Water use and resilience in the leisure sector in England

Water is an essential resource for the leisure sector, for this reason Environmental Solutions International (Esi) has worked with both the leisure sector and water industry for many years to cultivate a more collaborative relationship. In 2018 the Environment Agency invited Esi to become a consultee for the development of the National Framework for Water Resource. With access to all of the available data, this document confirmed that without action there will be a shortfall of 3,435,000,000 L of water per day in England by 2050, due to climate change, population growth, and a near doubling of per capita consumption over the last 50 yr.

England Golf commissioned a report by Cranfield University in 2008 which highlighted the issues of water availability as a significant risk to the future of golf operations (Knox, Rodrigues, & Weatherhead, 2007). Environmental Solutions International referenced this report when reiterating the issues of water availability to the golf sector in 2018 and 2019. The combination of high numbers of leisure facilities, in areas of high population growth, increasing areas of water stress, and with over 60% of golf courses completely reliant on Public Water Supply (PWS) for irrigation, is simply unsustainable.

In August 2020, the 17 water companies in England and Wales retained Esi to undertake a project to benchmark water use in the leisure sector, to engage national representative association and governing bodies, and co-create the tools and guidance to help leisure facilities need to transition to more sustainable water sources.

The project scope was designed to provide information to assist the water companies and the Environment Agency in development of the required resource planning outlined in the National Framework for Water Resource up to 2045 and beyond.

The major water consumers were identified as golf, football, horse racing, and rugby allowing a focus on facility locations. The locations for these four sectors have been identified and cross matched with abstraction license volumes, abstraction availability data, catchment, and water body with the Environment Agency. Mains water consumption data acquisition has been challenging, at least partly due to the range of sites, the age of meters and the fact that many meter names do not relate to their purpose.

The more complex elements are related to engagement and gaining support from the leisure sector. The majority of the meetings and discussions during the early stages of the project had to provide reassurance that the project would result in true collaboration, allow the co-creation a range of actions, increase discussions around innovative solutions, and give the associations the confidence to work with Esi and the water companies to roll out the practical solutions developed.

The response from the leisure sector has been positive, and the discussions and meetings were encouraged to direct the projects development and outcomes to achieve the required project outcomes.

One of the key points raised was the need to create awareness among leisure operator, their patrons, and stakeholders. The key questions were: Why there is a need to change? How can the project get the message out? Finally, what specific help did individual leisure facility operators need to help them take practical steps to improve water efficiency, and to reduce public water supply use and unsustainable abstraction for turf irrigation?

A leisure operator's commitment to adopt the Charter provides free access to the template Water Resilience Template developed as a single document used to identify water source, consumption, irrigated areas, turf management, irrigation management practices, system type and controls, and potential alternative sources of water (rainwater harvesting, treated effluent, local flood water, sustainable urban drainage, highway, onsite drainage fields, etc.) The document contains links to information developed or identified during the project, including turf management research, links to flood maps, planning permission guides, and potential sources of water resilience funding. On completion the template automatically creates a Water Resilience assessment, including irrigation intensity, 21-d drought resilience volumes, and estimates cost to develop onsite storage. The automatic water resilience assessment also includes net volume required from Public Water Sources or abstraction, based on required volumes, potential efficiencies, and the alternative water sources identified.

This portal provides leisure facility operators with the ability to share water resilience and sustainability projects undertaken, to highlighting successful projects, less successful projects, mistakes they may have made, or simply to offer advice that may help others.

As an example, one golf club in Hampshire, England, has a current consumption of 10,000 m³ per year, sourced from Mains Public Water Supply. They are planning to install fairway irrigation, as many golf facilities in the United Kingdom are, which would triple their consumption, and they have applied for an abstraction license 30,000 m³ per year.

This club completed the template Water Resilience Plan, which highlighted a new housing estate adjacent to the site with 180 houses where the developer would be very interested in using the golf club to take the Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) runoff for irrigation, and potentially contribute to the cost of storage and reedbed filtration and storage.

The downstream side of the course has a culvert restricting flow which regularly backs up after heavy rainfall events partially flooding parts of the course. This is exacerbated by the club's own land drainage field which discharges to a water course running across the site contributing to the excess flow backing up at the culvert. In addition to the onsite flooding, a new housing development has been granted planning permission on a previous golf club site downstream that also suffers flooding that could be reduced if water could be retained on the cases study site. Onsite storage could also offer flow balancing, offering flood alleviation in peak periods, and flow enhancement in dry periods, benefiting water quality and habitat maintenance on site and downstream.

With assistance and support from this project, the club could source their irrigation supply (including fairway additions) without the need for the 30,000 m³ abstraction license applied for, and without mains PWS; it could reduce flood risk onsite and downstream, augment flows to local river systems to help to improve water quality, and protect habitat while reducing pressure on the combined sewer system and sewage discharge.

The first meeting took place in November 2021, with attendees including the water companies, Environment Agency, water retailers’ association, Natural England, Cranfield University, The Rivers Trust, and Highways England, alongside charter-adopting leisure associations.

The response from the water sector, nongovernmental organizations, and wildlife charities was tremendously positive and very welcome. The potential for the leisure sector to take problem water and provide attenuation to reduce local flood events, combined sewer overflows, improve water quality, and create habitat met with universal approval. Using this water to replace mains public water supply or abstraction creates solution circularity.

The development of the turf and irrigation management standard and the potential for a leisure industry created and administered standard for efficient turf irrigation use underlines the commitment to ensure action to create a more sustainable future for the leisure sector.

This English and Welsh water company funded project was designed to create engagement and collaboration between the leisure sector, water companies, Environment Agency, academics, Highways England, and wildlife charities.

Changing climate is resulting in more intense rainfall events and longer, drier periods, placing greater demands on the water sector to manage excess water and to ensure potable water supply during periods of drought. New legislation in the United Kingdom places greater responsible on water companies to manage storm flows, preventing the overwhelming of the combined sewer network and the increasing frequent discharges of raw sewage to water course, and the Environment Agency are seeking soft landscaping solutions for surface water flooding. The leisure sector's access to mains public water supply or abstraction for irrigation will become increasingly problematic due to increasing population and expanding areas water stress. This project simply shows that with collaboration the water needed by the leisure sector for irrigation can be sourced from water creating problems within a catchment, offering benefits to the community, natural environment, and the leisure sector future.