Published 16 February 2022

The water industry is producing strategic drainage and wastewater plans to maintain, improve, and extend robust and resilient drainage and wastewater systems.

Water and sewerage companies must produce drainage and wastewater management plans (DWMPs) (they must cover a minimum of 25 years) plans looking at current and future capacity, pressures, and risks to their networks such as climate change and population growth.

They must detail how companies will manage these pressures and risks through their business plans and how they will work with other risk management authorities or drainage asset owners.

These guiding principles were written by Defra, the Welsh Government, Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and Ofwat. They set out the priorities and expectations against which both the governments and regulators will assess the DWMPs.

Companies will need to produce draft plans for consultation in 2022 and final plans in 2023.

The production of DWMPs will be made statutory through the Environment Act.

Click here to download this guidance

Our key guiding principles

We expect DWMPs to meet these 6 key principles:

1. Be comprehensive, evidence based and transparent in assessing, as far as possible, current capacity and actions needed in 5, 10 and minimum 25-year periods considering risks and issues such as climate change. Plans should also align, as far as possible, with other strategic and policy planning tools.
2. Strive to deliver resilient systems – that will meet operational and other pressures and minimise system failures.
3. Consider the impact of drainage systems on immediate and wider environmental outcomes including habitats and in developing options for mitigation to include consideration of environmental net gain and enhancement
4. Be collaborative – recognising the importance of sectors working together to consider current and future risks and needs and to deliver effective solutions, setting out how they will do this, how they have engaged with and responded to stakeholders.
5. Show leadership – in considering the big picture for an organisation’s operational capacity to develop and deliver the plan, and mindful of linkages with other strategic planning frameworks.
6. Improve customer outcomes and awareness and that solutions and actions provide both value for money and consider societal benefits

For Welsh companies, DWMPs should also demonstrate how they have been developed in line with the behaviours set out in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015, and how they will contribute towards the wellbeing outcomes. DWMPs should also set out how they will help the water companies and their stakeholders deliver their obligations under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016.  Click here to read more about the principles