Institute of Water Magazine Summer 2020

SUMMER 2020 ISSUE206

IN THIS ISSUE CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES WATER QUALITY HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELL-BEING

INSTITUTE OF WATER MAGAZINE

EC&I SPECIALISTS

WE’RE STILL FIXING THINGS! z-tech.co.uk

24/7

EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICE

Helpline: 01223 653500 engineers@z-tech.co.uk

WE FIX THINGS!

WATER POWER RAIL

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Welcome to the 2020 Summer Edition of the Institute of Water Magazine.

20

56

I am very pleased to have been asked to write the introduction to this summer edition of the Institute of Water magazine. It was also a great honour to have been voted in as Vice Chair last year and I can’t believe it has already been nearly a year.

58

76

As I write this introduction many of us have been in lockdown since the middle of March and it is a difficult time for all of us both at work and at home. I sincerely hope you and your families are safe and you are staying positive, looking forward until things improve. As a scientist I am usually interested in learning more about viruses but the human and economic cost of this pandemic has been truly shocking. As you now may be aware, unfortunately we have had to postpone the conference planned for Portsmouth due to the Covid pandemic to next year, but look out for some virtual sessions, which are to be held instead in October.

In this edition of the Magazine you will find exciting articles on current and future challenges associated with water resources, an interesting article on drinking water regulation during lockdown from DWQR and very importantly for this difficult time an article on health, safety and wellbeing.

Before I sign off, I would like to thank all head office staff and all those Institute of Water committees who have adapted to the changes imposed on

us by lockdown, kept us working and added a large number of webinars to the programme whilst we can’t meet in person. The wide variety of topics covered has been excellent and I also want to thank you for your support if you have attended one of these. I hope you have found them enjoyable and informative, as I know I have.

Finally, as some of you will know I have been a Royal Navy Reserve for many years and I have been called up to work in Bahrain in a few weeks’ time for 6 months. Anglian Water are supporting me, as are the Institute of Water, allowing me to take a short sabbatical from Vice Chair whilst I am away but I will keep in touch with the Institute and see some of you, hopefully physically when I get back.

Well I wish you all a very safe summer and look forward to seeing you on a webinar or in a virtual meeting soon.

Catherine Fearon Vice Chair, Institute of Water and Water Quality Regulation Manager, Anglian Water

Features

20 Current and Future Challenges 56 Reputation 58 Water Quality 76 Health, Safety and Well-being

Regulars 4 Members Updates 6 IWA

8 Meet a Member 10 CPD 11 Mentoring 12 Rising Stars 14 Engineering News 16 Science News 80 Area News

instituteofwater.org.uk

3

NEW COMPANY AFFILIATES JV Controls Ltd JV Controls Ltd is a Systems Integrator that specialises in PLC, HMI, and SCADA solutions for the water industry. With an experienced team of trained engineers who have been working in the industry since the early 2000’s we are able to offer expert control systems solutions for our clients. Our head office is based near Leeds in West Yorkshire and we work anywhere in the UK and internationally.

Some of our most frequently used (but not limited to) PLC / HMI / SCADA platforms are: ■ Allen Bradley (Rockwell) ■ Mitsubishi ■ Siemens ■ Schneider ■ Wonderware / InTouch ■ iFix ■ WinCC ■ Beijer

Our engineers work on the full lifecycle of a project, from design through to commissioning. Providing quality work and excellent service is our priority.

www.jvcontrols.co.uk

JCM Engineering JCM Engineering was founded in 2018 by its Director Mark Weaver.

manufacture new components or refurbish old ones with the use of our machine shop.

From a strong career in engineering both in mechanical and electrical disciplines JCM Engineering has a lot to offer across the industry. We specialise in pumping station refurbishments, being heavily involved in the Private Pumping Station scheme from 20172020 for Anglian Water the experience and efficiency that can be gained by using us to carry out the refurbishment works ensure quality finish and cost effective.

Electrical installation works carried out to the highest standard and always in-line with the British Standards and WIMES specification we can facilitate bespoke control panel manufacture and installation, service visits and testing and inspection to ensure your equipment is well maintained.

We offer bespoke mechanical fabrication to the highest standards from our workshop in Suffolk with UK wide delivery, we can

Engineering Consultation, we have in house some experienced engineers to provide you with the skills and experience to run a successful project from inception to completion.

SAD NEWS In March 2020, Sam Foddy, Support Network Manager from Anglian Water, sadly passed away following a long struggle with cancer.

She was only 35 years old. Sam previously worked in the Laboratory at Anglian Water before becoming a Water Quality Scientist also completing a 6 month secondment with the Drinking Water Inspectorate. She joined the Institute of Water in June 2013 and in January 2015 she became a RSci.

4

instituteofwater.org.uk

Sam was a regular attender at IWater events in the Eastern area and attended the Annual and scientific conferences on a number of occasions. She was an extremely well liked, wonderful individual who will be sorely missed by all her family, friends and colleagues.

LG Wood Ltd LGW provide a turn-key service designing, supplying, installing and maintaining micro pump station/units.

We are approved Jung Pumpen and Kessell pump engineers. Our main clients are: Southern Water, Sutton and East Surrey, Clancy Docwra, Cappagh Browne Ltd Services ■ CCTV survey and Full BA Support ■ Flood Mitigation ■ M&E Electrical support ■ Lining services ■ Lateral and Robotic Cutter ■ Joint Test & Seal ■ Chamber Sealing ■ Civils Support ■ Van Pack Jetting Support www.lgwconsultants.co.uk

Get in touch with us to find out more about our services and how we can help you info@jcmeng.co.uk

MEMBERSUPDATE

INSTITUTE OF WATER COMMITTEE MEMBERS OF THE YEAR 2020 WINNERS ANNOUNCED The Institute of Water is proud to announce the National and Regional winners of the Committee Members of the Year award for 2020.

We are greatly supported by a number of volunteers who are committed to professional development, sharing best practice and supporting their professional body. The Committee Members of the Year Award shines a light on the great work of our volunteers and rewards or recognises those who have gone the ‘extra mile’.

Through a nation-wide call for nominations, members of the Institute’s eight Area Committees were asked to nominate one of their peers who they think has demonstrated outstanding commitment to their Area Committee and to the Institute of Water.

The Institute of Water Head Office Team carefully judged the regional winning nominations to select who they felt were the top three volunteers.

WINNERS National Committee Members of the Year 2020 Abbie Johnson, Thames Water Carmel Bradley, Northern Ireland Water Mary Porter-Chorley, Severn Trent

Regional Committee Member of the Year 2020 Scottish Area: Rob Bradley Welsh Area: Gemma Williams, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water Northern Ireland Area: Carmel Bradley, Northern Ireland Water Northern Area: Neil Hancox, United Utilities Eastern Area: Jenny Cooper, Anglian Water Midlands Area: Mary Porter-Chorley, Severn Trent South East Area: Abbie Johnson, Thames Water South West Area: Karen Light, WRc Plc

GOCARDLESS OFFERS MORE FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PLAN FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS We are pleased to announce that members can now spread their annual subscription payments across 12 instalments.

This is just one reason we are changing our direct debit service provider to GoCardless. Their system connects directly to our membership system which saves time and removes any scope for human error.

to suit. We will make one final collection through our current provider on 1st August to complete the cycle for members paying by instalment: after that we will no longer hold bank details or be able to use a current mandate to collect.

GoCardless serves more businesses than any other Direct Debit provider. They are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide payment services and payments are covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee. Bank details are held

by GoCardless, not by the Institute of Water, so existing direct debit payers have been asked to register with GoCardless to enable them to continue to pay by direct debit. When they do, they will have the opportunity to change the number of instalments and select collection dates

Security is of utmost importance at GoCardless and they take steps to ensure customer data remains safe at all times: ■ Their access to the Direct Debit system is provided by some of Europe’s major banks, who have approved their systems ■ All customer data is treated in accordance with European data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ■ All client-server communication is 256-bit SSL encrypted

■

They are ISO27001-certified and regularly perform internal and external security audits on all systems and processes

You can sign up to GoCardless by logging in to your membership profile at the top of our website www.instituteofwater.org.uk.

Here you will be asked to enter your bank details and to select payment frequency and dates. If you have forgotten your username please call us on 0191 422 0088.

You can still pay by cheque, online or you can ring to pay by debit or credit card.

GoCardless is however the simplest: once you set up the payment you have nothing else to do.

instituteofwater.org.uk

5

THE BENEFITS OF IWA MEMBERSHIP In the Spring edition of the IWater Magazine we updated you on the changes to the International Water Association’s UK Committee, which is a sub-committee of the Institute of Water, and promised to provide regular updates on the IWA. In this edition we explore some of the benefits that IWA membership and involvement can bring through its Specialist Groups and access to cutting-edge science.

Specialist Groups For those of you not familiar with the IWA, it has members from over 140 countries, united by a professional interest in water and an ambition to see it used sustainably and managed equitably. One of the great strengths of the IWA is its Specialist Groups, where professionals from all over the world can share ideas, innovations and good practice through newsletters, webinars and conferences. Across the 50 groups there’s one for pretty much every interest and specialism in water. Many of them are led by UK members, and have a strong UK involvement. One of the most active is the Water Loss Group, in which our own Vice President Engineering Jo Parker is a leading voice.

The Water Loss Specialist Group started life as a Task Force with the specific job of looking at Water Loss Performance Indicators. When the first Global Water Loss Conference was held in Lemesos, Cyprus in 2002, it attracted 107 international and local delegates and became the first of a series of regular Global Water Loss Conferences. With each successive conference the delegate numbers increased and the group outgrew its Task Force status and became a stand-alone Specialist Group.

The Global Water Loss Conference is held on average every two years, and the last Conference in Cape Town in 2018 attracted over 500 delegates. It’s hoped that there could be a UK conference in 2021, and with the water companies in England and Wales having committed to halving leakage by 2050 (and with challenging interim targets for 2024) it will be an opportunity to find out how other countries are addressing unacceptably high levels of leakage.

Covid-19 response By the time this gets into print it’s impossible to know where we shall be with Covid-19, but it’s certain that there will be an ongoing impact on water companies’ operations as they work hard to maintain standards of service in the face of staff absence through illness or self-isolation, and the need to minimize risk to employees and the public. These are challenges faced by water undertakers the world over, and the IWA is dedicating part of its website to freely sharing experience and the latest science.

Jo said “I have been a member of the IWA for around 15 years and have been an active member of the Water Loss Specialist Group (and its predecessor task force) for most of that time. It’s a fantastic group for meeting like-minded people all over the world and has been responsible for developing tools and techniques to help water loss specialists everywhere”.

6

instituteofwater.org.uk

KWR Water, a Dutch research institution which aims to build bridges between science and practice, has demonstrated that the SARS-CoV-2 (corona) virus’s RNA is actually detectable in sewage samples. This is the continuation of its work in sewer sampling for detecting traces of illicit drugs, such as opioids, as part of strategies to inform public policies.

SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in untreated wastewater within days of infection and as much as two weeks before a person becomes ill enough to seek medical care, if indeed symptoms ever materialize at all. Therefore sewer monitoring can illustrate the timing and scale of outbreaks that are currently difficult to visualize because of a general lack of human testing.

When Covid-19 appeared in Italy, KWR began collecting samples in several wastewater treatment plants in the Netherlands.

They analysed the wastewater at a number of treatment plants in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport and some smaller plants. In early February no traces were found, but on 5 March, the first indications appeared (the first cases by health professionals were confirmed on 27 February). These became even more evident in the samples taken on 16 March.

KWR’s Chief Executive Dragan Savic said “The strength of sewage surveillance is that we can monitor large (sub) populations with a single sample and link that information to the data obtained from health professionals to monitor the evolution of the epidemic in the community and inform decision making on how to most effectively mitigate the impact of the epidemic and distribute limited resources (i.e., human and material).”

Teams in the United States are pursuing similar studies, and closer to home Cranfield University is also making a significant contribution to the science. A team led by Dr Zhugen Yang, an academic at Cranfield’s Water Science Institute, is working to develop a rapid and low-cost paper-based test for the coronavirus in wastewater treatment plants. This has the potential to serve as an early monitoring tool to help local governments and agencies to decide effective courses of action. For example, it could be deployed at a local level to give officials some measure of comfort in reopening schools and businesses. If cases

INTERNATIONALWATERASSOCIATION are falling and the virus begins to disappear from wastewater, sewage could help decide when it’s safe to inch back toward normality.

Young professionals A new member of the IWA UK Committee is Rose Jolly, who works for Severn Trent as Innovation Ecosystems and Knowledge Manager.

Her role involves sourcing new technologies, best practice and knowledge from across the world through involvement in groups such as the World Water Innovation Fund.

“As an IWA member I’ve already found the membership incredibly useful, in particular some of the webinars and materials regarding the Covid 19 outbreak have been a brilliant resource. Isle Utilities also recently set up a Covid-19 WhatsApp that I’m a part of. Through tools and networks like these we’ve learnt some great lessons from what others are doing around the world to tackle the same problems.”

Rose joined the IWA UK committee in September 2019, and said “I’ve sat on the Institute of Water Midlands Area committee since 2014, was the Midlands Area Rising Star in 2017 and acted as Midlands Area Chair since 2018. The Institute of Water has been a huge support in the development of my career over the last seven years and I’m keen to now get more involved in the International Water Association to continue my career development. I also want to give back, and feel like the skills I have developed whilst sitting as the Midlands Area Chair will be directly applicable in my new role on the IWA UK committee.

I recently took a sabbatical from work to lead a WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) project, constructing a water system for a village in rural Nepal. I’d really like to build on this experience to learn more about water management from an international perspective and I feel that sitting on the IWA committee is a great way to do this.”

As always, feedback on your overall experience would be greatly appreciated as it helps us to plan our events going forward. Please don’t hesitate to email iwaukywp@gmail.com and let us know what you thought of the webinars, plus any additional questions you may have.

In the last issue of the Magazine we featured Kirstin Watt from Scottish Water, who with a team of colleagues was organizing the 21st IWA Young Professionals conference in Cardiff in April. It won’t be a surprise to learn that the Conference didn’t take place in the planned format, but instead was converted into a series of fascinating and well supported webinars; a big ‘thank you’ to all who joined in. The webinars focused on the theme of ‘The S Word: Exploring Sustainability across the Water Sector’ and we hope that you found them both enjoyable and informative!

You can view the webinars on the IWA Committee section of the IWater website www.instituteofwater.org. uk/our-area-committees/iwa-ukcommittee.

A huge thank you to our four keynote speakers who kindly joined us: Peter Davies CBE (Welsh Government Sustainable Futures, Commissioner 2011-2016), Dr Michael Singer (Cardiff University: Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director, Water Research Institute), Prof. Peter Kille (Cardiff University: Director of Technology, Bio-Initiatives Director, School of Biosciences) and Tony Harrington (Dwr Cymru Welsh Water: Director of Environment). The level of engagement with regard to the question and answer sessions reflected the high quality of the presentations.

The conference itself has been rescheduled for 7-9 April 2021 in Cardiff, so put the dates in your diary in anticipation of what is always an excellent event.

NEW DATE FOR IWA WORLD WATER CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION 9-14 MAY 2021, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK Are you a member of the Institute of Water and keen to find out about water challenges and solutions worldwide? If so, there is an amazing opportunity just around the corner.

The International Water Association (IWA) World Water Congress and Exhibition will take place between the 9th and 14th May 2021* in Copenhagen, Denmark and you could be there!

We are offering to fund places** for two members to attend. One place is reserved for a Young Water Professional (under-35 or in the early stages of a water industry career); the other is open to any Institute of Water member.

The successful candidates will be expected to produce a blog and social media content whilst in Copenhagen to share with other Institute of Water members. They will also be expected

to present at a local Institute of Water event on their return.

Download an updated Application Form and, once completed, email it to info@instituteofwater.org.uk.

Closing date: 13 November 2020 * Note change of date ** (registration, travel and accommodation)

instituteofwater.org.uk

7

MEETAMEMBER

MEET A MEMBER The Institute of Water is proud of its members. Put simply, they make our Institute what it is… a great network to support your development and share experience. within the design department & an average day can be anything from designing a Water Network for 50 plots to high level infrastructure designs from 1,000 plus plots.

In addition to water design works I have also been trained in other utilities so I can be designing fibre, gas & LV networks as well. As well as design work I also carry out approvals of other designers work.

Name: Craig Claydon Job title: Senior Design Engineer Employer: GTC (Gas Transportation Company) IWater Area: Water designs for new developments

How long have you been a member of the Institute of Water?

Approximately 3 years.

How long have you worked in the water industry? Approximately 18 years.

Describe your ‘average day’ at work As GTC is a multi-utility company, I work

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The variety of projects that come through the department & passing on my water knowledge to others within the team who have normally have a gas or electric background.

How did you start your career in the water industry?

I started in the Water Industry at Cambridge Water as GIS technician updated the then relatively new system to record asset information & as built information.

In addition to this I carried out some new network designs by hand, French curves and all.

What advice would you pass on to someone just starting out in the

Sarah Murray

Senior Scientific Officer, Water Quality; Affinity Water Limited Chartered Scientist

instituteofwater.org.uk

What is the best thing about working in the water industry?

The variety of roles available and the opportunities that are now opening up with the competitive NAV marked has personally allowed me to progress in my career & learn new skills along the way.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the water industry in the near future?

Simply climate change & the potential of microplastic having an impact on the water that we consume, effecting the quality of the water.

What interests to do have outside of work?

I have a young family so spend most of my spare time running around after them & I enjoy taking the family dog on walks to keep fit. Prior to having a family I used to play the Trombone in local Brass bands & run a local Cub Pack which I am sure I will get back into once the children are older.

NEWREGISTRANTS

SCIENCE

8

water industry?

Make the most of any opportunities to learn or experience new things as you never know when they may come in handy.

Chartered Scientist is something I have been working towards ever since I achieved my Registered Scientist in 2017. This has inspired me to take on new challenges and encourage others to get involved.

I would recommend others to apply, not only to gain external recognition for your work, but also for your own self achievement and to expand your technical knowledge. If you find you have gaps in the competency assessment, saying you are working towards chartership is a great opportunity to work on different projects and with different teams to broaden your skillset.

NEWREGISTRANTS SCIENCE CONTINUED Wouter Basson

Wastewater Quality Technician; Thames Water Registered Science Technician

I am a Wastewater Quality Technician at Thames Water. I would encourage anyone in the water industry to apply to become a RSciTech.

