maps support our Data Insight improvement programme and the (RWG) Water Efficiency Action Plan Headline Action 2: 'Better use and smarter sharing of data'. Sharing this enriched data centrally with the market will support collaboration between wholesalers, retailers and the water resource regional groups by providing greater visibility of national non-household demand. This will in turn improve our understanding of how to best support customers in reducing water wastage and forecasting demand.
Water Efficiency dashboard
The water efficiency dashboard enables users to interactively filter non-household supply point identifiers (SPIDs) and consumption by different organisations, geographic contexts and industry types. The dashboard can be accessed below, as well as via the Market Charts section.
As of 05/08/2024, 37.39% of water supply points are in areas of serious water stress.
Water Efficiency maps
The interactive map views below support Water Efficiency by showing the collated national geographical boundaries relating to the management of water resources. Bringing together three levels of detail, regional, area and zonal, they provide a high level national reference designed to be used in conjunction with the Water Efficiency dashboard.
Water Scarcity by Postal Sector
Searchable map combining various different stress metrics to give a view of water stress by postal sector.
ViewWater Resource Planning Regions
Names and boundaries of the six regional water efficiency groups.
ViewWater Stress Areas
Names, boundaries and designations of the 23 water company-based Water Stress Areas in England.
ViewWater Resource Zones
Names, boundaries and water deficit categorisations of the 138 Water Resource Zones in England and Wales.
ViewThe information contained within the Water Efficiency dashboard and maps is provided to MOSL by water companies and the Environment Agency, and MOSL gives no warranty and accepts no responsibly or liability for the accuracy of completeness of the information on this website. We will not be liable for any reliance on the information on this website or for the non-availability of the website. The boundaries shown are indicative and are not intended to be used at the individual premise level. MOSL takes no responsibility for determining supply boundaries. For specific queries relating to supply please contact the relevant water companies directly.
Drought Restrictions
In summer 2022 many water companies across England and Wales have activated their drought plans in response to unprecedently low rainfall. Water companies must plan for drought as part of the statutory Water Resource Management Planning process undertaken every five years. This provides the framework for water companies to move Water Resource Zone (WRZ) areas through several pre-defined and escalating statuses that consider, announce, and impose water use restrictions on both household and non-household populations.
The MOSL Drought dashboard and map provides collated aggregated data on the current drought restriction status of each of the 131 WRZs across England and Wales and will be updated weekly.
Drought Restriction dashboard
The Drought Restriction dashboard provides a summary aggregated view of non-household water supply points, best view of average water consumption and drought restriction status by wholesaler, retailer, and WRZ.
As of 05/08/2024, 20.57% of water supply points are in high deficit Water Resource Zones.
Drought Restriction map
The interactive drought map shows drought restriction statuses by each of the 131 WRZs across England and Wales and allows users to search addresses to view the drought status for specific locations.
School Benchmarking
As part of a proof of concept to better understand customer segments within the non-household water market, and promote water efficiency, MOSL has been working with the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE is responsible for 23k schools and 9.3m water-using pupils in England and Wales.
We have combined central market data with DfE data allowing us to generate a view of school water usage at a national, school and pupil level.
The Summary School Benchmark Dashboard presents a market summary view focussing on average school and pupil water usage metrics and how these vary by trading party. Trading parties also have access to a school-level view on the MO Portal.
These results will help inform the Market Improvement Fund Project Discovery, who are looking to develop a national consumption benchmarking model that can be applied across the industry.
Decarbonisation
The water sector has committed to being operationally net zero by 2030 and non-household customers have a part to play. However, we can’t change what we don’t measure consistently. The Greenhouse Gas Emission dashboard will help trading parties understand the emissions from water and sewerage treatment in the non-household market. As of 05/08/2024, the total carbon emissions last month were 26,896,846.49kg. Please note that you must be logged in to view this dashboard.
See also, below, information on the carbon emissions reporting that MOSL has been running to coincide with COP26 and COP27.
Surface Water Management Catchments
The Defra Plan for Water, published in April 2023, set out Defra’s approach for delivering clean and plentiful water – a healthy water environment with a sustainable supply of water for people, businesses, and nature. It is “designed to take us further and faster, based on taking a systematic, local, catchment-based approach, in a coordinated and collaborative way, using both nature-based solutions and investment in infrastructure involving communities, water companies, and businesses.”
Catchments defined in the plan refer to Surface Water Management Catchments, which are 101 catchments in England defined in with Water Framework Directive (WFD). Management catchments are the unit of geography for which action plans are drafted in implementing the WFD. To understand the potential contribution of non-household customers and how best to collaborate and engage with the relevant water companies at a catchment level, MOSL has developed a catchment dashboard and maps. These combine market data with Catchment and further data associated with these catchments on the ecological health of rivers and will be updated monthly.
Catchment dashboard
The Catchment dashboard provides a summary aggregated view of non-household water supply points, best view of average water consumption by catchment and ecological health of river status defined in Defra Plan for Water (Figure 2: the percentage water bodies in each management catchment in England that achieved good ecological status in 2019). Users can filter by Catchment Name and Catchment Ecological Status and by wholesaler, retailer, and river basin.
Catchment and River Health map
This interactive map shows Ecological River Health Status for each of the SWMCs across England along with Water Company operational boundaries. It allows users to search addresses to view SWMC data for specific locations.
Water Body and Meters map
The interactive Water Body and Meters map shows Water Bodies across England coloured depending on the number of non-household water meters alongside Water Company operational boundaries. It allows users to search locations of interest and view information such as the Water Body name, the number of non-household meters located within the Water Body, Water Body health and the catchment and Water Company region the Water Body centroid is located within.