The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has announced that industry partners will be responsible for reducing water consumption in UK military establishments as part of a utilities management service through its future suite of prime contracts.
The MOD operates around 260 main defence establishments, 140 training sites and 49,000 military homes, consuming around 17.5 billion litres of water per annum. Under UK ‘Greening Government Commitments’, the MOD has set a target of reducing water consumption by 7% on the estate by 2016, relative to 2010/11 levels.
The Next Generation Estate Contracts (NGEC) programme will now mandate successful bidders for each of four regional primes for Hard FM, and the national primes for housing and the training estate to manage water consumption in single living accommodation, office, sports technical buildings and other facilities.
Each prime contractor will be required to set up a utilities management bureau to track real-time consumption of water (in addition to electricity and gas), feeding real-time flow data into a central DIO bureau and monitoring undue increases or deviation from standard consumption patterns.
Contractors will be required to survey existing water-metering arrangements in Defence establishments, and make improvements where shortfalls exist. They will be expected to propose and develop spend-to-save measures to water infrastructure such as sanitary facilities, plumbing installations, and changes to operational process, and to report on their success where taken forward to implementation.
Matt Foley, Head of DIO Utilities, said:
“With several hundred thousand personnel living and working on 1% of British landmass we have an imperative to minimise water usage, particular in regions where water is in short supply. Industry has a wealth of innovation to offer in this area and it is vital that DIO harnesses that within its future contracting arrangements.”
Mark Grant, Head of NGEC Contract Development, said:
“We recognise that water consumption is as much about behaviour as infrastructure. The strength of our coherent prime contracting model is that our industry partners will be able to take a strategic view of water consumption as well as working closely with local users in specific buildings, and DIO can then compare performance and best practice between the contracts.”
Water is supplied to the defence estate under Project Aquatrine via three regional supply contracts which manage provision up to entry into buildings, while future prime contractors will manage consumption within buildings.
