An acute case of roaring

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Public water supply is responsible for significant fluxes of inorganic nitrogen in the environment

Understanding anthropogenic disturbance of macronutrient cycles is essential for assessing risks facing ecosystems. For the first time, we quantified inorganic nitrogen (N) fluxes associated with abstraction, mains water leakage and transfers of treated water related to public water supply. In England, the mass of nitrate-N removed from aquatic environments by abstraction (ABS-NO3-N) was estimated to be 24.2 kt N/yr. This is equal to six times estimates of organic N removal by abstraction, 15 times in-channel storage of organic N and 30 times floodplain storage of organic N. ABS-NO3-N is also between 3-39% of N removal by denitrification in the hydrosphere. Mains water leakage of nitrate-N (MWL-NO3-N) returns 3.62 kt N/yr to the environment, equating to approximately 15% of ABS-NO3-N . In urban areas, MWL-NO3-N can represent up to 20% of total N inputs. MWL-NO3-N is predicted to increase by up to 66% by 2020 following implementation of treated water transfers. ABS-NO3-N and MWL-NO3-N should be considered in future assessments of N fluxes, in order to accurately quantify anthropogenic disturbances to N cycles. The methodology we developed is transferable, using widely-available datasets and could be used to quantify N fluxes associated with public water supply across the world

Observed controls on resilience of groundwater to climate variability in sub-Saharan Africa

Groundwater in sub-Saharan Africa supports livelihoods and poverty alleviation1,2, maintains vital ecosystems, and strongly influences terrestrial water and energy budgets. Yet the hydrological processes that govern groundwater recharge and sustainability—and their sensitivity to climatic variability—are poorly constrained4. Given the absence of firm observational constraints, it remains to be seen whether model-based projections of decreased water resources in dry parts of the region4 are justified. Here we show, through analysis of multidecadal groundwater hydrographs across sub-Saharan Africa, that levels of aridity dictate the predominant recharge processes, whereas local hydrogeology influences the type and sensitivity of precipitation–recharge relationships. Recharge in some humid locations varies by as little as five per cent (by coefficient of variation) across a wide range of annual precipitation values. Other regions, by contrast, show roughly linear precipitation–recharge relationships, with precipitation thresholds (of roughly ten millimetres or less per day) governing the initiation of recharge. These thresholds tend to rise as aridity increases, and recharge in drylands is more episodic and increasingly dominated by focused recharge through losses from ephemeral overland flows. Extreme annual recharge is commonly associated with intense rainfall and flooding events, themselves often driven by large-scale climate controls. Intense precipitation, even during years of lower overall precipitation, produces some of the largest years of recharge in some dry subtropical locations. Our results therefore challenge the ‘high certainty’ consensus regarding decreasing water resources in such regions of sub-Saharan Africa. The potential resilience of groundwater to climate variability in many areas that is revealed by these precipitation–recharge relationships is essential for informing reliable predictions of climate-change impacts and adaptation strategies

Mains water leakage: Implications for phosphorus source apportionment and policy responses in catchments

Effective strategies to reduce phosphorus (P)-enrichment of aquatic ecosystems require accurate quantification of the absolute and relative importance of individual sources of P. In this paper, we quantify the potential significance of a source of P that has been neglected to date. Phosphate dosing of raw water supplies to reduce lead and copper concentrations in drinking water is a common practice globally. However, mains water leakage (MWL) potentially leads to a direct input of P into the environment, bypassing wastewater treatment. We develop a new approach to estimate the spatial distribution and time-variant flux of MWL-P, demonstrating this approach for a 30-year period within the exemplar of the River Thames catchment in the UK. Our analyses suggest that MWL-P could be equivalent to up to c.24% of the P load entering the River Thames from sewage treatment works and up to c.16% of the riverine P load derived from agricultural non-point sources. We consider a range of policy responses that could reduce MWL-P loads to the environment, including incorporating the environmental damage costs associated with P in setting targets for MWL reduction, alongside inclusion of MWL-P within catchment-wide P permits