The qualification as a Registered Technician gave me the ability to be recognised for the hard work and experience I gained over the years working in the water industry. It also gives me a great stepping-stone to develop my future career progression and development. I enjoyed applying and the journey to obtain the qualification as it gave me a new challenge, pride and commitment in what I do.

The qualification helps you get first-hand knowledge and information about all the different sectors in the water industry, as well as any seminars you could attend to enrich your knowledge in the water industry. It gives you support and a structure to help you with your training and skills development for your future career progression.

ENVIRONMENT Kirsty Ayres

Senior Engineer; WSP Chartered Environmentalist

Tamsyn Kennedy

Environment Program Manager; Scottish Water Chartered Environmentalist

It’s always surprised me how people in this section previously said how much they enjoyed writing their competency report when I felt the complete opposite.

For me, it was arduous trying to explain how my experience met competencies that seemed generic yet specific at the same time. It was a relief to finally get it submitted! I did however really enjoy the interview which was essentially a conversation about environmental and sustainability issues so I could expand on my examples as well as discuss current topics, such as the Australian wildfires.

I’m really pleased to have achieved CEnv and would encourage everyone to get professionally registered to demonstrate your commitment to the water industry.

My advice to get started is to bullet point examples for each of the competencies so you can quickly identify gaps in your knowledge to be filled, then start writing those simpler ones such as H&S or communication skills that we all work towards everyday to help you feel like you’ve made good progress before moving on to the more complex ones.

Four years ago I was awarded Registered Environmental Technician. I was pleased to get that far! Since then I have sought further qualifications and experience, until I felt ready for Chartership.

Due to lockdown, my interview was over video. The assessors did a great job at putting me at ease and ensuring the process went smoothly. I am proud of this achievement as recognition of my personal development efforts and of my organisation’s serious commitment to environmental issues.

I believe in order to improve our industry’s sustainability approach we need more professionals willing to widely share their knowledge and enthusiasm.

Did you know that until 30 September 2020, the initial registration fees to become a CEnv or REnvTech have essentially halved?

CEnv initial fee NOW £44.00

(reduced from £88.00)

REnvTech initial fee NOW £20.50

(reduced from £41.00)

Visit www.instituteofwater.org.uk/environment-registration

instituteofwater.org.uk

9

CPD

REFLECTING BACK In this issue I thought we’d look at one part of the CPD cycle – reflection. It’s a vital part of the CPD cycle, but it’s one that often seems to take a back seat against the understandable enthusiasm for participating in activities and clocking up CPD hours.

by Matt Bower

Action Plan

IWater CPD Champion

If it arose again what would you do?

When we review members’ CPD records as part of our annual monitoring exercise, reflection is one of the weakest elements of the CPD cycle across all professions and membership grades.

As an Institute we need to change this, as reflecting on learning activities is key to completing the CPD cycle and maximising the benefit we get from our efforts. Reflection is the act of taking the time to consider what has been learned, any shortfall against what was hoped or planned for, and feeding this into our future plans for learning and development.

Without reflection, each activity exists in isolation from the others; there’s no review of learning outcomes to shape future activities, we don’t learn from our CPD mistakes and successes and we don’t progress in our development activity.

Reflection is a great habit to get into.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has a useful guide1 to a technique known as Reflective Practice, which takes things a step further. Reflective Practice is a method of assessing our own thoughts, feelings and actions in order to inform our future strategies. It is different from straightforward reflection in that it is captured in a systematic way – the CIPD paper argues that the process of representing the reflection is of value in itself. In fact, it goes further, to suggest that the technique actually develops the individual, by growing the capacity to manage emotions and thoughts to respond to challenges and make timely decisions based on good judgement.

So how does a hard-bitten water professional become a reflective practitioner?

The CIPD describes three stages: Critical reflection on the experience

10

instituteofwater.org.uk

Conclusion

What else could you have done?

Analysis

■ ■ ■

What Happened?

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

What sense can you make of a situation?

■

Description

Re-inhabit / relive the experience Reflect – notice what was going on Review – critically analyse the situation Re-frame – capture new understanding

Reflection in action This means that, with practice, we are able to notice patterns of thoughts and feelings as they happen, enabling us to steer our approach in real time; Reflection for action Apply the insights to guide future learning.

It may just be me, but I find it easier to visualise the concept using an example.

Suppose we are on a secondment, with the aim of developing new skills. At a suitable point, we (hopefully) set aside time to reflect on our progress by recalling experiences and reflecting on what we are learning and whether we are achieving what we hoped. One approach is to use Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle2 (pictured). By taking the time to revisit experiences in our heads, we reinforce key learning points as well as assessing the value of what we are doing against our learning objectives and making

Feelings

What were you thinking and feeling?

Evaluation

What was good and bad about the experience?

adjustments as needed. Once we become practiced in this technique, we may find we are able to apply the technique in “real time”, steering our approach or direction. Now we are really taking control of our learning, making the most of every opportunity. We can also use reflection to guide our future learning – for example by focussing on a few key topics for additional study, or even changing to a different learning method if we decide the secondment approach doesn’t work well for us.

This article is only an introduction to the subject – If you’d like to know more, I recommend you access the full paper on the CIPD website: www.cipd.co.uk/Images/ reflective-practice-guide_tcm18-12524.pdf References 1 Reflective Practice Guide Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in collaboration with Grace Owen and Alison Fletcher 2 Gibbs G (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic, Oxford

MENTORING

MENTORING WITH THE INSTITUTE OF WATER

The Institute of Water occupies a unique niche within the UK water industry. It is peer-driven and caters to every profession working nationally to ensure the public are supplied with water. and making life-long acquaintances.

It is a difficult challenge for all areas and HQ to adapt to the virus crisis during 2020, especially as many of us eagerly anticipate meeting up annually at the National and specialist conferences around the country.

However, through an established online tool, we can both access and build on the shared experiences of membership.

by Rob Bradley CEnv,

Chair of the Scottish Area Committee This body of membership is diverse and ranges across all age groups, providing a rich depth of experience that very few other institutes can supply.

In my experience two of the most powerful ways members can access and leverage this range of knowledge is by speaking to delegates at conferences and through mentor relationships. As members are encouraged to interact on a non-hierarchal basis, there is an acknowledged friendly and welcoming atmosphere present at our events, which lends itself to networking

During the mentoring-process the mentor shares their personal skills, knowledge and experience with the mentee to enable him or her to explore their personal and professional situation. It is a two-way process in which the mentor and mentee work together to set and achieve predetermined goals and objectives.

Mentoring is a way of enabling the mentee to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to perform at a higher level, and of giving them access to impartial, non-judgmental guidance and support.

In many ways, this summer is an optimum time to get acquainted with the tools, process and potential outcomes of a mentoring relationship. Active learning and listening are two essential skills which are going to become much more important as society across the world comes to

terms with restricted movement orders.

A professional mentoring relationship also provides other core attributes which every employee will need to help cope with the challenges of this period: personal resilience and trust.

Now with significantly more emphasis on communicating and working remotely, having access of trusted mentoring relationship can also give unexpected benefits. For example, the opportunity to experience ‘reverse mentoring’ where learning how to manage and improve web access technology may come from new entrants to the workplace rather than established professionals.

The platform used by the Institute is self-contained with ample guidance and tools built in.

The final note I will add at this time is for anyone looking to make their first step into a mentoring to think about what kind of goals they really want. Some may be short term, such as achieving a registration grade, other examples might to as simple as being valued. Take the plunge and let your ambition guide you! www.instituteofwater.org.uk/mentoring

instituteofwater.org.uk

11

RISINGSTARS

DAYS BEFORE THE UK WENT INTO LOCKDOWN OUR RISING STARS MANAGED TWO VISITS ON CONSECUTIVE DAYS IN MARCH. INSPIRING TRIP TO WATERAID

by Kim Rodwell Our visit to WaterAid began with an introduction from Paula Laird (Director of Finance and IT). She explained briefly about the history of WaterAid and how it was founded by the water industry, who were nationalised at the time. Our day was packed full of presentations covering just about everything WaterAid do from supporting local communities to access clean water, promoting human rights and partnering with corporations to raise vital funds.

We were lucky to visit just a few days after their Water and Climate Event where leaders from government, business and multinational institutions came together

to agree what actions are needed to address the impact of the climate crisis on access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. Visiting so soon after the international event meant that we were privileged to hear from Ceaser Kimbugwe, a project officer in Uganda.

Ceaser gave an in-depth insight into the issues Uganda faces, specifically his home city of Kampala.

It was interesting to hear how WaterAid’s approach here shifted from drilling boreholes

to strengthening the local governments approach as policy changed. It is this adaptive nature that, I think, makes WaterAid so successful in its ambition.

The range of presentations was fantastic.

We all left feeling so very inspired that shortly after, we created a ‘Rising Star’s’ team for WaterAid’s fundraising campaign ‘March for Water’ – I think that shows how impactful the day was! Huge thank you to all at HQ and WaterAid for arranging.

RISING STARS VISIT THAMES WATER HQ

by Mary Porter-Chorley

12

After our visit at WaterAid in the heart of London, our Rising Stars programme took us to Thames Water which was hosted by our Rising Star from South East, Kim Rodwell who is an Environmental Protection Officer for the company.

Development Workshop and ending the day with a visit at their Customer Service Centre at Kemble Court.

Our visit was solely focused on the operational aspects of the business.

The day began with an introduction from Richard Aylard who is the Sustainability Director of Thames Water. This was followed by various presentations such as Innovations in Waste Networks, Smarter Water Catchments, Performance, Risk and Optimisation, a taste of their Personal

A wide range of topics were covered which gave us the opportunity to discuss in detail whilst they were being presented.

The visit was beneficial and gave food for thought in terms of the similarities to how Thames Water ran in similar to our own water companies. It was fascinating to learn from Thames Water how in the past, even though water companies in

instituteofwater.org.uk

England are a monopoly, most are not keen in sharing information but I think in the current climate, it’s great to recognise that all water companies are now working on the same target to protect the infrastructure.

The day itself was a great experience and a lot was taken on board for our own learnings. A huge thank you to Kim for organising the event as well as to Richard and the team who all took time out of their day to share their experience.

YOUNGPERSONSNETWORK

LOOKING BACK TO THE EASTERN AREA’S FIRST YOUNG PERSONS’ NETWORK EVENING The Art of Networking The Eastern Area hosted an evening event in the historic Lincoln Bailgate in January.

Networking forms the first of five core pillars established for the YPN. These were set out in order to deliver the best outcomes for our members, support the institute in our mission to enable members to reach their full potential and drive the sector forward.

The value of a professional network should never be understated. As each member reads this article now, they can almost certainly re-call a time where they’ve benefitted from the ability to reach out to peers at some stage in their career. Whether that was for career advice, help with a technical issue or even just a friendly face to bounce ideas off. However, it is often gathering the confidence or the know how to start building that network, especially for early career stage professionals, which can hold people back.

A networking evening provided the perfect stage to bring YPNs and senior members together to help with this challenge. Luke Stanbridge, Commercial Director at Z-Tech Control Systems, opened the evening with his views as a senior professional in the industry on how he has built his network across his career and indeed how he would now class many of those professional connections as close friends. Luke spoke to how the Institute has enabled him to do this, through events and his time on the Eastern Area Committee and finished his talk with some hints and tips on how to strike up and hold conversations when meeting new people.

“I found Luke’s tips of how to build a conversation useful, I often get nervous when meeting people at events but having some tools to use is great!”

Following a meal, the event put Luke’s hints and tips to the test with a few highoctane rounds of Speed Networking, pairing people up for two minutes at a time armed with some ice breaker questions to get them going.

“As someone who isn’t a member of the IoW, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the event. What I felt was a relaxed atmosphere where I had good fun and learnt something at the same time. I’m looking forward to the next one!”

The evening came to a close with a pub quiz (yes there was a time when these happened somewhere other than on Zoom or HouseParty) for a bit of fun and time to allow those attending to socialise and network in a less enforced manner.

Being committed to delivering value for its members and events they want, the YPN team set out whiteboards for attendees to have their say in shaping future events.

There were some great ideas, from a session on how to use LinkedIn to technical development workshops which will form

the basis of future events in the region.

With current social restrictions in place, it may be a while before we find ourselves back in a pub on Lincoln’s Bailgate but that doesn’t mean YPN events have stopped.

Find out more about the Young Persons’ Network and upcoming events by visiting www.instituteofwater.org.uk/youngpersons-network

instituteofwater.org.uk

13

ENGINEERINGNEWS

ACADEMY MAPS OUT ENGINEERING CHALLENGES FOR RECOVERY FROM COVID-19 The Royal Academy of Engineering highlights the key engineering-related risks and opportunities that COVID-19 poses for the UK beyond the immediate crisis response, drawing on the expertise of Academy Fellows and its partners in the National Engineering Policy Centre, who collectively represent 450,000 engineers across the UK. The key engineering issues identified as critical for the UK’s medium and long-term recovery include:

Measures to take during the pandemic to lessen its impact ■

■

■

■

National infrastructure resilience and interdependencies: protecting national infrastructure from additional strains and vulnerabilities from the current crisis, which may be exacerbated by interdependencies between them.

Cybersecurity: mitigating against risks that may arise from large-scale remote working practices.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem: ensuring the survival and quick bounce-back of R&D and innovation-intensive businesses, both large and small, on which future recovery and growth depends.

Supply chain agility: understanding and mitigating supply chain disruptions during the pandemic.

Developing an exit strategy ■

Infrastructure resilience: sequencing the reduction of social distancing and other interventions to minimise wider risks.

■

■

Data portability and sharing: opportunities and robust engineering approaches to contribute to the lifting of social and behavioural interventions.

Rebuilding the knowledge economy: measures to restart engineering sectors and investment in R&D.

Building a resilient future ■

■

■

■

Building resilience to future emergencies, including through accelerated digitalisation and better understanding of which parts of the system are most sensitive to disruption and how they impact on each other.

Rapid innovation and scale-up: lessons from the pandemic for better innovation practices.

Changing attitudes and behaviours: exploring the impact of behaviour change, learning lessons from the crisis and wider implications, for example net zero.

Addressing engineering skills and diversity challenges, taking advantage of the opportunities created by the pandemic as well as addressing the problems caused by it.

The full briefing is available here: www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/ meeting-challenges-from-covid-19 Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says: “The Academy is committed to supporting both the nearterm and longer-term response to COVID-19 and to helping build resilience against future waves of this or other pandemics.

Engineers play a major role in creating and maintaining the infrastructure and systems on which society and the economy depend, such as digital, mobility and healthcare.

As we move into a recovery phase we want to encourage innovation and collaboration across all relevant areas of engineering, including healthcare systems, critical infrastructure, business management and the supply chain.”

Alongside its partners in the National Engineering Policy Centre, the Academy is now studying these issues in more detail to provide advice and guidance to government.

For more information see: www.raeng.org. uk/policy/engineering-response-covid-19coronavirus

SIGN UP FOR #WESLOTTIETOUR 2020!

The WES Early Careers Board is organising its fifth #WESLottieTour this year for Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2020, to show how varied and exciting it is to work in engineering!

Last year we had over 170 engineers involved taking photos of Lottie at work, but we’d love this number to grow even more this year! We’re proud to announce the 2020 #WESLottieTour is being sponsored by GKN Automotive.

14

instituteofwater.org.uk

This year we have also launched an exciting new website for the WES Lottie Tour so take a look at what Lottie got up to last year. Sign up for the #WESLottieTour by filling out the form at www.weslottietour.org.uk/signup.

Please use the form if you would like to borrow a Lottie Doll from WES or if you already have your own as we’d love to capture the full number of volunteers taking part!

TECHNOLOGY THAT’S TRUSTED THE WORLD OVER Water authorities across the globe rely on our data-driven solutions to advance productivity, safety, operations, sustainability and financial performance.

MONITORING & CONTROL

ANALYTICS

TELEMETRY

CONSULTANCY

instituteofwater.org.uk

15

SCIENCENEWS

DWI REPORT SUPPORTING PROFESSIONAL REGISTRATION The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) publishes their Chief Inspector’s Report quarterly and of particular relevance to professional registration was a section in Quarter 2 of the 2019 report, which was published earlier this year. In particular they report on the themed audits they undertook in that period (Apr-Jun 2019), which was linked to competence.

Inspectors made recommendations to address a wide range of deficiencies including the support of professional registration.

Competence The production and delivery of good clean wholesome water might be argued to be the primary purpose of a water company.

This simple objective protects public health and must be without compromise.

To enable this function as a minimum, it is necessary to have appropriately qualified, trained and competent staff operating water treatment works and supply networks.

However, competence does not stop here as the work carried out by scientists, water quality teams and drinking water safety planners supports and underpins these standards. During the second quarter, the Inspectorate carried out a series of site audits and investigated the systems companies had in place for ensuring staff working in these areas were suitably trained and competent to carry out their roles.

Training Schemes Our findings identified that Anglian Water has a well-developed, resourced and embedded a technical training and competence framework, which is given a high priority at all levels throughout the company, and is externally accredited. Staff are required to undergo training when they start at the company and this is maintained throughout their careers, and managed through personal development plans. The company reaps the benefits of a technically competent workforce which keeps knowledge refreshed through continuing professional development. Senior managers display interest and knowledge about water quality matters, and sponsor their Licence to Operate (LTO) scheme. An advanced LTO scheme is also run, sponsored by senior managers and targeted at high fliers as part

16

instituteofwater.org.uk

of company succession planning. This links to professional registration, e.g. with the Institute Of Water (IOW), and is completed by 12 – 15 people annually. The advanced scheme covers more specialist knowledge of water, optimisation, metering etc.; and is shared across the business.

Anglian Water are introducing an audit scheme Anglian Water are introducing an audit scheme this year (2019), to assess technician competence to carry out routine tasks, and benchmarked against City and Guilds. The process will become an ongoing part of the manager’s role.

Technicians have the facility to escalate risks to the supply of wholesome water as near misses using their tough book.

It is likely that this is underused at present and the company is encouraging more take up with technicians.

Well managed schemes Well managed schemes such as Licence to Operate give confidence to the Inspectorate that Site Operators have the necessary competence to carry out their duties effectively. There is an alternative opportunity which companies could consider to enable technical staff (including site operators, network technicians, instrument technicians and sampling staff) to become Registered Science Technicians. Awarded by the Science Council through various bodies, there are no formal science qualifications required for this level of registration. Once achieved ongoing competency is assured as part of maintaining this professional standard.

For further information about scientific, environmental or engineering professional registration through the Institute of Water contact sarah@instituteofwater.org.uk

WATER & CLIMATE CHANGE

Putting urgency into the climate emergency.

