The UK faces a water challenge – be part of the solution

Demand for water across the UK is at an all-time high. This pressure on such an essential resource is a well-known challenge faced by the construction industry, given that water is essential to building, running, maintaining and repairing every house or piece of infrastructure we lay eyes on.

Action must be taken to reduce our usage. Continuing to use water as usual has clear consequences: higher bills, damaged nature, fewer new homes being built, and less drought resilience.

The UK is not alone in facing this challenge. According to a UN report, the world has entered an era of “global water bankruptcy” that is harming billions of people, and new analysis by Watershed Investigations and the Guardian reveals that half the world’s 100 largest cities are experiencing high levels of water stress, with 38 of these sitting in regions of “extremely high water stress”.

Overcoming these challenges is necessary, and we can do it. By 2037-2038, the UK aims to reduce per capita water consumption in England by 20% from 2019-2020 levels. A 2025 poll by Waterwise found 62% of people had not done anything to use less water in the six months prior, which presents major opportunities to get people on board and achieve this target.

Through Ofwat’s Water Innovation Fund, we have already made great strides.

One example of innovation being put into practice is the Saving Water, One Badge at a Time project – a collaboration between Severn Trent Water and Nectar designed to incentivise behavioural change.

The project challenges individuals and households to use less water and earn Nectar points in the process, with the chance to increase the points they earn as they continue to reduce their usage. The initiative is designed to show how rewarding customers for careful use can be more effective than penalising them when they don’t.

The results speak for themselves. With 5,000 households enrolled in the trial and after a year of testing, the project managed to cut their water use by 4.4% a day – equal to around 55,000 litres and over 20 million litres over a year. This is a reminder that behavioural change is rarely achieved through blunt instruments, and by replacing penalties with incentives, even simple nudges can yield big changes.

Innovations like this are to be celebrated for their ability to help us reduce and save water. But we need more solutions – and we need them now.

This is where the Water Efficiency Lab comes in: a new £25 million challenge-led competition from Ofwat, seeking to unlock and scale innovations to reduce water usage across England and Wales. In its first year, the competition will award innovators £5 million in total funding. Up to £1.5 million will be awarded to individual projects, to support the development of new solutions to reduce water usage.

By evolving existing solutions, the sector has a central role to play in helping other industries, businesses and consumers better understand, manage and reduce their water use.

Have you or your company innovated to reduce water use? Do you think it could be put to use as part of wider solutions across the UK, helping overcome a challenge that will impact each and every one of us?

The Water Efficiency Lab is an opportunity for you – and encourages anyone in the construction sector with these capabilities to partner up with others to come up with bright ideas to solve our water efficiency challenges. This year, with its Actionable Insights theme, it is rewarding data-driven innovation that puts the power to cut water use into the hands of customers.

Submit an entry or learn more about the Water Efficiency Lab here, and sign up to our newsletter to receive useful reminders and updates on WEL and other upcoming competitions: Water Efficiency Lab

The competition remains open until 10 March. Winners will be announced in June 2026, with funding awarded to the most promising projects.

Further themed competitions will follow in 2026-30.