Sustainability in Surrey ?

Water and Sewage in Surrey

Surrey has very few water resources - much of the rain falls on chalk, which absorbs it - it reappears as springs elsewhere, and can be pumped from wells.

• The average rainfall measured at Wisley is just under 650mm of rain /year
• The average amount of water used per person in the UK is 150 litres/person/day (source)
• In 1997/98 the UK consumed just over 16.8 billion cubic metres of water. Non-domestic usage accounted for 13.5 billion cubic metres while 3.3 billion cubic metres were used by households through the public water supply network. (source)
• This works out to 55,000 litres/year each, which is 55 tonnes each !!
• On this basis, the total use of water in Surrey is about 58.3 million tonnes
• Fairly obviously, most of this eventually becomes waste water. Unfortunately, it is no longer pure - it has soaps, human wastes, animal wastes, and other impurities mixed in
• We each produce an average of 1.5 litres of excrement a day (or 1.5 kg of faeces and urine) This is then immediately diluted by toilet-flushing, and then by bath, washing water etc in the sewers.
• The Surrey total = 1.59 million kg/day of pure excrement (1.5litres x 1.06 million people) = 1,590 tonnes/day, which is 580,000 tonnes/year for Surrey

These are approximations - I hope to improve these figures over time, and find out

1. where the water comes from
2. what percentage of water is recycled
3. what happens to all the residues from the sewage processes.
   

Sites like Water UK and National Statistics do not give this information clearly

Your help in improving these pages would be much appreciated, especially if you use the EcoSurrey forum

In Surrey

• average annual rainfall is 650mm
• we each use an average of 150 litres per day (30 gallons)
• Surrey uses a total of about 58 million tons water/year
• we each produce 1.5 kg/day of excrement (faeces and urine)
• we produce 580,000 tons of excrement in Surrey a year
• this is mixed with an estimated 50 milion tons of waste water, and treated in the sewage works

I hope to include suitable photos later