ENVIRONMENT CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2020 Water is where the climate emergency will impact most. This conference brings together leading figures from the water and environmental sectors to discuss what it will mean for people and the natural environment. Exploring whether we are doing enough, fast enough, to prepare for extremes of too much and too little water, and what customers can do to play their part.

Provisional speakers include: Emma Howard Boyd, Chair, Environment Agency and UK Commissioner on the Global Commission on Adaptation Tony Juniper, Chair, Natural England Mark Fletcher, Global Water Leader, Arup Nicci Russell, CEO Waterwise Mel Karam, CEO Bristol Water And many more with thought-provoking ideas and practical innovations to address the climate challenge.

FREE TO MEMBERS | £150 TO NON-MEMBERS VENUE: WE THE CURIOUS ONE MILLENNIUM SQUARE, BRISTOL, BS1 5DB

BOOK NOW INSTITUTEOFWATER.ORG.UK/ENVIRONMENTCONFERENCE2020 instituteofwater.org.uk

17

ENERGY & UTILITIES SECTOR COLLABORATE TO CLOSE 277,000 WORKFORCE GAP The Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership today launches the 2020-2025 Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy. The sector, central to achieving Net Zero carbon targets and providing essential services to over 66 million homes, is facing labour market demands and skills challenges that will require 277,000 people over the next decade.

A collaboration of 30 major organisations in the sector, known as the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership (EUSP), has come together with a mandate to ensure that all relevant employers have the safe, skilled, diverse and sustainable workforce needed to deliver essential services to the public now, and to meet the fast changing requirements in the future.

The inaugural strategy launched three years ago, had clear strategic priorities enabling the sector to deliver tangible achievements: ■

■

■

■

Attracting diverse talent to the sector, Energy & Utilities Jobs has reached over 8 million people and continues to attract over 50% female visitors* to its website.

Created the sector’s first ever Inclusion Commitment backed by over 40 utility partners.

Increased investment in skills by changing culture through the Procurement Skills Accord with 67 signatory employers participating.

1500 plus technical apprentices have graduated into critical utility industries.

The strategy acknowledges that we are operating in changed times. The impact of COVID-19, Net Zero carbon targets, exiting the European Union, increased competition for skills with other highprofile sectors and the divergent skills policy across the four nations – makes the skills challenge very real and urgent.

The baby boomer generation are all aged 55 and over, indicating that 27% of the workforce will retire in the next decade leaving the sector to recruit or retrain

18

instituteofwater.org.uk

48% of the current workforce which represents 277,000 vacancies over the next 10 years.

The skills and workforce issues are persistent; however, the sector remains committed to addressing three key strategies: 1. Sector attractiveness, recruitment and workforce diversity 2. Maximising investment in skills 3. Targeted action – to address anticipated skills gaps and shortages Nick Ellins, CEO of Energy & Utility Skills comments: “The Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy continues to provide a framework that everyone in the utility sector can work within and aims to secure successful UK wide skills provision for the next five years. By working together through this voluntary alliance, the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership have led the way and they now call on the whole industry to help in tackling the issues set out, and to work with central and devolved governments, regulators and key interest groups to continue building these initiatives and meet the skills challenge. By working together, we can ensure a highly skilled, safe and productive workforce that ultimately invests directly back into society and our communities.”

Michael Lewis, E.ON UK Chief Executive and Chair of the Partnership says, “This new strategy seeks to ensure workforce resilience by calling on all the policy makers, regulators, unions, utilities, supply chain partners and major interest groups to unite. As much as the workforce and skills challenge has

increased for our sector, our very purpose has become pin sharp since events such as the environmental emergency and the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, we have a once in a generation opportunity to work together and show that choosing to take on a career in our industries is about choosing to support our communities and our planet in finding sustainable energy, waste and water solutions; it is about being in the vanguard of tackling the environmental crisis; it is about meeting those vital zero carbon targets and it is about underpinning the UK economy and people with infrastructure and essential services as critical workers.”

Rachel Fletcher, Ofwat Chief Executive said, “The challenges we now face require the sector to pay even more attention to securing the long-term skills it will need to transition to changing customer and environmental needs. That’s why we welcome this new Energy and Utilities Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy and its work to build human capital through the choice’s companies and their supply chain partners make on apprenticeships, training and employment. Ensuring a workforce has the right skills is vital to delivering a resilient water sector.”

The strategy, actions and asks are clear, as the sector moves forward to deliver the next five years and close the persistent skills gap.

You can download the full strategy document at www.euskills.co.uk/about/ energy-utilities-skills-partnership/skillsstrategy-2020 *53.8% of the visitors to the Energy & Utilities Jobs website between May 2019 and May 2020 were female.

INSTITUTEOFWATER

INSTITUTE OF WATER AGM 2020 The 75th Annual General Meeting will take place online on Wednesday 23 September 2020 at 14.00 AGENDA ■ ■

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

AWARDS

Welcome and apologies for absence Minutes of the seventy-fourth AGM held in the Titanic Hotel, Belfast on 26th June 2019 Annual Report of the Board Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2019 Appointment of Auditors Annual Subscriptions for 2021 Election of Officers for the year 2020-2021 Election of other Board Members for the year 2020-2021 Installation of Officers, introductions and votes of thanks Any other relevant business

We will still be presenting the Awards normally given out at the President’s Dinner: ■

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Award

■

National Innovation Awards

■

Allen Bolton Award

■

President’s Cup

These will be presented over the coming months in online ceremonies: watch out for details as each date approaches

Details of how to join the meeting and receive papers will be emailed to members by the end of August. This is an unusual opportunity for all members to ‘attend’ so why not make the most of it and hear our plans for your Institution for the year ahead?

SECURE OR VULNERABLE? ONLINE CONFERENCE 15-16 OCTOBER 2020

COVID-19: IMPACTS AND RECOVERY Regrettably we have decided to move our Portsmouth Conference to 2021.

You can still enjoy presentations and discussions, STREAM posters and take part in a ‘mini’ Meet the Leaders session.

As a result, the Institute of Water will now be hosting an online conference in October across two days.

Limited opportunities for sponsorship are also available, please email megan@instituteofwater.org.uk for details.

SAVE THE DATE | BOOKINGS WILL OPEN IN EARLY JULY.

instituteofwater.org.uk

19

CURRENT WATER RESOURCES CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Water, as a prime driver and determinant of human life, has been a principal factor for shaping human settlements across centuries.

by Amine Salameh

Principal Engineer - Water at AECOM Middle East in Abu Dhabi (UAE) Introduction Water (or freshwater in particular) has been a principal factor and driver of human life, and has governed the locations of human settlements across centuries. London, Paris, New Orleans and Montreal are only a few examples of major cities that were located on a riverside for the use of freshwater resources, in addition to the transportation facilities that a river can provide.

Such resources have been the subject of constraints and stresses from the quantity and quality viewpoints since the founding of cities or settlements; in addition, these resources are getting more prone to uncertainties with the passing of time.

This article attempts to shed some light on the main challenges affecting the water

20

instituteofwater.org.uk

resources and what might be expected in the near future in that respect, while acknowledging that this is a wide and massive subject of study that can sustain a lot of debate.

Background Water on Earth is available in abundance (1.39 billion km3 as total reserves, including oceans water). However, only 2.5% of this amount is freshwater and about two third of it is locked in the form of ice cap and glaciers at the poles (Shiklomanov, 1993).

The FAO has estimated the global water resources in the order of 43,750 km3/year (FAO, 2000).

The total freshwater withdrawals worldwide are 3,853 km3/year (FAO, 2010), i.e. about 9% of the global internal renewable water resources. A high percentage of these withdrawals is focussed on the agricultural sector (69%), while the municipal and

industrial parts amount to 12% and 19% on a global scale.

The above are global numbers and different distributions for the agricultural and industrial sector percentages apply for specific regions and continents, depending on the historical background of each region in these two sectors.

These region-specific numbers and percentages are shown in Table 1 opposite.

It can be seen from the above table that the IRWR ratios are decreasing between years 2000 and 2020, because of the general increase in populations worldwide (except in limited areas such as Eastern Europe which experience population decline).

However, the absolute values of the IRWR per inhabitant are not uniform across all regions. As such, it can be seen that the

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES Table 1: Estimated Regional Populations and Corresponding Internal Water Resources (Overall and Per Inhabitant) for Years 2000 and 2020 SN Region

1

Northern America

2

Central America and Caribbean Southern America

3 4

Western & Central Europe 5 Eastern Europe 6 Africa 7 Near East 8 Central Asia 9 Southern and Eastern Asia 10 Oceania and Pacific World

Total Area*

Total Population (2000)*

21,899,600

Total Population (Estimated 2020)** 409,895,363 497,803,000

Average Internal Precipitation resources 1961-1990 (km3/year)* (km3/year)* 13,384 6,662

IRWR /inhab (m3/year), 2000* 16,253

749,120

72,430,000

94,269,000

1,506

781

17,853,960

345,737,000

430,760,000

28,635

12,380

4,898,416

510,784,000

747,636,000

4,096

2,170

35,808 4,248

18,095,450 30,044,850 6,347,970 4,655,490 21,191,290

217,051,000 793,288,000 257,114,000 78,563,000 3,331,938,000

8,452 20,415 1,378 1,270 24,017

4,449 3,950 488 261 11,712

20,497 4,979 1,898 3,322 3,515

8,058,920 133,795,066

25,388,537 6,042,188,900

4,772 107,925

911 43,764

35,882 7,243

1,340,598,000 4,641,055,000

42,678,000 7,794,799,000

10,783

% IRWR/ inhab (m3/ difference year), 2020 -18% 13,383 -23% 8,285 -20% 28,740 8,853 -28%

2,946 2,685

21,346 5,615

-41% -8%

-41% -22%

Sources: * Food and Agriculture Organisation, including data from FAOSTAT and IPCC. IRWR is the Internal Renewable Water Resources ** United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019, Online Edition. Rev. 1.

water resources problem is not really a global one, but is rather caused by an imbalance in the distribution of freshwater resources across the world. In fact, on the continental level, the Americas account for 45% of the entire water resources, Asia comes next with 28.3%, Europe holds 15.5%, while Africa and Oceania come last at 9% and 2.1% respectively.

These percentages, however, do not reflect the real picture, as what actually counts is the water resources per capita. In that respect, while Oceania have a minimal percentage of the global water resources (2.1%), their IRWR/ inhabitant ratio is the largest in the world (35,882 m3/ inhabitant), at least at the time when the FAO assessment was done (year 2000).

This is simply because their lower population enables them an easier access to their available water resources.

On the other side, the Middle East is considered to be one of the most water stressed areas in the world, where their relatively large and growing populations, compared to generally low rainfall rates, result in a particularly difficult situation.

While desalination is being used by a number of countries in that region (mainly for drinking water purposes), groundwater reserves are also extensively used for irrigation. The IRWR/ inhabitant values for that region are among the lowest worldwide.

In the following paragraphs, a review of aggravating factors related to the current and future expected water situation is provided. These factors mainly include booming populations, water quality issues in water bodies, level of service and governance, and global climate change.

Booming Populations According to McEvedy and Jones (1978), the world populations have historically been increasing at a relatively rapid pace from around 4000 BC to AD 1 (the primary cycle) before decelerating then moving to the medieval cycle, where populations kept on growing to a peak in the 13th and 14th centuries, before dipping due to the advent of the bubonic plague, which decimated millions.

Afterwards, and with the start of the Industrial Revolution and the modernisation cycle, populations boomed more than exponentially. According to McEvedy and Jones, this trend is expected to go well into the 22nd century, with expected global populations rising to a maximum in year 2100 before starting to level off. This approach roughly corresponds to a study done by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division at the United Nations in 2004 (World Population to 2300, issued by 2004), which states that future global populations are projected to grow to 9.22 billion at year 2075, after

which they slightly decrease and then continue their slow rise to 8.97 billion by year 2300.

Figures 1a and 1b (next page) show that Africa and the Middle East are currently the fastest growing areas until year 2050, with populations growth rates of 1.64% and 1.47% respectively. Such a growth will put pressure and stress on the water resources and will require proper strategies to counter its impacts, especially in areas where water stress is the most marked.

Quality issues in Water Bodies and Waterways As is commonly known, most water withdrawals are ultimately returned to the environment in one form or another, be it in the shape of treated or untreated wastewater, irrigation water that percolates to the underground and a portion that is recycled and returned to the infrastructure system, mostly in the form of treated wastewater for irrigation or other nonpotable water uses.

The portion that is returned to the environment is most of the time of a lesser quality than the initial waters (in case these were unpolluted at the start).

In fact, wastewater treatment and handling of polluted waters through activated sludge and other techniques, were practically unknown until the start of the 20th

instituteofwater.org.uk

21

century, and it was not until 1914 when the activated sludge process was invented in the United Kingdom (IWA, 2014), which paved the way for a drastic improvement of the prevailing sanitary conditions.

Fig. 1a: United Nations Populations Forecast (in millions) for Different Parts of the World Until Year 2300 - Excluding Asia, Africa and World Total*

Until then, water resources and waterways had been prone to widespread pollution from untreated wastewater. This had resulted in the eruption of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid over centuries, as was the case during the 19th and 20th centuries when several waves of cholera pandemics hit different parts of the world and resulted in scores of deaths (Hays, 2005).

Since those times, cholera cases have substantially receded worldwide due to global efforts in that direction. The construction of wastewater treatment plants has become a more general practice in the water infrastructure. Still, water quality in waterways is still an issue in some parts of the world and improvement action in that regard is urgently required.

According to the UN World Water Development Report 2017 – Wastewater, The Untapped Resource, Low-income countries have a 92% of their wastewater untreated as of 2015, as compared with a 30% ratio for high-income countries. Target 6.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) requires all countries to decrease these ratios by 50% by year 2030. This is a particularly major challenge for low-income countries who need to achieve an additional treatment of 46% of their wastewater as compared to only 15% for high-income countries.

Level of Service, Mismanagement and Governance Issues In addition to the above factors, and assuming a given country falls within the lower stress zone and that water resources are plentiful, this does not necessarily imply that the ultimate level of service to the water consumer will be satisfactory.

In fact, a water infrastructure system is an intricate arrangement starting from the water treatment facility which draws from the freshwater (or less often sometimes saline water) environment, the storage and pumping facilities, and transmission and distribution systems to finally reach the end consumers.

Inadequate management of these facilities, including unresolved disputes over water rights, ageing facilities that

22

instituteofwater.org.uk

Fig. 1b: United Nations Populations Forecast (in millions) for Different Parts of the World Until Year 2300*

* Source: UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs, Population Division, New York 2004, “World Population to 2300” cause leakage, water loss and infiltration of polluted water to infrastructure, as well as water theft, are among the issues and problems that may cause a decrease in the level of service at the end user side, and may result in intermittent service or inadequate water quality.

Challenges in this regard are significant and complicated, especially that in many cases, responsibilities are blurred and it may not be clear whether the problem stems from inadequate pressure at the point of start, leakage on the way or lack of water quantities.

Global Climate Change Matters It has become common knowledge that global climate change has certain and marked effects in disrupting the global

climate system and causing changes to the following patterns of water resources (UNESCO, 2011): ■ Sea level rises which would affect cities and lands close to the seashores, including related water resources and the related facilities.

■ Climate disruptions such as unusual floods in some areas of the world and droughts in other parts, which would affect food security and quantity as well as quality of water supplies. This would include changes in river flows, with a subsequent impact on the hydroelectric sector and groundwater recharge.

Increase in the salinity of agricultural areas could also occur due to the increase in evaporation rates.

■ Changes in the historical configurations of glaciers and ice caps due to their

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES

■

■

■

■

melting and decline, including the formation of new water bodies and lakes, such as in the Himalaya and other similar elevated areas. Such changes could trigger outburst floods in downstream areas.

Erosion and sedimentation are likely to increase due to increased river flows during floods in some areas, even though it is also known that such phenomena are also exacerbated by human practices such as overlogging, clearance of lands for urbanisation and similar. In addition, sedimentation is expected to cause the depletion of a major part of the world’s reservoirs capacity during the next thirty years (UNESCO, 2011).

The water infrastructure (especially stormwater and sanitary sewers) which has not been designed to cater for sufficient additional flows may get overloaded and sewer overflows might become a common and frequent occurrence.

Biodiversity will be affected by climate change, especially in terms of increased water temperatures and impacted water quality.

Groundwater freshwater supplies will be affected by seawater rise, even though such supplies will also be impacted by increased demand from human interventions due to increased populations in cities and possible aquifer pollution due to untreated wastewater.

■

■

■

■

■

■

■

■

The above impacts are definitely challenges that need to be addressed in order to prevent additional degradation in the overall water resources situation.

Conclusions Water resources challenges (both current and expected in the future) include several dimensions and are not evenly distributed worldwide. Rather, some areas are under more water stress than others. Problems and challenges with water resources extend to the water quality and level of service sectors as well, and low-income countries are under heavy pressure to meet international sustainability requirements.

In that regard, the following solutions could apply: ■ Continue and enhance cooperation between governments throughout the world and international lenders such as the World Bank to build wastewater treatment plants and close the gap between currently untreated wastewater and the SDG goal by year 2030.

■

■

■

Uphold water conservation practices across all water use sectors and enforce a system of rewards and penalties to ensure lesser water consumption, especially in problematic regions. Such a system could be applicable to domestic users as well as to industrial and agricultural consumers which constitute the majority of the water withdrawals.

Explore innovative ideas for cooperation between water-rich and water-scarce nations aimed at importing freshwater with the least possible environmental impact.

Promote tertiary treatment and reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation and other non-drinking water uses where possible.

As possible, develop other nonconventional water resources such as greywater reuse or reuse of air conditioning condensate in areas where such devices are heavily used.

Develop proper asset management strategies and abide by them to ensure that water facilities stay in proper working order.

Adopt water conveyance materials with watertight joints to minimise water loss and maximise the use of available water resources.

Take firm decisions on water theft and other irregularities that result in lower levels of service.

Build and promote the use of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) also called stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs), Green Technologies, or Low Impact Development (LID) which could reduce stormwater peak flows and subsequent erosion, even with global climate change effects. Such practices are commonly applied in many countries including the UK, US and the UAE. Develop strategic groundwater storage reserves where possible, and supply them with excess treated water during off-peak times. Such reserves would secure emergency water supplies in case of an unplanned major event (Hurricane, tsunami or other) that could impact main water supply/treatment facilities.

Such events may become more frequent in some areas of the world due to global climate change disruptions.

Alter engineering design practices to include allowances for global climate change effects, such as additional pipe capacities and similar.

