FIRMS involved in projects that include drainage have been urged to ensure they are implementing sustainable practices around water management.
The call, from ACO Technologies, comes amidst predictions that the summer of 2026 will see droughts across the UK – with April’s rainfall dropping by 23%, when compared to the average.
ACO advises engineers to adopt a straightforward methodology, keeping four key principles in mind at each stage of their projects:
- Collect: Design drainage collection systems to handle extreme rainfall events (such as 1-in-100-year storm), with additional capacity to reflect future impacts from climate change
- Clean: water must be treated before continuing downstream. Tools such as the Simple Index Approach in the Ciria SuDS manual can help engineers design solutions that remove pollutants including metals and hydrocarbons.
- Hold: Attenuating water on site and releasing it at a controlled rate helps reduce flood risk. This can be achieved through nature‑based solutions (NbSs) such as swales and ponds – supported where needed by engineered attenuation – to ensure reliable performance while delivering biodiversity and amenity benefits.
- Reuse: Blue‑green roofs integrate engineered design with nature‑based solutions, capturing and reusing rainwater to support green infrastructure while delivering predictable, performance‑driven water management. This approach enhances amenity and biodiversity, reduces urban temperatures and mimics natural water cycles.
Terry Wilkinson, specialist design & application engineer at ACO, said, “We’re seeing more and more examples of extreme weather at both ends of the spectrum. Water stress and water scarcity are eventually going to become water bankruptcy unless large-scale change happens soon. By shifting our mindsets with the way we approach projects to one that prioritises collect, clean, hold, reuse as a guide, we can make sure that we’re looking after the water we have and using it wisely to benefit the environment.”
