About the Community of Practice
We carry forward the frameworks, evidence and tools developed by the EWSC innovation programme, and we keep them free and open for the people who need them.
What is a water smart community?
A water smart community is a new development designed so that homes, infrastructure and residents together use less water, create less flood risk, and return water safely to the environment. It is achieved through integrated water management: planning water supply, wastewater, drainage and reuse as one connected system from the earliest stage of a development, rather than as four separate utilities added at the end.
The challenge
England needs to build a great deal of new housing in places where water is already scarce and flood risk is already rising. Handled the conventional way, each new development adds demand to a stressed supply and runoff to a stressed drainage network. Handled differently, new housing can be close to water neutral — but only if the decisions are made early enough, and only if someone is responsible for the systems afterwards.
How it works
Integrated water management (IWM) treats a development's water as one system. Rainwater and greywater are captured and reused rather than discharged. Sustainable drainage slows and cleans surface water in the public realm. Water-efficient fittings reduce demand at the tap. None of these alone achieves much; together, and designed in from masterplanning, they change what a development costs the water environment.
Our framework sets out the five stages, and the IWM Database lists every measure we assessed with the evidence behind it.
From EWSC to the Community of Practice
Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) ran from 2022 to 2026, funded by Ofwat's Water Breakthrough Challenge and led by Anglian Water. It worked across three demonstrator developments and produced the frameworks, reports and tools published on this site.
The programme has now concluded. Its work continues through the Water Smart Community of Practice, which maintains the evidence base and supports the people applying it. It sits alongside the Water Smart Growth Board, the national board established in 2026 out of EWSC's work to take integrated water management into government policy. Everything EWSC published remains available here, unchanged and free to use.
Partners & governance
The programme was delivered by a partnership across the water sector, academia and industry.
Anglian Water
Programme lead
Arup
Technical partner
Thames Water
Water sector partner
United Utilities
Water sector partner
CIWEM
Host of the Community of Practice
University of East Anglia
Research partner
University of Manchester
Research partner
Ofwat
Funder, via the Water Breakthrough Challenge
Funding
EWSC was funded through Ofwat's Water Breakthrough Challenge, a competition supporting innovation that delivers long-term benefit to water customers, society and the environment. Because the programme was publicly funded, everything it produced is free to use.