On the governance side, ensure that organisations and committees do

not overlap and have clearly defined responsibilities. Resolve disputes on water rights by focussing on the common good.

It should be noted that the above points and proposals are provided for guidance only, and the above list is not exhaustive.

In addition, some of the above solutions may or may not be applicable to all areas.

Separate and individual studies will need to be undertaken to address the water resource requirements of each region, in order to generate specific recommendations.

References 1 Shiklomanov, Igor A. 1993. World fresh water resources. In: Gleick, Peter H. ed. Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World’s Fresh Water Resources. New York: Oxford University Press. P. 13.

2 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 2000.

TABLE 2: World water resources, by region. [Online].

[Accessed 16 May 2020]. Available from http://www. fao.org/3/Y4473E/y4473e0f.gif 3 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 2010.

Water withdrawal by sector, around 2010. [Online].

[Accessed 16 May 2020]. Available from https:// firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/fao-aquastat. appspot.com/o/PDF%2FTABLES%2FWorldDataWithdrawal_eng.pdf?alt=media&token=02dec3dd-50fc4d85-8ab7-521f376dedb0 4 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2019. World Population Prospects 2019, Online Edition. Rev. 1.

[Online]. [Accessed 16 May 2020]. Available from https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Files/1_ Indicators%20(Standard)/EXCEL_FILES/1_Population/ WPP2019_POP_F01_1_TOTAL_POPULATION_BOTH_ SEXES.xlsx 5 WWAP (UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme).

2019. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2019: Leaving No One Behind. Paris, UNESCO. 6 McEvedy, C. & Jones, R. 1978. Atlas of World Population History. Harmondsworth UK, New York NY: Penguin.

7 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2004. World Population to 2300. [Online]. [Accessed 16 May 2020].

Available from https://www.un.org/en/development/ desa/population/publications/pdf/trends/ WorldPop2300final.pdf 8 The International Water Association (IWA). 2014.

IWA Conference, Activated Sludge – 100 Years and Counting, June 12-14, 2014 in Essen, Germany – History of Activated Sludge. [Online]. [Accessed 16 May 2020]. Available from http://www.iwa100as.org/ history.php 9 Hays, J.N. 2005. Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History. Santa Barbara, California – Denver, Colorado – Oxford, England: ABC-CLIO. 10 WWAP (United Nations World Water Assessment Programme). 2017. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2017. Wastewater: The Untapped Resource. Paris, UNESCO. 11 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). 2011. The Impact of Global Change on Water Resources: The Response of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme. [Online] [Accessed 16 May 2020]. Available from https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000192216/ PDF/192216eng.pdf.multi

instituteofwater.org.uk

23

The Management of Risk & Resilience Why effective management of Risk & Resilience will be as important tomorrow as it is today in a COVID-19 world

The Level 5 Award in Management of Risk & Resilience in the Water & Environmental Industries How Learning & Development Associates’ Risk & Resilience qualifications can help Water, Wastewater and Environmental industries strengthen their resilience in the face of COVID-19’s emergence.

During these extremely challenging times, it has never been so important that all of us in the Water Industry collaborate to ensure vital services’ resilience.

At L&DA we are committed, as part of the wider Water Industry community, to doing whatever we can to help our colleagues manage through these uncertain times successfully.

The current coronavirus’s emergence finds the UK’s Water and Wastewater organisations well prepared to face the challenges, based on their existing pandemic contingency plans. However, the impacts of precautionary self-isolation, illness and individuals’ potentially extended recovery times may test organisations’ ability to continue to field sufficient qualified and experienced staff.

Uncertainties also exists over the eventual mortality rate, the virus’s persistence in the community, the possibility and rate of any viral genetic mutation and the likelihoods of acquired immunity and/or a future successful vaccine’s development.

In such circumstances it is vital to further reinforce existing capabilities by building strength in depth in both operational and support functions and embed wider strategic awareness that encourages business improvement and innovation.

Much of this reinforcement can be achieved through the improved skills and knowledge of our most precious resource, our people.

Our Risk & Resilience qualification is designed specifically for the Water and Environmental Industries and is therefore aligned to address resilience challenges of both COVID-19 and other unrelated exposures.

The Level 5 Risk & Resilience qualification will develop individuals’ technical skills and provide a comprehensive understanding of the Management of Risk & Resilience and lead to improvements in knowledge and therefore performance.

24

instituteofwater.org.uk

Our Award learners will develop skills on taking responsibility for planning and deploying courses of action, including, where relevant, responsibility for the work of others and exercising independent judgement.

The qualifications addresses the practical competencies required for the effective management of Risk & Resilience in the Water and Environmental Industries and will importantly provide evidence of demonstrable organisational competence for our Regulators and other Stakeholders.

Level 5 Award in Management of Risk & Resilience in the Water & Environmental Industries

Risk & Resilience Virtual Learning Our proven Risk & Resilience classroom course delivery is now augmented by our new interactive approach through Virtual Learning, a methodology that allows flexible and independent learning, whilst providing support and advice from fully qualified, experienced tutors.

Learners can chose to attend either our classroom or Virtual Learning courses and will experience high quality education delivered by our specialist tutors where access to a range of online resources, including videos and chat facilities where we encourage interaction with other learners to enhance the overall experience.

As we learn to adapt to our new methods of conducting business then L&DA keeps pace with industry needs in a changing world through our new Virtual Learning environment.

AVAILABLE FROM 1st JULY 2020

Learning & Development Associates (L&DA) Bespoke company specific training to the Water and Environmental Sectors We have a wide range of courses and qualifications, including but not limited to;

Students will gain a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of: •

The principles and objectives of risk and resilience management

•

The legal and regulatory requirements and the role of the regulators in respect of risk and resilience, including the emergence of Cyber threat

•

The interconnected impacts that changes in risk and resilience make

•

The effect of climate change on risk and resilience strategy

•

The objective and purposes of a Company’s risk and resilience strategy and management structure

•

Where risk and resilience management sits in the company organisational structure

•

The decision-making process in terms of risk and resilience management

•

The role of risk financing and the nature of risk financing and the variables that influence the process

•

The importance of building resilience in the context of Cyber threat

•

The principles of risk and resilience and its relationship to contingency planning

•

The use and merits of quantitative and qualitative techniques in risk and resilience management

•

How to reduce risks to business continuity in the emergency planning and business continuity process

•

How to measure individuals’ behaviour to risk

•

The factors that influence group attitudes to risk-taking

•

The practical meaning of business resilience and its role in disaster recovery

•

The range of technologies and the techniques for gathering data available to assist the management of risk and resilience

•

The use of probability theory and the use of normal and binomial distribution numerical methods in risk and resilience management

•

The principles of scenario planning in relation to risk and resilience

•

The principles of risk, resilience and contingency planning in commissioning assets

•

The principles of inventory management in relation to risk and resilience

•

The role of logistics in relation to risk & resilience

•

How to prepare the business for pre and post emergency situations

Level 5 Certificates; • Level 5 Certificate in Management of Water Production • Level 5 Certificate in Management of Water Networks • Level 5 Certificate in Management of Waste Water Treatment • Level 5 Certificate in Management of Waste Water Networks

We are a group of like-minded senior professionals, who have achieved industry wide recognition for excellence in our own particular fields of expertise, whilst continuing to serve the learning needs of the industry. L&DA founded in the UK, has a range of experience in the UK and a background in several international Water markets and with our trusted partners we bring additional Cyber resilience specialist expertise to the sector.

We specialise in the design of bespoke human resource development interventions for the utility sectors. With our breadth of knowledge and vision, L&DA makes its capabilities available to the sector through specialist design, delivery, project management, assessment and embedment of expertise and advisory services.

We are the leader in qualifications for Water and Environmental Professionals and the only provider in the UK who design and deliver Higher Education Level frameworks in these fields. We are now offering these qualifications through our new Virtual Learning delivery methodology.

Level 5 Awards; • Level 5 Award in Leading Innovation in the Water and Environmental Industries • Level 5 Award in Understanding Event & Incident Management in the Water and Environmental Industries • Level 5 Award in Understanding Project and Change Management in the Water and Environmental Industries • Level 5 Award in Understanding Hydraulic Principles in the Water and Environmental Industries • Level 5 Award in Understanding the Management of Physical and Cyber Security in the Water and Environmental Industries • Level 5 Award in Understanding Demand Management and Leakage in the Water Industry • Level 5 Award in Managing Reservoir Safety in the Water and Environmental Industries Level 3 Certificates; • Level 3 Diploma in Understanding Water Production • Level 3 Diploma in Understanding Water Network • Level 3 Diploma in Understanding Waste Water Treatment

Learning & Development Associates Advancing the Competence of the Water Industry For more information on our qualifications

www.learninganddevelopment.associates Tel: 0330 111 3344 Learning & Development Associates Ltd, The Coach House, Hooton Green, Hooton, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire CH66 5ND, UK email: enquiries@learninganddevelopment.associates

instituteofwater.org.uk

25

HAVANT THICKET RESERVOIR’S INNOVATIVE SPIRIT REFLECTED IN CONSULTATION

Portsmouth Water’s Havant Thicket Reservoir project has innovation at its core. After all, it will see the company building and operating a £120 million asset to help meet the water resource needs of another company, neighbouring Southern Water. Something that’s unique in the UK water sector.

26

This spirit of embracing new thinking came to fore when the coronavirus lockdown led to a major rethink on how to effectively run a time critical public consultation on the scheme, scheduled for May and June, in the face of unprecedented restrictions on daily life.

“The reservoir is absolutely pivotal in us being able to make additional bulk supply transfers to Southern Water, so they can meet legally binding reductions in their abstraction to protect the Rivers Test and Itchen, two internationally-renowned chalk streams in our region.”

The discussion began with debating whether it was right to go ahead at all. The answer was ‘Yes’, as Jim Barker, Head of Water Resources at Portsmouth Water, explains: “The reservoir is scheduled to be supplying water by 2029 and although many people would regard this as a long way off, in reality, there’s very little room for manoeuvre in the timeline to start providing the resilient water supplies the water-stressed South East desperately needs.

Jim continued: “In that context, we felt it was right to press ahead and not risk delaying this vital project, given its importance in terms of ensuring resilient water supplies and the huge benefits it will bring for our local communities and wildlife. Many people have told us they want the reservoir to be completed as soon as possible – remember, it’s something that’s been talked about since the mid-1960s!”

The local planning authorities also confirmed

instituteofwater.org.uk

they supported the decision to press ahead.

Jim added: “However, we knew we’d need to take an innovative approach to make the consultation accessible to all and truly effective. In fact, we’ve tried to seize the opportunity to reach a broader range of demographic groups, compared to the more conventional approach of face-to-face discussions in village halls.

“It’s early days but the feedback we’ve had so far tells us what we created, in the face of a major challenge, has proved to be more interactive and engaging overall.”

The first digital outreach came in the form of a reservoir supplier event, with a day of faceto-face presentations in late March swiftly replaced with a one-hour recorded briefing

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES

with the project team, something that was warmly received by the supply chain.

Buoyed by this success, work to develop the new approach for the public consultation began in earnest, spearheaded by water industry communication consultants Create 51.

At the centre of the consultation is a ‘virtual exhibition’ hosted on an online engagement platform, accessed through the reservoir website. It’s designed to make it easy for people to drop in at a time to suit them to find out more from the project team and share their ideas in a range of ways. Visitors can watch a film on a particular topic, ‘post’ notes on maps and diagrams to share their thoughts, ask questions, share ideas in an online ‘white-board’ forum, write comments in a guest book or complete a more detailed but straightforward online survey.

At the heart of the consultation is a series of a dozen ‘mini films’ about different aspects of Havant Thicket Reservoir, which have proved very popular and a versatile package to share in the exhibition, during live webinars, on social media and to accompany media stories. Half way through the consultation, the videos had amassed thousands of views and many ‘likes’.

They provide ‘bite-size’ insights into key topics, with an informal, chatty feel. They were all created remotely, with the project team individually interviewed via Zoom or MS Teams. The interview audio was edited and overlaid with a range of visual material, including CGI visualisations, photos, diagrams, maps, photos, existing film

footage and slides.

These same films have also provided the key content for a series of live webinars, with dedicated sessions for staff, stakeholders and the public, with the project team on hand to answer questions. The webinars have been well attended and attracted a lot of praise.

However, it was vital to let everyone know about the consultation in the first place and reach people who are not online. This was only made possible by the fact printers and Royal Mail designated water companies as essential services, enabling them to print and distribute a promotional postcard to 50,000 properties around the reservoir site.

While the reservoir has always had strong support from the local authorities, environmental and community groups and residents, it was important that as a community-focused company, Portsmouth Water reached as many people as possible and offered a variety of ways to engage – including a printed brochure, feedback form and Freepost return envelope which could be mailed out and a dedicated phone line.

With young people set to be key users of the reservoir in the next decade, it was also important to reach out to them. This was achieved through education sheets and surveys for primary and secondary schools – not only to engage them in the project and have their say, but as a supportive educational tool for teachers and parents rising to the challenge of home-schooling.

In conclusion, Jim Barker said: “We’re hoping for a strong response to our

consultation, given how we’ve strived to innovate to reach people and engage with them. The learning curve has been steep, especially in terms of the technology, but we know we’ve learned valuable lessons, both for this consultation and others in the future.”

At the time of writing, the consultation was two weeks into its four week run and going well – more than 2,000 visits to the virtual exhibition, more than 700 views alone of Chief Executive Officer Bob Taylor’s introductory film to the consultation on Facebook and 150 responses with questions and detailed feedback. The next step after the consultation is the publication of a ‘You said, We did’ feedback report and a review of the new approach to share lessons learnt.

All the feedback gathered during the consultation will shape the planning application due to be submitted later this year to Havant Borough Council nd East Hampshire District Council.

Havant Thicket Reservoir is being developed in partnership with Southern Water to secure reliable water resources for the South East, after being identified in both water companies’ Water Resources Managements Plans and Water Resources South East’s regional strategy.

The £120 million water resource will be the first new reservoir to be built since the 1980s and is earmarked for land the company owns in Havant, Hampshire.

instituteofwater.org.uk

27

TACKLING THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY – WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE COVID-19 EXPERIENCE?

Professor Adrian Johnson and Dr Bruce Horton of Stantec explore how the water sector can learn from the Covid-19 crisis to effectively tackle the climate emergency and create a low carbon, community-focused, resilient future.

The Covid-19 crisis presents unprecedented challenges for our nation. The water sector response has been swift and effective, mobilising resources and assets to ensure that water supply and drainage services have been uninterrupted. This is a testament to the resilience of the sector and reflects sustained investment in enhanced service provision. But, as we emerge from the immediate impacts of the pandemic, what will we learn for addressing the climate emergency?

Do we simply restart business-as-usual?

Or do we grasp the opportunity to lead the way in creating a new low carbon, community-focused and more resilient future?

There will be opportunities to use the recovery to ‘lock in’ key measures to tackle the climate emergency. The Climate Change Committee, representatives of COP26 and many others are calling for the government’s economic stimulus to be geared to achieving the net zero emissions target. We need a clean, green recovery that creates jobs, provides affordable energy, protects nature and cuts GHG emissions.

There are clear links between Covid-19 and the climate emergency. Both are

So how can the impacts of Covid-19, and the way in which water organisations

We’re at a fork in the road

28

global crises which threaten millions of lives with clear science on how to manage them. We’ve seen short-term reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and in our use of material resources from the economic slowdown and the need for fundamental changes in the ways we live and work.

instituteofwater.org.uk

respond to these impacts, help us tackle the climate emergency? Here are three areas for focus.

First, get better at measuring and understanding the numbers A recurring feature of the Covid-19 crisis has been the need for reliable information about how many people are infected and where, and how quickly the virus is reproducing. Accurate information is vital since this informs our forecasting and policy choices. The better the numbers, the better the policies.

There is a clear parallel with the climate emergency. Understanding carbon impacts, in relation to decisions to invest in water infrastructure, relies on good information on how much carbon is emitted from each work unit. While some information is good, for example

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES the carbon emitted from consuming a kilowatt-hour of electricity, there is much less confidence in other areas, for example the carbon emitted in laying a kilometre of pipeline. This depends not only on the material used and its size but also on how it is installed. For example, is the pipeline laid in an open trench or installed by a ‘no-dig’ technique?

The same applies to other things such as tanks, pumps and chemical dosing rigs, to name but a few. At present there is no accepted dataset we can use to keep track of the carbon from each million pounds spent on reducing leaks or removing phosphorus, for example.

Whilst some companies have made great progress on their own, why don’t we work together on a collaborative open-source approach with transparent peer review to increase confidence in the data? It’s an urgent need.

As we can see in the Covid-19 crisis, getting more confidence in the numbers will in turn allow us to make the right choices, especially those to reduce carbon in the most efficient manner.

Second, transform behaviours Government guidance has already transformed behaviours – staying at home, washing hands after every trip out, a massive increase in virtual meetings to get things done. For many – including people working in the water sector – home working could become the norm.

Since we now know that big behavioural changes are possible, we must take this learning and apply it to the climate emergency. We must find ways to do more with less, to switch from carbon-intensive resources to low carbon alternatives, to build only when essential, avoid concrete and generate renewables wherever we can.

We must embrace digital approaches to design better solutions, to minimise on-site construction, and to operate water services more smartly.

But how do we make this happen?

The urgency surrounding Covid-19 has driven innovation and collaboration at an unprecedented rate and scale, from 3D printing of PPE to new partnerships between industry and academia, to trialling vaccines within 3 months of the onset of the outbreak. People from all walks of life are contributing and there is a newfound willingness to try new approaches,

accepting that not all will succeed.

“Adaptive management”, so often discussed in the water sector, is happening as we apply the learning from one week to the next.

The water industry is already on this journey; the progress made on its Public Interest Commitment to achieve net zero carbon by 2030, as well its widespread work to adapt to climate change impacts, demonstrates this. To accelerate this, we must work closely with others such as the Green Construction Board’s Infrastructure Working Group, which developed PAS2080 - an integrated approach that engages the whole value chain - and institutions such as the ICE which are calling professionals to act.

Third, focus on resilience and multiple benefits Tackling the climate emergency needs a “both … and …” approach to deliver the resilience we need for the most benefit and least carbon. This can work because the issues we face are often interrelated.

For example, behavioural changes, such as we have seen in recent weeks, not only bring carbon savings but also could slow urban growth and change patterns of water demand. During lockdown people have been rediscovering their local ‘green’ and ‘blue’ places and the value they bring. The reduction in movement of people and goods has reduced levels of air pollution and impacts on wildlife.

The value of local community spaces and nature to health and well-being is firmly back in the public consciousness.

Why not harness this to bring more flexibility, more community engagement and, thereby, more social value to the

provision of water and drainage services?

A multi-capitals framework is useful here.

It helps us to maximise human, intellectual, manufactured, financial, social and natural capital benefits by harnessing the interdependencies that underpin a resilient water service. It will help to ensure every pound we invest counts.

In its recent report on using nature-based solutions to reach net zero, the Natural Capital Commission advocates a holistic approach for all infrastructure decision-making combining top-down coordination with local delivery to maximise ‘environmental net gain’, reduce emissions and adapt to the changing climate. Given their multiple interfaces with natural capital assets, including rivers, catchments and bathing waters, water and drainage companies should be at the forefront of this effort. Employing more sustainable drainage and catchment approaches, restoring wetlands and peatlands will help us to minimise the need for new ‘grey’ carbonintensive infrastructure.

The lessons for the climate emergency are clear We know we can maintain the resilience of water services in the face of unprecedented change. To ensure future resilience and drive down carbon emissions we must work together to properly understand the numbers, to transform behaviours, and focus on delivering multiple benefits for local communities. We have the talent, so let’s grasp the narrow window of opportunity now to lead the way in creating a low carbon, community-focused and more resilient future.

instituteofwater.org.uk

29

SEWAGE MONITORING COULD PROVIDE COVID-19 EARLY WARNING

Northumbrian Water part of international collaboration behind the EPSRC-funded project.

Denise Chevin reports.

Wastewater in sewage systems could provide a quicker and earlier indication of the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the Covid-19 virus, claim scientists working with Northumbrian Water and global partners.

Experts at Newcastle University, UK, and the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, are working with water industry partners Northumbrian Water and Labaqua, part of the SUEZ corporation, to monitor sewage from across networks in Spain and Northeast England to develop a way to estimate the prevalence of the COVID-19 virus across the regions.

The new project, which has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Council (EPSRC), is being co-led by Professor David Graham, Professor of Ecosystems Engineering, and Dr Marcos Quintela-Baluja at Newcastle University, alongside Professor Jesus Romalde in Santiago.

30

instituteofwater.org.uk

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that SARS-CoV-2 does not readily spread through sewage and wastewater systems. However, non-infectious genetic residues of the virus, not unlike other microbes, can remain in wastewater systems in the locations where infected people go to the toilet.

The work will not identify whether individual people are infected, but by monitoring sewage from different places across a region, the research team will be able to estimate local concentrations of the virus and potentially link levels back to human population numbers. This could help public health officials identify possible infection ‘hot spots’ and could be especially helpful in places where infected people do not show any symptoms.

Professor Graham said: “Without the capacity to test each person individually, particularly

people without symptoms, we have limited information about how widespread the virus is or whether it is affecting some communities more than others.

“Sewage epidemiology is now being used around the world in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work here is to develop local solutions, but also to assist global efforts, by developing tools for predicting spread at a much earlier stage.”

Northumbrian Water’s Wastewater director Richard Warneford said: “We’re proud to be working with our partners at Newcastle University on this globally significant project.

“Our wastewater teams are working with their engineers and scientists to safely gather and analyse data and we’re hoping that together we can help make a difference in the battle against COVID-19.”

Reliability and Efficiency as Standard At Patterson Pump Ireland our patented technology, dedication to engineering and performance efficiency means we help our customers cut costs on energy consumption over the entire

ua

r a n t ee

2

y ea r

d

g

life cycle of the product.

y

w

arr nt a

We can help our customers to achieve their net-zero carbon emission goals.

+44 (0)44 934 7078 company/patterson-pump-ireland-ltd www.ie.pattersonpumps.com sales@ie.pattersonpumps.com A Subsidiary of Patterson Pump Company USA

instituteofwater.org.uk

31

USING DATA TO BUILD A RESILIENT AND ADAPTABLE STRATEGY TO DELIVER FUTURE TARGETS

2020 marks the start of a journey to deliver ambitious targets agreed between the UK water companies and their regulators. per day (Ml/d) of new capacity and demand reductions by 2025 through short-term supply options, leakage reductions, and water efficiency programmes1.

by Michael Butler Technical Manager, RPS

Company business plans have outlined investments to deliver over 800 megalitres

32

instituteofwater.org.uk

The new regulatory targets were always going to be a challenge, and no more so than with the flooding across the UK during February, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the drought we are expecting to experience this summer.

Yet despite these conditions, early indications are that the regulatory targets will remain fixed with no exemptions proposed. Data collected during these extreme events provide valuable insight into water management and serve to underline the importance of high-quality data, interpretation, planning, and an ability to rapidly respond to change.

2020 insights 2020 has been quite a year already.

It started with the significant flooding which stressed our catchments and networks. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic affecting all our lives. However, it’s also provided companies with greater insight into what happens when certain network operations significantly reduce or stop altogether.

In the absence of some routine maintenance activities, water network performance has improved in some localities, for example with reductions to leak outbreak. For other areas the opposite is true, with significant leakage issues arising from reduced consumption and associated pressure build-up in distribution pipes.

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES Ongoing variability in customer consumption patterns has led to increased investment in real-time monitoring in recent years on the network, such as fast-logging coupled with enhanced data analytics. The impacts of factors such as weather and school holidays are increasingly understood.

During the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, those water companies that logged just a small proportion of their non-household customers now have a significantly better understanding of the impacts caused by a change in demand. When the UK went into ‘lockdown’ people no longer showered at the gym, and office water use shifted to the home, the 100s of cups of tea made every hour in an office were spread over 100s of homes. Without a commute to deal with people were also getting up at different times, which spread the morning peak demand to be more like a weekend profile.

Accurate measurement of consumption with more real-time monitoring is essential to ensure resilient supplies and accurate leakage estimation and prevent false alarms and ineffective targeting.

From a wastewater point of view, the closure of restaurants will have resulted in a decreased amount of fats, oils and grease (FOGs) being added to the network - reducing the potential for blockages.

However, the lack of rain over much of the country is likely to increase the pressure on sewerage systems which needs the rainfall to help clear blockages - and this could result in increased flooding and pollution.

The take-away message is that with the new insights gained from these new data sets, it is possible to plan new ways of operating and maintaining our networks which can be tailored to specific locations based on how they respond to changing operational activity.

Striking a balance How can companies ensure that their many targets and outcomes are delivered concurrently and in harmony, rather than acting as competing factors?

Reductions in leakage have historically resulted in an increase in Per Capita Consumption (PCC) and interruptions to supply, yet all these need to reduce to meet targets. Issues for delivering inter-related targets such as these can arise from a combination of the analytical and operational approaches, and especially where a fully integrated strategy is lacking.

Meeting leakage targets while also reducing

interruptions to supply is a good example of where recent data from reduced network activity can be applied to inform the optimum balance of activity by locality.

Leakage, consumption and supply interruptions are clearly inter-related.

In addition to impacting on each other, they can also influence water quality and wastewater asset performance by affecting the volumes of water entering our drainage and sewer systems. If working practices are to change in the long term due to COVID-19, then network and distribution designs will also have to be modified to reflect this change in water use. This will be amplified by the proposed reductions in PCC and leakage, meaning that peak and overall flows could be very different in 5 years’ time to what we see today. Other opposing considerations relate to meeting future demands while ensuring enough water remains in the environment. Meeting the future challenges for cleanwater will have a knock-on effect on environmental and wastewater services. It’s important that all potentially opposing factors are considered and we must employ a joined-up approach to harmonise delivery efficiently meeting customer and regulatory expectations on all fronts.

Reporting and accountability Over the last two years there has been a strong regulatory focus on updating reporting guidance and improving the consistency of calculations between UK water companies. With respect to England and Wales, this results in some significant reporting changes heading into AMP7, with calculations such as leakage being rebased. This has also provided an impetus to incorporate new data systems, processes and analytical approaches leading into the new regulatory period.

RPS is currently engaged with a number of clients to improve the accounting for Trunk Mains and Service Reservoir (TMSR) leakage and ‘Passive Area’ leakage upstream of District Metered Areas, ahead of wider long-term reforms associated with Flow Monitoring Zone set-up guidelines currently in development with the United Kingdom Water Industry Research Council.

With each improvement to the way key performance metrics are calculated and reported, the ability to visualise and target network monitoring and interventions improves.

Ambitious regulatory targets and expectations have coincided with significant improvements to reporting and accountability with the UK water industry on a more level footing than in previous regulatory periods. This also encourages greater competition and has led to a variety of ‘frontier’ performance commitments and aspirations.

Frontier optimisation In addition to the ongoing rollout of proven new technologies and associated improvements in data quality, companies are embracing new and innovative ways of combining this with ‘old data’. With respect to leakage, strategies are being developed to incorporate dynamic feedback loops in a manner that increases the efficiency of leakage detection resources. Frontier Leakage Optimisation (FLO) is a good example of this in action, as discussed in our December article.

2020 has so far been a challenging yet insightful year highlighting the potential for new ways of working to achieve regulatory targets. This will ultimately be supported by the application of more sophisticated technologies and systems to allow faster decision making.

Operating in the same vein as FLO, other examples of tools recently developed by RPS include those that improve water efficiency and consumption, for example, Frontier Consumption Optimisation (FCO) which demonstrates how consumption can be effectively managed using similar strategies to those we have employed for leakage. We have applied lessons from cleanwater applications and adapted these to wastewater applications, including for sewer maintenance, blockage reduction, and drainage water management plan investment. The same optimisation processes are applied to determine the right mix of options for the right location at the right time, whilst achieving a company’s frontier performance commitments. When considered as part of an integrated delivery and targeting system, such as within WaterNet Pro™, the holistic benefits can be fully realised with competing targets efficiently.

For information on optimisation to achieve regulatory targets, contact Michael Butler, michael.butler@rpsgroup.com www.rpsgroup.com 1 Ofwat, 2019

instituteofwater.org.uk

33

CITY SCALE DIGITAL TWINS FOR FLOOD RESILIENCE Extreme weather events and rising populations are straining existing (and often inadequate) drainage infrastructure in cities around the world, leading to flooding that damages property and infrastructure, impacts human safety, and weakens economies.

Users can visualize and communicate potential risk from flood resilience modeling and simulation in OpenCities Planner as shown in this example using the Helsinki 3D+ city model and the results of flood resilience modeling.

by Robert Mankowski

Senior Vice President, Digital Cities, Bentley Systems, Inc. In 2015, the United Nations reported that over the previous decade, floods accounted for 43 percent of all documented natural disasters around the world, affecting 2.3 billion people and causing US$662 billion in damages. And this number is getting worse. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that the number of flooding disasters worldwide almost doubled from 2000-2009 relative to the previous decade.

Climate change—due to its role in extreme weather events and rising seas—is exacerbating flood risks, especially in coastal and low-lying areas. At the same time, populations in flood zones and the coastal regions continue to increase— worsening an already deadly and costly situation. There are projections that by 2030, around half the people in the world will be living within 100 kilometers of a coastline.

In response to these threats, cities are striving to improve their flood resilience with data-driven planning, development, and operations. Some cities are accomplishing this through the use

34

instituteofwater.org.uk

of digital twins to improve the resilience of current infrastructure and to support ongoing development and future planning.

These updates enable cities to use digital twins to better manage and optimize infrastructure assets.

Digital twins

Creating flood resilience models

A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical asset, process, or system. Digital twins of cities provide accurate and reliable data to city agencies involved in flood risk assessment, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. They contain information that enables users to perform analysis and make informed decisions for a range of activities, from long-term urban planning to time-critical emergency response.

Creating a digital twin to enable flood resilience entails the integration of city-scale reality modeling, 3D mapping, and flood modeling. The resulting flood resilience model can be used for analysis, simulation, visualization, and communication.

Digital twins are created from (and continuously updated with) data from multiple sources, which is what differentiates them from static, 3D models.

Also, cities are now taking advantage of cloud services, the IoT, sensors, RFIDs, and smartphones to update digital twins to almost real-time status of city conditions.

To start, reality modeling and 3D mapping software are used to generate a highresolution, city-scale 3D reality mesh by using overlapping photos from drones and ground-level imagery, supplemented by laser scans where needed. The reality model/mesh is spatially classified, meaning that the individual buildings, parcels, and other elements of the meshed cityscape are tied to underlying, applicable GIS data. The reality model is also natively engineering-ready, with sufficient

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES resolution and scalability to zoom into an area and perform engineering work directly off the mesh. And crucially, the reality model includes digital terrain data, which is fundamental for any hydrological simulation.

Next, a flood resilience model is created by setting up a computational mesh for the area of interest, be it the whole city or just a fraction of it. This computational mesh is then populated with data used for flood simulations. Digital terrain data can be taken directly from the reality model to provide accurate surface data for the flood modeling software as well as a visually realistic context for viewing flood simulations. The reality model can also be used to identify streets, pavements, green spaces, trees, and other information required by the flood resilience model.

The flooding software uses numerical models to simulate a range of hydraulic and hydrological processes, including rainfall, infiltration, surface runoff, channel flow, and groundwater flow. This flood resilience model can be integrated with sewer and stormwater network models to dynamically simulate urban stormwater flow and drainage, as well as flooding in coastal areas due to storm surges.

It can also incorporate real-time feeds relating to new meteorological data, current hydrological conditions, and operational statuses from existing infrastructure assets, for example. These feeds might include recent rainfall amounts, current river flow rates, working status of pumps, and so on.

And, given the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones and social media, there could even be live feeds documenting localized street and tidal flooding to support floodrelated crisis management. The model is continuously refreshed from multiple sources—such as sensors, continuous surveying, or GIS updates—to represent current conditions.

Using flood resilience models Flood resilience models support a wide variety of activities related to the evaluation, prevention, and response to floods. The models can be used to assess the extent of river or coastal flooding, calculate river conveyance capacity, test infrastructure resilience, or assess current land-use strategies in flood zones.

One of the primary uses of flood models is the simulation of what-if scenarios that

Flood modeling scenarios include many different data types such as hydrometeorological data, GIS, BIM and more. And the flood models can help to calculate where the water is going, how deep and at what velocity. These tools help to predict behavior based on changes made in the modeling scenarios so that risk mitigation planning can occur.

show the impact of flooding on homes, properties, streets, and infrastructure.

These simulations can be used to determine flooding risks for existing conditions and to evaluate proposed mitigation strategies.

■

■

For example, cities can simulate river flow during a flood event and analyze losses based on extent of flooding compared to building data such as property value.

With this feedback, planners can use the software’s built-in modeling tools to develop mitigation measures (such as higher levees, increased capacity of a stormwater system, or greater use of green roofs and permeable paving) and rerun the simulation to test the effectiveness of their proposed mitigation measures.

For ongoing operations and emergency response, agencies can use operational flood models that run continuously to anticipate and mitigate the impact of floods. These operational models are updated with the latest information from observed and forecasted weather conditions, water levels in reservoirs, data from hydrological stations, and radar and satellite images. Bundling this information into a single system and using the flood resilience models allows cities to estimate with accuracy the conditions in the upcoming hours or days. Flood risk mitigation can then be achieved using the information produced by these operational systems to: ■ Take proactive actions such as increasing the storage capacity in reservoirs by

draining them before the flood wave arrives Take preventive measures such as installing temporary flood protection devices Transmit early warning messages

Flood resilience models that show simulations in the context of city surroundings also help better convey information. Communicating and visually presenting this information in an easily understandable way can help stakeholders make decisions regarding city planning and infrastructure proposals, and also engage citizens for public outreach efforts.

Conclusion Digital twins represent a comprehensive environment that supports flood resilience planning, as well as ongoing management and operations of the city infrastructure.

And, visually communicating actionable information helps stakeholders make more informed decisions prior to costly design or construction efforts. Digital twins represent a golden opportunity for cities to optimize the performance of municipal infrastructure assets and take proactive steps for flood resilience planning.

For more information regarding Bentley solutions for implementing digital twins and developing flood resilience, please visit www.bentley.com/en/campaigns/digitalcities/flood-resilience-digital-twin.

instituteofwater.org.uk

35

Z-TECH

NOTHING LIKE A GLOBAL PANDEMIC TO REALLY TEST YOUR BUSINESS!

Sitting here writing this article from an empty office, as part of a Z-Tech central skeleton crew of four people, is a bit like being in some sort of disaster movie.

I’m guessing that most of you are feeling the same at home, in converted rooms or if you’re lucky enough to have your own home office - with books behind you for the obligatory video conferencing background, ‘makeup’ done, smart top, PJ bottoms?

Every business has a disaster recovery plan, it’s regularly audited for the ISOs and by customers in Tenders and contracts, but the likelihood of ever having to initiate it is..well, very slim.

by Luke Stanbridge

Z-Tech’s Commercial Director

36

instituteofwater.org.uk

This is now real, and we are really being tested, our people are also being tested.

As Z-Tech’s work is for core national

infrastructure, our workforce and support staff are all classified as Key Workers, we are currently following national guidance and our own initiatives to keep things moving and our workforce safe.

Systems We are a mobile workforce of just under 250 people, 180+ working out of vans and customer sites, so our systems are all geared up for dynamic working. We operate on Citrix with virtual desktops, running through our own servers, mirrored across sites, back-up generators and back-up cloud based recovery – basically if our systems go down, the UK has far bigger issues to address and it is truly the apocalypse.

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES Z-Techers use a product called ‘Workplace’, which is run by Facebook and is essentially a Facebook for industry, it’s easy and intuitive to use, like Facebook it can be viewed on any device and is used by all our workforce. This system has been ideal to get COVID-19 messages out to everyone, giving them live access to contribute and keep on top of developments.

People Electrical, Control and Instrumentation Technicians are in shortage at the best of times, but during the pandemic we have increased demand for the supply of our people to our customers, filling gaps in their teams and being as flexible as we possibly can. We prioritise our existing customers, but have currently been able to help all enquiries where needed.

Hopefully when this is all over we can start to give national kudos to these shortage trades, ensuring there are appropriate and nationally accredited apprenticeships and training opportunities – something we have been pushing as a company for some while, with official technical partnerships with providers such as GPUTC (Greater Peterborough Technical College) – utilising a credited provider to help train in this shortage area.

Customers We are all in the same situation, so know

how difficult it is to make judgment calls throughout this Pandemic, reacting quickly to change is crucial and our customers have been doing a great job in both informing us of changes in their policies and just to touching base to talk through our developing situations and how we are coping.

One of our Power customers has a full on lockdown facility where they can isolate the workforce in shifts, feed them and sleep on site – truly next level facilities to keep the lights on!

Management If I ever hear ‘Unprecedented times’ again, it will be too soon. Providing clear direction is key in a crisis. Our Board meet daily to discuss developments and changes that need to be put in place to be able to steer our operations and support our customers.

Leadership in a crisis needs to reassure the way forward and what everyone needs to do in order to follow that path.

In a crisis, or any emergency situation, we are all driven by our ‘fight or flight’ primitive survival reactions – which is great when you are driving down the road and a car pulls out, but less so great in a Pandemic. Additional media fuel, with an overdose of exposure to ‘news’, theory and chatter adds to a feeling of panic, which can lead to hysteria and really

serious mental health issues. Pausing and taking a step back to put your thinking cap on is the only way through this, supressing the fight or flight and putting the situation into perspective – the car has not pulled out in front of you, you have time to think.

Leading a workforce through this process to create calm and direction requires consistent communication, I won’t pretend we are all perfect at this, we are in ‘Unprecedented times’, it’s been a learning experience, like trying to rationalise someone’s fear of spiders: Australians take a series of precautions to not get killed by Black Widow spiders, they look under their toilet seat before sitting down, they shake their shoes before putting them on – the pandemic is no different to this and we all need to take precautions to make sure we work safely. …and finally It looks like we will be living with the aftermath of COVID-19 for some time, but will it also create positive changes to the way we operate?

Our offices are virtually empty and travel miles reduced by almost 1/3rd, the use of our internal media platform tripled on lockdown (50K messages in 28 days) – once this is all over, will we culturally change the way we operate, time will tell.

instituteofwater.org.uk

37

PARTNERSHIP WORKING TO PROTECT COMMUNITIES

Recycled Plastic Flood Barrier

In accordance with Central Government expectation, Lincolnshire County Council’s (LCC) Flood Risk Management projects have been developed through partnerships, thereby increasing scheme delivery and efficiency, whilst providing communities greater input.

Senior/project engineer at WSP embedded in Lincolnshire County Council

As the Lead Local Flood Authority, the Council has developed a local flood risk management strategy and a common works programme to reduce the level of surface water flood risk. The Council has retained a team of Technical Staff that integrates experts from WSP embedded with Council employees to promote projects across its highway and flood risk functions.

An interesting challenge is the promotion of flood risk projects where multiple organisations are involved, each trying to protect its interests while publically supporting a general improvement for the community. On-going financial constraints are expected to multiply the need for collaboration across partners, who themselves are likely to have limited resources.

This approach helps prepare for potential reductions in centralised funding while improving customer service, especially for rural counties like Lincolnshire.

One methodology that has proved to be beneficial was that employed at Stamp End, Lincoln, an area of high deprivation that experienced regular surface water flooding.

by Ken Pratt

38

instituteofwater.org.uk

This scheme was the first major “nonhighway” project undertaken by the joint LCC and WSP team. It consisted of flood defences, watercourse improvements and a land-drainage pumping station.

The expectation is that a new project is initiated following a flood investigation under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 (F&WMA) and/or scoring high in a WSP built, GIS based, investigation considering the relative ‘all sources’ risks on communities. The flood investigation reports are subject to partner review and all projects are accepted onto the Common Works programme, where all partners agree to actively support the initiative.

For this scheme: the County Council facilitated the project; ■ the Water Company analysed the sewer and watercourse system and adopted the completed sewer works; ■

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES ■

■

the City Council and Highway Authority adopted the flood defence structures, and; the Internal Drainage Board adopted the pumping station that is integral in reducing the backing up of sewers and in providing a flood storage area.

North Delph Pumping Station

Additionally, several landowners allowed free access to land to construct the works with a separate private company donating the land for the pumping station.

The approach used was to utilise each organisation’s expertise, allowing each to contribute for the betterment of the community without changing its work processes. Effort was centred upon developing a cost effective strategy for overcoming issues whilst meeting each partner’s requirements. For example: ■ the pumping station was designed specifically to meet the requirements of the eel regulations, drainage board operational needs, and minimising Health and Safety risks, ■ the flood barriers had to span the numerous underground services, have minimal and simple maintenance requirements, not be required to be deployed during an event but allow disabled access, and be in keeping with their surroundings.

■ the works on the public sewer were in accordance with current design standards, be simple, with minimal effect on the Water Company’s maintenance regime.

Project promotion, although driven by one Risk Management Authority, the County Council, referenced all partners appropriately. The success of this Lincoln project was such that a City Councillor specifically thanked the multi-agency team because “… these residents tend to get forgotten about and put to the bottom of the pile...”.

The real success was the overcoming of silo working and the self-protection ethos of partners. This was achieved by both financially, with contributions being secured from three authorities, to supplement FCERM1 Grant-in-Aid, and technically, gaining the agreement of partners with respect to specification and future adoption.

The overall proposals were based on the principles of simplicity and innovation

which allowed all stakeholders to understand the project and the part they had to play at an early stage, encompassed by the introduction of ramps between recycled ‘plastic lumber’ barriers, installation of improvements to the sewer system caused minimal disruption, and the pumping station being designed to be inconspicuous and secure, easy to operate and maintain. The project had a positive safety culture based on industry norms.

For example, elements such as the new eel screens, were innovatively designed and sized to allow a two person lifting operation to minimise the need for heavy or specialist equipment, and provide a solution that was effective, exceeded the Client expectations, minimised disruption and was supported by the local residents.

This scheme highlights the complexity of Flood Risk Management projects and the reliance on collaborative partnerships.

This methodology has been given greater precedence with the recent update in FCERM Funding issued by the Environment Agency on behalf of Defra2. The object appears to force the sharing of costs between national and local funding.

No doubt emphasis will be on the sharing. Projects will need to be holistic and encompass non-traditional aspects such as ‘mental wellbeing’ with the lead organisation being responsible for reviewing while making certain all funding

partners meet their financial and resource liabilities and obligations. Of course, there are the investigations undertaken following Section 19 of the F&WMA where risk management authorities can be named and shamed if appropriate functions are not being exercised. Is partnership working considered an appropriate function?

A greater number of collaborative partnerships will need to be formed to reduce the level of community flood risk.

These will require funding to be met by a variety of sources. There is no reason why multiple benefits cannot also be gained to meet the needs of partner organisations.

This collaborative arrangement is expected to become the norm, albeit at the time unusual. It was recognised by Lincolnshire County Council Executive Councillor Colin Davie, who publically expressed that “...

The project is an example of excellent partnership working involving the County Council, City Council, Environment Agency and Anglian Water, as well as numerous local businesses who contributed in kind...”. High praise for the Lincoln scheme.

References 1 FCERM – Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management 2 Defra - Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

instituteofwater.org.uk

39

HWM GLOBAL

FIGHTING WATER SCARCITY THROUGH FIRE SUPPLY MONITORING On average, every single person in England consumes 143 litres of water per day.

That’s the equivalent to around one and a half baths of water every day, for each of England’s approximately 56,000,000 residents, and this number is growing.

In fact, demand has increased each year since 2015, according to a recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO).

The NAO Water Supply and Demand Management report also explained that, due to climate change, daily demand for water in England and Wales will rise almost 30%, from 14bn litres to 18bn litres.

The concern is, due to increasing temperatures, less water will be harvested through sustainable abstraction (the process of taking water from the ground or surface water bodies), and with demand growing, not meeting the deficit could cause the risk of drought in South East England, one of the country’s most populated areas.

Water companies are playing their part, by undertaking large-scale network monitoring projects in an effort to hit ambitious leak reductions targets.

However, the NAO report is calling for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to do more to ensure that the threat of water scarcity in the UK is not realised.

One recommendation made in the report is for Defra to promote a more coherent and credible message about water efficiency.

While water companies are using social media campaigns successfully to educate customers about what is safe to flush, more could be done to encourage efficient use of water.

It is suggested in the report that the government should take the lead on getting

across of the message that customers need to save water.

Commercial property water consumption is highlighted in the NAO report as an area in which more could be done to increase water efficiency. It is suggested that Defra should work with other government departments to reduce water consumption by large public sector users like schools and hospitals.

Private sector water consumers, such as factories, offices, retail outlets and building sites should also be encouraged to consider how efficiently they use water.

By reducing water consumption, not only will private companies be contributing to staving off potential water scarcity, they may also generate significant financial rewards thorough cost savings.

FIRE SUPPLY MONITORING One area in which significant water and cost savings are achievable for water companies is fire supply monitoring.

To provide remote fire supply monitoring, HWM-Invenio has developed Flow.

Watch, a unique, patented, solution that combines advanced temperature analysis with our NBIoT telemetry technology.

Flow.Watch identifies and categorises fire supply flow into leakage, test use and intermittent use.

This enables water companies to identify the fire supplies from which water is being used or lost. Benefitting from remote set up, Flow.Watch is a versatile, easily installed system that provides a non-intrusive alternative to metering.

40

instituteofwater.org.uk

Flow.Watch is a proven fire supply monitoring solution. In a recent case study, Flow.Watch was installed to monitor the fire mains systems of 118 large industrial facilities belonging to one of the UK’s largest water companies.

Over an 8-week period, over half of these sites (60) were found to have regular water usage events from the unmetered fire supply, with more than half of these having some form of leak.

Flow testing in the fire supply of one property discovered usage of 375 litres/

minute. With weekly tests lasting on average 38 minutes, we estimated up to 230,000 litres/week of usage from fire supply testing alone.

In another trial, in Italy, we discovered that 59% of industrial buildings surveyed (61) had regular water use events. In this trial, 60% of these properties were found to be illegally using the fire supply to supplement the meter.

These successful trials demonstrate that Flow.Watch can play an important role in delivering both water and cost savings.

Fire Supply Surveillance

Using our patented, non-intrusive technology, Flow.Watch uses advanced temperature analysis and NBIoT telemetry technology to detect and report flow through pipes.

Flow.Watch is ideal for detecting usage and leakage in commercial fire mains, a significant contributor to unaccounted-for water.

www.hwmglobal.com instituteofwater.org.uk

41

HOW TO REDUCE DOMESTIC WATER ENERGY COSTS BY OVER 70% I wonder if I might get expelled from the Institute for suggesting that we stop flushing the toilet...?

by Dr Martin Currie FIChemE FIWater

Water Quality & Treatment Consultant and Trainer with Aqueum and a member of the Institute’s IWA-UK committee.

Elon Musk undeniably has his quirks, but he has reimagined transport, with electric cars, hyper-loops and reusable spacecraft. Could we do the same with the water industry?

This article was to be on “COP26 preparations and decarbonisation of the water industry”. COVID-19 has postponed COP26 and disrupted our lives, so that article can wait. I imagine you may appreciate some more personal, COVID-19 inspired, future-gazing on decarbonisation.

At three o’clock on a sunny Friday afternoon my family and I were walking through the woods - getting our daily permitted exercise.

Laura, my wife, had a dull ache in her chest and had to sit down. By nine o’clock that night, it had developed into a sharp pain.

I started to worry that it might be a heart attack. We didn’t want to waste NHS time if it wasn’t serious, so I called 111. We got through after 15 minutes and, within an hour, a doctor called us back and put Laura into COVID-19 isolation.

I quickly moved my stuff out of our room & set up camp in my office. Being a process engineer, I made Laura a bottle of 70%

42

instituteofwater.org.uk

isopropanol spray before leaving a flask of tea outside her prison door.

Government guidance is that people with COVID-19 symptoms should “…use a separate bathroom from the rest of the household”. If you can’t do that then they recommend that you “clean a shared bathroom each time you use it”.

For environmental reasons, we had been considering installing a composting toilet for some time. I was also concerned that the spray disinfectant Laura had to use each time she went to the bathroom wasn’t helping her lungs.

By the time you read this I’ll have posted details at aqueum.com/composting-toilet on how we decided on the unit that we chose, and hopefully a video of the installation highlights along with updates on our experience with the new device.

The model we installed has a bucket to collect solids for composting. Sitting on the seat rotates the bucket and opens the blue hatch. Liquids are collected separately & piped into a garden collector with an eductor that mixes them 8:1 with irrigation water for nutrient recovery.

A constant extractor fan removes odour and aids solids drying.

I’m no wastewater or medical expert, but reading the WHO interim guidance, I get the impression that the main risk of COVID-19 contagion through wastewater is from aerosols when infected individuals flush the toilet. It is therefore recommended that, as well as washing our hands, we all close the lid when we flush.

One advantage of composting toilets in these times is that you don’t need to flush, so the aerosol risk is mitigated.

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES Composting toilets also require no water.

That’s tonnes less than even the most efficient low-flush models. And, while most models extract air from your house, ventilation is required anyway. Flush toilets also flush away heat in winter.

The specific heat capacity of water is over four times that of air, and cold water in your pipes, cistern and toilet gradually warms to room temperature.

The Energy Saving Trust have said that “Flushing the toilet is an unavoidable fact of life”. However, if we could change the facts of life by enabling mass deployment of composting toilets, what sort of impact could that have on the water industry’s carbon footprint?

We’re already committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2030, which will require lots of renewable energy for us to pump water around the country. If we can reduce our total energy demands, that frees this renewable energy to be used elsewhere.

The carbon cost of potable water treatment is much higher than it need be, because we treat much more water to potable standards than we need to. The economic and embodied carbon costs of a national twin pipe (potable and nonpotable) network make it a non-starter.

Decentralised grey water treatment and reuse on-site is much more feasible. But again, twinning up sewers into black and

Domestic Potable Water Consumption (litres per person per day) 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

1976

1991

2003

Dish washing Personal washing

2015 Other internal use Clothes washing

2019 WC flushing External use

composting toilets

With composting toilets WC flushing requirements drop to zero. The remaining wastewater is ‘grey’ rather than ‘black’ water. Grey water can be relatively easily recycled and used for Personal & Clothes washing, and all External use. Some ‘Other internal use’ could also be replaced with recycled grey water - not shown.

1976-2015 per-capita consumptions (PCCs) from A (1976-1991 interpolated), 2019 PCC from B. PCCs multiplied by proportions from A (2019 extrapolated). A https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/ wp-content/uploads/2018/05/The-long-term-potentialfor-deep-reductions-in-household-waterdemand-report-by-Artesia-Consulting.pdf. B https://discoverwater.co.uk/amount-we-use

grey at a national level is unfeasible.

If an area could move entirely to composting toilets, as well as saving the 20-30% of potable water that is used for toilet flushing, there would be no black water. That would allow for local treatment and reuse of grey water. This could save at least a further 50% of potable water demand, reducing average potable water requirements from 143 to under 40 litres per person per day.

Our excellent system of flushing human waste doesn’t make for the most efficient means of nutrient recovery. The second law of thermodynamics advises against dissolving your salt in water if you subsequently want to put that salt on your chips.

We could save huge amounts of energy for both nutrient and water recovery, if we stopped using water as our means of human waste disposal.

Composting toilets and decentralised grey water treatment may require a larger water industry workforce and could have an impact on existing infrastructure.

Conversely, potable water treatment and distribution energy & resource requirements could drop by over 70%, to say nothing of the wastewater collection and treatment savings.

This may be going too far, but each composting toilet in use reduces potable water demand and wastewater production, as well as the load on wastewater treatment works & the risk of pollution events caused by inappropriate flushing. The first few million installed shouldn’t require any changes to our existing national infrastructure. They even produce local fertiliser. Why don’t we talk about them more?

Please email me at martin@aqueum.com to let me know what the catch is.

instituteofwater.org.uk

43

REAL, MEASURABLE REDUCTION IN DOMESTIC WATER USAGE Population growth, lifestyle and weather pattern changes are putting UK water supplies under increasing pressure. A practical and cost-effective solution to manage the increasing demand on this precious resource is the Groundbreaker Systems’ LoFlo Check Valve.

by Steve Leigh

LoFlo Check Valve

Standard (full flow) Check valve

minute at 1bar pressure to a domestic dwelling (Water Industry Act). However, without care or effective water management, volumes greater than this can be taken by inconsiderate or uneducated consumers – despite current environmental concerns.

An easy, low cost intervention that can be introduced without expensive excavation or retrospective work.

Fellow of the Institute of Water and Managing Director of Groundbreaker Systems In the UK, attitudes to water means that consumers are resistant to conservation education. Just look at the weather it’s always raining! Whilst ‘smart metering’ and public awareness campaigns can have some impact on domestic consumption, it is unlikely to come anywhere close to halving usage - the target set by some water companies.

Groundbreaker Systems have the solution.

The LoFlo Check Valve can halve flow rates, allowing water providers to manage demand with surprisingly little impact on consumers.

In Nov 2018 the Met Office unveiled its predictions for the impact of climate change on Britain. A reduction of 47% in summer rainfall is anticipated in the next 50 years1.

Whilst house building is set to continue, with new home targets currently at 300,000 per annum. Conservation is becoming the buzz word of the water industry, as supply cannot be adjusted to meet demand.

Our water providers are required to provide a supply capable of delivering 10 litres/

Groundbreaker’s LoFlo Check Valve provides a ‘cap’ to the volume of water supplied to any property. Set to provide above the legally required minimum supply, and not noticeably interfere with normal daily domestic use, the LoFlo Check Valve ‘attenuates’ the water supply to a property by the inclusion of a precision engineered, flow restriction device.

Simply install the Groundbreaker’s LoFlo Check Valve between the water meter and manifold in any underground or surface mounted water meter enclosure.

Groundbreaker products meet all the defined criteria and are used extensively across the whole of the UK water supply network – whether that be North of Scotland or the Channel Islands.

For further details or to find your local distributor visit www.groundbreaker.co.uk 1. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/ news/weather-and-climate/2018/ukcp18-launch-pr Note: Section 63A of the WI Act states that there should be no impediment to a domestic water supply “for debt management”. Given that the LoFlo still provides above minimum supply levels and the impediment is not for the purposes of debt management, this condition does not apply.

Winners of the HBF Utility Company of the Year 2018 Groundbreaker is designed to provide a water company with the perfect platform to: . Eliminate leakage . Quick and easy supply replacement . Facilitate future water meter reading technologies

. Reduce usage . Remove street furniture

For more information, please visit www.groundbreaker.co.uk or call 01379 741993

44

instituteofwater.org.uk

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES

instituteofwater.org.uk

45

INNOVATION FESTIVAL SET FOR DIGITAL RETURN Northumbrian Water transform summer festival into online extravaganza.

In response to the challenges faced from COVID19 the water company is hosting their entire Innovation Festival completely online for the very first time.

Social distancing restrictions meant that it would no longer be possible to hold this year’s event at Newcastle Racecourse and so the festival, that had been planned for July and was due to see more than 3,000 people from all across the world gather, was forced to be postponed.

Not wanting to let festival attendees down, for what would have been the company’s fourth yearly event, the Northumbrian Water innovation team have instead drawn up plans to hold the four day event completely online and in a digital capacity.

Festival attendees will still be able to take part in design sprints, data hacks and daily dashes and work together to solve real world issues and come up with ideas and solutions to big societal problems.

They’ll also be able to experience lightning talks, networking events, Q+A sessions and tech demos through live streams and catch-ups.

The feel-good festival spirit will still be present and created virtually with wellbeing sessions, group exercise classes, pub quizzes, bingo, comedy, live music, celebrity appearances all taking place at the touch of a button.

Festival organiser and Northumbrian Water’s IS director Nigel Watson said: “COVID19 has completely changed peoples’ lives and caused businesses and organisations across the globe to rethink how they do things.

And that’s what we’ve done here.

“This is us adapting, flexing and being innovative with our innovation festival.

We’ve changed it, improved it and we’re making it work for people, right now.

46

instituteofwater.org.uk

“Our partners, sponsors and our customers all told us that they wanted it to go ahead and so, taking inspiration from concerts and other large events, we’ve made the choice to switch the whole event to digital.

ways of working, new solutions, to solve these problems and build back better.

Hopefully Innovation Festival 2020 can help with this and I’m really excited to see what happens”.

“It means that people from all across the globe can get involved in the festival in a safe and accessible way. It opens up lots of brand new opportunities for us both in terms of the way we work and what we can look to achieve.

The new digital Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival 2020 will take place between the 14-17 September.

“The whole world is facing huge challenges right now and it’s more important than ever that we come together to find new

Attendees can find out more about the festival and register their interest at the Innovation Festival website.

www.innovationfestival.org

RADAR IS THE BETTER

ULTRASONIC 80 GHz level sensor with fixed cable connection (IP68)

£405 VEGAPULS C 11

All advantages of the radar technology:

www.vega.com/vegapuls instituteofwater.org.uk

47

TRUCT S ON

TRUCT S ON

ENZIE C CK

instituteofwater.org.uk

ENZIE C CK

48

• 40 YE N IO

S OF MA AR

S OF MA AR

• 40 YE N IO

COMMITTED TO THE HEALTH, WELLBEING AND FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE, PARTNERS, CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLY CHAIN mackenzieconstruction.com instituteofwater.org.uk

49

PREPARE FOR COVID-19 WAVES, WATER INDUSTRY TOLD The water industry was told to prepare for the likelihood of Covid-19 “being with us for two to three years”, until a vaccine has been developed and three billion plus people vaccinated.

The recommendation came from founder and chairman of technology and innovation consultancy Isle Utilities, Dr Piers Clark, who is leading an international Covid-19 sector-wide collaboration initiative via WhatsApp. Dr Piers Clark

Clark also updated participants on discussion points and learnings of the 265 global organisations that had joined Isle’s social media collaboration, including water utilities and municipalities, such as how monitoring in sewerage systems could provide a rapid early detection method for spotting the presence of the virus in communities and lead to targeted lockdowns.

Other speakers on the video conference, which had 80 participants from across the water industry, were Ofwat chief executive Rachel Fletcher, Pennon Group chief executive Chris Loughlin, Scottish Water chief executive Douglas Millican and Water UK programme lead Sam Larsen.

Speaking at British Water’s weekly Better Together video conference on 1 May, Clark said global resurgence of the virus was very likely and could come in waves “typically lasting 10-20 weeks, depending on the severity and extent of the lockdown adopted.”

He said: “We’ve had a dedicated team working on this, pulling out the best information that’s available from all around the world. At a macro level, the evidence is becoming increasingly strong that this virus is going to be with us for years.

“The new normal we’re likely to experience for the next three or four years is society and industry is going to go in and out of lockdown periods at a national, or a state, or even a community level, and the water industry has a very important part to play. This is what the evidence is telling us today, this is the likely outcome of Covid-19.”

50

instituteofwater.org.uk

Updates from the utilities focused on delivery of the AMP7 capital programme.

Loughlin, who as head of Pennon Group is overseeing the investment programmes of South West Water and Bournemouth Water, said while capital projects had been paused when lockdown measures were announced, the majority had now restarted or were due to restart, with new working practices in place based on government guidelines.

Millican, who is overseeing Scottish Water’s 2015-2021 £3.9 billion improvement programme, said the organisation had also adopted new working procedures and was looking to fully restart its capital programme.

The public utility is basing decisions on key criteria including having a safe working environment, the criticality of the project and what worked best for the supply chain in terms of availability of people.

Ofwat’s Rachel Fletcher added: “It is good to hear that some companies are accelerating their plans and planning to catch up on the slow start in March and April. My impression is that this is the norm.”

Thanking speakers after the call, British Water chief executive Lila Thompson said: “The insights we receive from our Better Together speakers are highly valued by British Water members, which is why more and more are joining us each week. Conversations have moved to how companies are now planning ahead to ensure they can emerge from this crisis in a strong position, while preparing themselves for potential resurgences.

“Organisations are telling us they have adapted well to new ways of working and, in terms of the water companies, it is encouraging that some capital projects are able to restart with support from the supply chain. We must not forget the UK is facing a water scarcity crisis, with the National Audit Office last month warning that unless more action is taken now, parts of the south of England could run out of water within the next 20 years.

“Projects that will protect our water resources are now more important than ever so I am delighted that we will have Jean Spencer, independent chair of National Water Resources Framework Senior Steering Group, and Paul Hickey, managing director of the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development, RAPID, joining the call on 15 May.” British Water’s Better Together virtual calls were established in response to Covid-19, to give members the chance to gain insights from key stakeholders on how the pandemic is impacting the industry, as well as identify ways for to best support the industry.

Calls usually take place every Friday from 12-1pm. The next call will be on Thursday 7 May, due to the bank holiday. Register via the British Water website.

LOOK NO FURTHER FOR ALL YOUR MOBILE DEWATERING NEEDS

MOBILE/ CONTRACT DEWATERING

QUALITY PRODUCTS & SERVICES ONE OF THE UK’s LEADING SUPPLIERS OF LIQUID AND SOLID SEPARATION TECHNOLOGIES TO THE WATER AND INDUSTRIAL MARKETS

Centrifuge technology

Filter press technology

Craft beer clarifier

• SALES • RENTAL • MAINTENANCE • • REFURBISHMENT • SPARE PARTS • T - 01903 69 44 00 E - sales@euroby.com

F - 01903 69 44 77

www.euroby.com

instituteofwater.org.uk

51

OVARRO

REBRAND READIES TECHNOLOGY COMPANY FOR GROWTH

Ovarro chief executive David Frost says streamlining the company’s operations will be the most effective way of delivering for customers.

A new word enters the water technology lexicon on 12 March with a bold rebrand by Servelec Technologies and recent acquisition, leak detection specialist Primayer. The two companies are now united under one brand and one name - Ovarro.

52

Water is a core sector for Ovarro, which also works with clients in the oil & gas, broadcast and transportation markets.

The company helps organisations monitor, control and manage their assets and is anticipating considerable organic growth as utilities and municipalities seek greater analytics capability to drive multiple efficiencies in their operations.

David Frost, chief executive of Ovarro said, “The water technology market is entering an extraordinarily vibrant phase, which we wanted to capture with the honeycomb theme of our rebrand.

Exceptional efficiencies are sought by our customers and they will only be achieved through the collaborative efforts of a busy hive.

Ovarro is inspired by the name of Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro who was first to propose the honeycomb conjecture.

He stated that a regular hexagonal grid or honeycomb pattern is the best way to divide a surface into regions of equal area with the shortest total perimeter.

Charles Darwin later commented that, “The honeycomb is a masterpiece of engineering. It is absolutely perfect in economising labour and wax.”

“We have some great technologies and unrivalled in-house expertise and in coming together and integrating our teams in R&D, operations and at the executive level, we can streamline our offer across industries and geographies.

Having a single brand to wrap around this unique integrated offer is the most effective way of delivering to our customers.”

instituteofwater.org.uk

Looking ahead, Frost said, “Tightening regulatory drivers mean water utilities and municipalities around the world are expected to do more for less. There are also considerable strains on our natural resources and water losses through leakage are a massive issue. Our combined solutions tackle that head on.”

Ovarro’s rebrand includes a new logo and colour palette on the honeycomb theme, along with a new website www.ovarro.com.

The company is headquartered in Sheffield, UK, and has offices in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. www.ovarro.com

instituteofwater.org.uk

53

LOCKEN

SAFETY OF PEOPLE AND PROPERTY IS A KEY ISSUE IN THE WATER INDUSTRY

Production operators, subcontractors and maintenance technicians working in the water industry need easy access to various remote sites where Locken has fitted thousands of access control systems.

This means maintaining tens of thousands of facilities across the country in urban and often remote areas (home to the largest clean water production plants).

These plants are often far from any power supply, adding further complication to the access control solution.

by Stéphane Conreux CTO of Locken

In complex settings, where a drop of water travels through miles of pipelines, pumping stations, tanks, treatment plants, then sewers and waste water treatment plants to complete the water cycle, controlling the process and securing these highly sensitive sites is challenging.

Water industry facilities usually comprise many scattered sites.

54

instituteofwater.org.uk

Autonomous access control, the very latest in cable-free technology, offers the perfect solution for access points and doors, as the padlock and lock cylinders are passive.

Keys provide the necessary power and hold the access rights data. Electronic cylinders can easily replace existing cylinders and do not require any special maintenance, making it especially suited to remote sites and clean water aqueducts. The complete solution is managed by the Locken Smart Access software.

We recently spoke to Stéphane Conreux, CTO of Locken, to find out more about this solution and why it is particularly wellsuited to the water industry.

Q: Tell us about Locken Smart Access.

A: Our software solution, Locken Smart

Access (LSA) has been developed to design and operate access policy. LSA can be easily connected with other software to become part of the customers’ IT system. Within a water network, the best performance is achieved when all parts are fully connected, LSA offers scalability to integrate the individual specifications of water companies… to talk the language of the customers.

Q: What are its main characteristics?

A: Each part of Locken Smart Access is focused on the needs of the who and why.

For example, the web part of LSA operates the specifications of scalability and manages access policies - manager centric access policy. MyLocken (Locken’s mobile app) is dedicated to the specific needs of end users. Each part of Locken Smart Access considers both user and manager to deliver added value through global collaboration of access management.

Q: Why choose this solution over others on the market?

A: Choosing Locken Smart Access doesn’t mean choosing a solution among other

FEATURE: CURRENT & FUTURE CHALLENGES similar solutions. It means choosing a tool that allows you to create custom-made solutions that meet the specific needs of each water company, while seamlessly integrating into their value chain.

Q: What role do innovation and new technologies play in water management and what main challenges does the water industry face?

A: Innovations and new technologies only make sense if they reflect the requirements of the water sector. Their major roles are to simplify the expected answer and to address the user’s needs by creating added value without any additional task for the user. Data mining is a key factor of Locken Smart Access, because one of the main values of access control solutions is their capacity to deliver relevant information to the managers. This helps them understand complex situations and provides them with the ability to define and meet the needs of their organisations. The major challenge of innovation is to deliver its promises without adding complications that may result from introducing new technologies. With expertise in both the hardware and software elements

of the solution, Locken is able to offer the most capable and reliable access control solution on the market.

Q: Among the new technologies marking the evolution of the water sector, which ones does Locken Smart Access use and how?

A: More and more, the water sector requests flexibility, enabling people to find solutions which support them in doing their job and ultimately managing the entire water cycle.

Locken Smart Access uses the capacity offered by mobile apps to get the user of the electronic keys more involved in the smart access process. This increases the benefits of the access control solution.

Q: Finally, look to the future, what business and development expectations does this type of solution have within the water sector?

A: We plan to continue to develop and add to the Locken system. Our objective is to make each user an active contributor for the benefit of all; as an example, expanding our ‘MyLocken’ app to key users by adding smart technologies and innovative functionalities that will help to make their job always easier and safer.

For further information visit https://www.locken.eu, find us on LinkedIn or telephone 0203 691 1610.

NEW LOW COST COMPACT 80 GHZ LEVEL SENSORS Extended family for water and waste industries VEGA has extended its proven VEGAPULS family for continuous level measurement.

The new series features the very latest FMCW 80-GHz technology and, with a developed radar level microchip, excellent performance and a low price, it represents a real alternative to ultrasonic technology.

This makes it highly economical for applications in the water/wastewater sector, or auxiliary applications in process automation.

With features including: ■ Strong focusing - ensuring measurement without the jumps ■ No dead zones - for measurement in confined spaces

■

■

■

Low power - for remote sites and telemetry Handles build up - enables longer operation without maintenance EX approval - for hazardous areas and chemicals

The compact loop powered radar is available in two versions: a model with a cable connection housing and a standard model with fixed cable connection (IP68).

Optional controllers and Bluetooth built in The compact radars also have an optional field mounting controller for local display, extra outputs and level alarms. Both sensors and controllers can be easily and safely adjusted via Bluetooth with a smartphone or tablet – ideal for harsh environments, operational safety or Ex areas.

More information at www.vega.com/uk

instituteofwater.org.uk

55

CORPORATE REPUTATION IN A TIME OF CHANGE: A SUPPLY CHAIN PERSPECTIVE At the time of writing, it is eight weeks since Boris Johnson addressed the nation and ‘lockdown’ formally started. It is worth recalling, however, that this announcement had been preceded by several weeks of uncertainty and growing restrictions on corporate and public life.

by Paul Jennings

Managing Director, AVK UK Lockdown also coincided with the start of the new AMP (PR19) cycle on 1st April.

Change – both expected and unexpected – can put considerable strain on an organisation’s reputation. In this brief article, I will look at how AVK UK has responded to these changes and sought to protect its hard-won reputation.

If you type ‘reputation management’ into Google you would be forgiven for thinking that reputation only exists in the online world; the world of Google Reviews, Twitter, LinkedIn and other digital platforms. These are important of course – AVK UK uses social media extensively to communicate with its customers, suppliers and other stakeholders – but I am more interested in AVK UK’s real world ‘bricks and mortar’ reputation.

Where does AVK UK’s reputation come from? For me, our reputation is synonymous with brand, image and identity. It is built from the collective experiences of our stakeholders over many years. These experiences, in turn, are formed from thousands of separate interactions between the AVK UK team and our customers.

56

instituteofwater.org.uk

I believe AVK UK has a strong reputation across the UK’s water and gas industries.

This reputation is incredibly valuable to us as an organisation. Its consequences include customer loyalty, advocacy, co-operation and willingness to collaborate. For example, in Autumn 2020 AVK UK will be launching a portfolio of smart water products, many of which we believe to be ‘first to market’.

Our reputation has enabled us to arrange trials with a number of water companies, trials which are providing invaluable feedback prior to launch.

At AVK UK we have invested heavily in transparency and openness. A prime example of this is the AVK UK website which makes over 150 instructional videos, technical articles, case studies and document downloads freely accessible to any visitor.

My team is committed to making the AVK UK website the UK’s leading platform for information on solutions, valves, fittings and related services.

Culture has a key role to play in shaping and influencing reputation. The AVK UK culture is reflected in our approach to the Covid-19 lockdown. The primary driver in all decisions has been the safety and welfare of our employees and customers. Wherever it has been deemed safe to do so in line with government recommendations, we have sought to maintain continuity of service and supply to our customers. To achieve this, we have kept our manufacturing facilities open, created the infrastructure for 50+ employees to continue working from home and communicated on a daily basis with the workforce and our customers.

In PR19, water companies have been set exceptionally challenging targets by Ofwat across all their activities including resilience, sustainability, efficiency, innovation and customer service. There has been an unprecedented number of challenges to Ofwat’s determinations by major water companies, showing just how stretching

FEATURE: REPUTATION these targets are. It was inevitable that the supply chain would be a prime source the water companies would look to for support, efficiency gains and innovation.

As any reputable manufacturer will tell you, quality systems, audits and product accreditations are expensive to maintain.

Whilst it takes time to build customer confidence in the quality of your products and services, however, I believe it is the best long-term business investment you can make. Furthermore, ‘product quality’ is just one dimension of a water company’s measure of quality. An AVK customer’s definition or perception of quality changes across the ‘customer journey’, it is not a fixed entity.

Out with the product itself, the customer experiences quality in its interactions with its suppliers through the service that is provided. Once again, we are back at ‘reputation’.

At AVK we try to see the world from the customer’s viewpoint and constantly ask, and seek to answer, the following questions.

Do we make it easy for the customer to identify the correct product? If the customer has questions, do we make it easy for them

to get the answers they need? Do we provide these answers in the format the customer wants: face-to-face, by phone, online? Do we make it as easy as possible for customers, old and new, to buy from us?

Do we do enough to ensure the customer

gets the most from the products they buy at all stages of the product life cycle? If the customer perceives there is a problem, are we resourced and available locally to resolve it? If we can answer these questions in the affirmative, our reputation is enhanced.

AVK SMART WATER COMING SOON. . .

For further details on AVK Smart Water Solutions please contact: David Hurley T: +44 (0) 7983 706675 E: dahu@avkuk.co.uk

www.avkuk.co.uk

instituteofwater.org.uk

57

WATER QUALITY REGULATION UNDER LOCKDOWN

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland (DWQR) is open for business, although as with all of us – under very different conditions than we were used to.

by Moira Malcolm

Drinking Water Specialist, DWQR DWQR is the title of the Regulator herself: Sue Petch, who is independent of Scottish Ministers and is responsible for the scrutiny of the water company in Scotland, Scottish Water, with respect to drinking water quality; and the supervision of local authorities in their regulation of private water supplies.

There are ten of us in the Drinking Water Quality team authorised to work for Sue; covering operations, policy and support functions (we also use the term ‘DWQR’ to apply to the whole of Sue’s team).

The Operations Team are primarily involved with the regulation of Scottish Water, and assisting with the supervision of local authorities who regulate private water supplies. The Regulatory Team are responsible for developing and implementing legislation, guidance and other policies with respect to drinking

58

instituteofwater.org.uk

water quality in Scotland, as well as managing all of our data. Lately we have been setting up and leading a steering group to advance and overhaul private water supplies legislation; and are also trying to make sense of the recast Drinking Water Directive.

developed and adapted our working practices to accommodate the necessary changes required by our current circumstances so we can continue to provide the necessary direction to Scottish Water and local authorities in a fastchanging situation.

To achieve all of this we are usually busy attending meetings with a variety of stakeholders; visiting water treatment works for investment sign-off, audits and incident investigation; contributing to training and conferences; and researching innovation. We are rarely all in the office at the same time and each week is different and brings its own challenges.

The backbone to regulation is the sampling and analysis of drinking water from consumers’ taps at a frequency set by legislation. Back in February we could see the potential for Covid-19 to make a significant change to the practices of regulatory sampling if it became an issue in Scotland, so after discussion with Scottish Water we developed and issued alternative sampling guidance so that samplers did not have to cold call consumers and to take account of potential staff absence. We were also aware that the households sampled were often elderly as these people were more likely to be at home during the day (pre-lockdown), and both Scottish Water and DWQR did not wish to risk their

However at time of writing we are under lockdown in Scotland, and we anticipate that even when restrictions are eased things will not return to ‘normal’ for some time to come – either for us in DWQR or Scottish Water.

Over the last few months we have

FEATURE: WATER QUALITY health or unnecessarily cause concern.

Around the same time Scottish Water samplers started to experience some pushback on doorsteps from consumers who were wary at allowing access to their homes. We formalised the guidance in Information Letter 1/2020 and initiated regular virtual meetings with Scottish Water’s scientific services and public health team to keep communication open and monitor the situation. The Information Letter allowed Scottish Water to cease sampling from consumers’ taps and instead take zonal samples from storage point outlets and final water sample points, with the exception of plumbing metals which are to be caught up when restrictions are lifted. The overall aim is to ensure that public health is safeguarded at all times.

Meanwhile in DWQR HQ we postponed conferences in Edinburgh and Inverness organised with Scotland’s local authorities on private water supplies and cancelled non-essential visits to Scottish Water sites.

The week before lockdown was officially announced we held our annual business planning meeting under the cloud of realisation that this was probably the last time we would be in each other’s company for the foreseeable future. This was especially poignant for our colleague Hollie, who is now on maternity leave and very busy with preparations of her own!

We confirmed the changes to Scottish Water’s operations for sampling and analysis and kept in regular contact about these as everyone adapted to the ’new normal’. Specific challenges for Scottish Water have included the transport of samples from the Scottish islands with restricted flights and ferries, which has resulted in subcontracting microbiology samples to a local UKAS accredited lab in Shetland. When bottle necks in analysis formed, the analysis of colony counts was temporarily suspended for a short time.

Cryptosporidium sampling and analysis was scaled back to the regulatory minimum.

These measures were done with full consultation and agreement of DWQR, and analysis restarted as soon as resource was available. The rigour demonstrated by the company has meant that DWQR has a high level of trust in their intentions and actions to only reduce their service when absolutely essential.

Fortunately the Scottish Government has always supported working from home, and we were able to transfer all our internal meetings to videoconferencing without too much difficulty. The software and internet has (mostly) held up under the strain – and we have all become a bit more tech savvy. Our meetings with external stakeholders are all online now too: with Scottish Water and also DEFRA and DWI, local authorities and other regulators. We even hold regular team ‘cake’ meetings online (as we have to provide our own cake, it’s an excuse to show off our new baking skills).

So at the moment we are in a new ‘business as usual’ phase. We continue to regulate from a distance: scrutinising data and events; examining paperwork and asking for photo/video evidence and auditing by videoconference. Our regular meetings with Scottish Water continue. DWQR may still visit Scottish Water sites when required for urgent regulatory purposes, taking account of any reasonable precautions requested by the company. The whole team is involved in writing our Annual Report at the moment, which is something that lends itself to working from home.

We’re also doing plenty of training online, and without travel to occupy our weeks, we are eventually getting to the bottom of our ‘to do’ lists.

Looking forward, we are working towards exit strategies – including protocols for physically distant site visits and audits, and preparing with Scottish Water for an eventual return to ‘normal’ regulatory

sampling - with the constraints of physically distancing and the awareness that consumers may be very reluctant to welcome doorstep calls for some time.

At the moment the discussion is around sampling from Scottish Water employee’s homes and from trade and public buildings where this is appropriate to get the correct spread of zonal samples. The DWQR team have also offered their kitchen taps as sample points.

Over the last few months DWQR has developed new ways of working that we are confident will ensure our scrutiny of Scottish Water and drinking water quality continues despite the constraints we are all enduring, and we look forward to the day we can do something as simple as attend a meeting where someone else brings the biscuits.

instituteofwater.org.uk

59

A NEW PHAGE FOR WATER SAFETY What’s the deadliest killer on earth? Hippos, malaria, natural disaster? Well these may be some of the main offenders, but seldom do bacteriophage ever spring to mind. coliphage (which both infect E. coli and similar bacteria), and phage infecting Bacteroides spp. Figure 1 shows the common groups, linkages and examples.

Each group has unique properties which determine their application which will be explored further.

So how can we use phage to ensure the continued provision of safe water for the communities we serve?

Raw source water characterisation

by Austen Buck PhD CSci MIWater Senior Water Scientist, Stantec

Bacteriophage (from the Greek “BacteriaEaters”), or phage, are a collection of virus families that exclusively infect and destroy bacterial cells in order to replicate.

Phage are of no risk to humans but are a bacterial cells worst nightmare, destroying billions of bacteria each day. So how can they help us?

The limitations of current faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) such as E. coli, are well documented. Their inability to accurately predict the presence of viruses in water and that they are unrepresentative of virus removal through treatment are two key concerns. Therefore, phage (which share more similar characteristics to human viruses) have been proposed as more suitable target organisms to assess viral risk.

In addition to this, the proposed inclusion of somatic coliphage as a compliance parameter in the revised Drinking Water Directive (DWD) will also push the use of phage in the water sector into a new phase. Current treatment processes may not be able to remove somatic coliphage to the proposed target level (0 pfu/mL), depending on raw water challenge, so this requirement is of increasing interest.

There are three commonly used phage types for the assessment of waters. These are somatic coliphage and F-specific

60

instituteofwater.org.uk

To ensure adequate disinfection, it is vital to understand source water risks associated with viruses. The presence of pathogenic viruses (causing illness in humans) in source water is closely linked to human faecal contamination either from leaking sewers, septic tanks, and effluent discharges.

Somatic coliphage, which originate from the gut of warm-blooded animals may not accurately represent risk of human viral pathogens in source waters.

For instance, a source water with high levels of somatic coliphage but with no human faecal impact would pose a very low risk from human viruses. Therefore, specific phage have been identified that originate solely from the human gut and their presence in source water can more accurately predict the presence of human viruses. This ability to identify the source of faecal contamination is termed Microbial Source Tracking (MST). Phage infecting the bacterial genus Bacteroides (Figure 2) have been successfully isolated and used to identify and trace human faecal contamination in source waters to better understand virus risks and downstream treatment requirements (Ebdon et al., 2007).

Treatment performance and verification Coliphage have been used successfully to demonstrate log removal values (LRV) for viruses through water and wastewater treatment, both in academic research

(Purnell et al., 2015; Dias et al., 2017) and in practice.

F-specific coliphage are already used to validate wastewater disinfection processes in the UK, but the use of phage to verify the adequacy of potable water treatment in the UK is not common. Model viruses of each phage group (eg. PRD1, MS2, B1244) have been isolated and are used in a range of laboratory bench-scale studies, and full-scale spiking trials to ascertain LRVs across different treatment processes.

MS2, a type of F-specific coliphage is of key interest in treatment studies as its characteristics are closely related to human viruses, therefore it’s presence and removal through treatment closely models that of human viruses. Purnell et al., successfully used somatic and F-specific coliphage to assess microbial risk across a full-scale membrane bioreactor processes (MBR). Figure 3 shows two somatic coliphage of the Microviridae family identified post MBR during this study.

The presence of phage in treated waters could therefore be used to indicate inadequate treatment processes and a potential virus risk. Their presence in wastewater effluents may also indicate the presence of human viral pathogens and could present a risk to downstream shellfisheries and bathers.

Other applications Phage have also been successfully used to: identify virus risk in sediments, bathing waters, and food including shellfish; and to model groundwater movement.

One interesting use of phage away from the water sector is for the control of bacterial infections as an alternative to currently used antibiotics, this is termed “Bacteriophage Therapy”.

Current limitations Whilst the use of phage in the water sector will help us: better predict risk in our source waters; better understand treatment requirements; and to verify

FEATURE: WATER QUALITY Figure 1. Common phage groups, linkages, and examples.

the adequacy of water and wastewater treatment processes, they are not without their limitations. The sensitivity of the methods can be a key limiting factor, as current laboratory methods use 1 mL of sample, therefore there is a high frequency of negative results and the additional requirements for concentration of phage are necessary adding both complexity and cost to sampling and analysis. The current availability of methods may also limit their application and whilst somatic coliphage and F-specific coliphage tests are commercially available, tests for human-specific phage are less so, although this provides a great opportunity for university partnership.

Figure 2. A TEM micrograph of a humanspecific phage (B124-4) that infects B. fragilis (GB124). This phage is from the Siphoviridae family (Courtesy of University of Brighton).

Figure 3. A TEM micrograph of the somatic coliphage family (Microviridae) observed in MBR supernatant (adapted from Purnell et al., 2015).

Conclusion With ever increasing emphasis on effective risk-based decision making processes through water safety planning and the potential future inclusion of somatic coliphage as a newly regulated parameter in the revised DWD, maybe now is the time to revisit our phage friends and utilise them to their maximum potential to ensure the continued public health protection of the communities we serve.

References Ebdon et al., (2007). Water Research, 41, pp. 3683-3690.

Dias et al., (2018). Water Research, 129, pp. 172-179.

Purnell et al., (2015). Water Research, 73, pp. 109-117.

instituteofwater.org.uk

61

ATI UK

SITEBOX SMART WATER QUALITY SYSTEMS DONATED TO NIGHTINGALE HOSPITALS Cutting-edge, smart water quality systems have been donated to UK Nightingale Hospitals fighting COVID-19, helping to ensure the highest quality water to the emergency healthcare facilities.

ATi UK are playing a vital role in the safe running of these new, emergency sites by helping to ensure clean, reliable and safe water for critically ill coronavirus patients.

The industry’s only portable, bespoke, water treatment control and policing system, SiteBox, has been delivered and installed, free of charge, into healthcare facilities in locations such as Bristol and Manchester, with other installations in the pipeline across the UK and Spain, to provide a higher level of water quality assurance during the pandemic, exceeding all compliance levels.

The first SiteBox was donated to Bristol’s Nightingale Hospital, within days of initial planning meetings, following concerns over the converted university building housing no onsite water storage. By working closely with Bristol Water, ATi UK were able to offer an innovative early warning solution with the use of a SiteBox, to help protect the hospital in the unlikely event that the water supply was lost.

Delivery to start up in minutes This was closely followed by SiteBox and MetriNet installations at Manchester’s Nightingale clinical facility to safeguard the water security, for additional reassurance and compliance of the water supply. The systems were all installed onto the inlet and were generating live data in as little as 20 minutes, allowing the forward-thinking water companies to monitor, alarm and prevent events that could affect the water quality supply, minimising any disruption.

The live data is then transferred to a cloudbased platform, with water quality teams

62

instituteofwater.org.uk

able to analyse the data in real-time, with alerts to any incidents. SiteBox is configured to alarm in the event of any water quality incidents, loss of supply or threats to compliance or security.

The versatile ‘lift and shift’ systems were originally designed as event management tools, but the capabilities have now widened to emergency water quality management.

Bespoke, yet off-the-shelf Each SiteBox was tailored to the customers’ needs, factory tested and installed within a week, allowing the water companies to lead the way with a more proactive, rather than reactive, approach.

SiteBox systems can be held by utilities for emergencies, capable of being deployed and working quickly, offering resilience of supply and mitigating against potential public health claims. This enables water companies to measure water quality immediately online, record real-time data for regulatory requirements, all whilst fixing the problem, saving the need for boil notices and customer compensation.

The modular nature enables users to tailor a bespoke monitoring system that fits individual site requirements, capable of measuring up to 20 different parameters.

SiteBox can be used on its own as the input to a control system, or alternatively as an independent monitoring system that polices existing water quality monitors.

Versatile, Future-proof Technology Its flexibility means that SiteBox can be used anywhere that water quality measurement and control is needed, from drinking water treatment and process water in the food industry, to large-scale event management and holiday parks.

Demonstrating its versatility, SiteBox can be used to extract deeper insights on pipeline networks to enhance operational efficiencies; assist in the cleaning and refurbishing of service reservoirs; is utilised by the world’s largest provider of water systems for global events; and is also set be used at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.

Garry Tabor, ATi UK Executive Director, said: “ATi UK is proud to be working with our utilities partners to support the NHS Nightingale hospitals during the current pandemic. We are a values based company and are passionate about supporting communities, prioritising local communities in any way we can.

“SiteBox will ensure that these water companies are going above and beyond the usual guidelines to safeguard water quality for staff and patients during this difficult time. By continually measuring any of the 20 available parameters, the Nightingale Hospitals will have some of the best characterised and protected installations in the country and we are extremely proud to be part of these collaborations.”

SiteBox. The only portable, bespoke water quality monitoring and control system.

Providing the highest level of water quality assurance, exceeding all compliance levels.

Our innovative, smart water quality SiteBox system provides a complete, engineered, portable solution for a vast range of applications, extracting deeper insights on water treatment.

This versatile ‘lift and shift’ water quality management and policing tool is specifically designed for any events affecting water supply, such as leaks and bursts. Offering pro-active, emergency water quality management, SiteBox predicts, alarms and prevents events, is quick to install and can be generating live data within 30 minutes.

It’s flexibility allowing it to be used in many different applications.

Going above and beyond guidelines for safeguarding water quality, SiteBox continually measures up to 20 water quality parameters, offering protection from unexpected events, such as discolouration and disinfection. SiteBox measures immediately online, providing real-time data for regulatory audits.

Improve compliance ratings and reduce TOTEX costs, with a cost-effective solution for a smarter future.

sales@atiuk.com / +44 (0) 1457 873 318 / atiuk.com ATi UK is a leading provider of engineered, analytical sensor monitoring solutions to the water and gas industry. Our pioneering and industry leading range of Network Monitors, Water Quality Monitors and Gas Detectors provide innovative solutions for the most demanding of applications.

Solutions for a Smarter Future instituteofwater.org.uk

63

NORTHUMBRIAN WATER’S CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT JOURNEY

Over the last 5 years Northumbrian Water has looked at how high performing corporations have been so successful. It has then adapted these principles to its own business.

The common thread has been to: ■

■

■

provide targeted rich, accurate data to the right people at the right time train people on the interpretation of information so they can apply it in the real world create a culture of honesty and openness which recognises achievement and creates the desire to improve

It is very easy to get caught up in the data aspect of lean manufacturing, whilst this is an essential component it is merely an enabler to engage people to work toward the common goal of achieving a vision.

It is also essential to engage the right people (those who will deliver the results and the stakeholders who will benefit from the results) at the earliest stage of strategy development and not to simply provide them with a set of KPI’s.

Our ambitious goal within our water supply team is for 100% of our customers to “choose tap water over bottled water”.

This is challenging because there are many reasons why people would spend money on bottled water beyond just product taste and quality but it is useful because it clearly sets

64

instituteofwater.org.uk

the scene for continuous improvement.

There are many mechanisms for delivering continuous improvements, in Water Supply we chose a scrum type approach which consists of: ■

■

Daily Boardwalk where operators and site managers discuss performance against plan on a daily basis Monthly Scorecard review where operators, stakeholders, support departments and leaders review the higher level key performance indicators against monthly improvement targets and modify plans to address areas of concern.

Our scorecard tracks 37 measures each month, these are split equally in the 5 categories of Safety, Quality, Cost, Delivery and People.

An example of one of the measures within our Quality section is “Drive Score” (Dynamic Risk and Intervention Effectiveness). This takes a specific basket of around 100 critical to quality leading and lagging measures at each of our water treatment works, we then calculate non-conformance based on the percentage of samples (or instrument readings) which fall outside stringent upper

and lower control limits. We then apply an importance weighting to each measure and calculate a risk index score for each measure.

Our systems are designed to do this automatically and each day operators receive an email notification describing yesterday’s score for each measure, they respond by carrying out a root cause analyses (RCA) on these failures and propose actions to resolve these issues within the same system. These RCA’s are then used to inform improvement plans for each site which are formalised and shared with support departments and tracked as part of the monthly scorecard review process.

The other 36 measures are treated in a similar way and at the beginning of each year we develop steadily improving targets for each month supported by detailed action plans with clear accountabilities.

Big improvement projects have their place in the water supply world but simple, often low cost structured incremental continuous improvement processes such as those described here play a vital role in achieving corporate goals, through employee engagement.

FEATURE: WATER QUALITY

INTRODUCING 2 NEW MECANA SYSTEMS IN THE UK Eliquo Hydrok have added two new Mecana technologies to their existing Pile Cloth Media Filtration (PCMF) systems available for the UK Water and Wastewater markets.

PRIMARY & POST PRIMARY FILTRATION Applications: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Primary Filtration Post Primary Filtration Stormwater Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) High Solids Applications (Municipal and Industrial)

The Pile Cloth Media Primary Filtration cloth media filtration system is designed as an economical and efficient solution for the treatment of primary wastewater and wet weather applications. This system utilises a disk configuration and the exclusive OptiFiber PF-14® pile cloth filtration media to effectively filter high

solids waste streams without the use of chemicals. This technology is ideal for primary wastewater treatment as a primary filter, as an alternative to a conventional primary treatment; or it can also be used as a post primary filter in series after a conventional primary treatment, due to its proven removal efficiencies and high quality effluent, even under varying influent conditions.

The Primary Filtration system is designed to handle a wide range of flows in a fraction of space compared to conventional primary clarifiers. The system’s high solids removal in comparison to conventional treatment provides more energy and

operational savings within the wastewater treatment plant due to reduced loads to the secondary process and the increase of organic solids for anaerobic digestion, producing more energy. Pile Cloth Media Primary Filtration contributes to the positive energy balance of WwTP’s.

DRINKING WATER & SURFACE WATER PRE-FILTRATION Eliquo Hydrok have the UK distribution for the Mecana Pile Cloth Filter Media within their portfolio of Clean Water Treatment Processes, Drinking Water and Surface Water pre-filtration treatment utilising the Mecana Optifiber PES-14-DW® pile cloth media.

Pile cloth media filtration can be used as a resilient pre-filtration solution to address the problems associated with algal blooms occurring in water extracted from surface water sources. Mecana PCMF systems can be used as an economical and an efficient pre-filtration stage in the treatment of surface water to produce drinking water or process water.

The system utilises the disc configuration and the exclusive OptiFiber PES-14-DW® pile cloth filtration media, to effectively filter; a wide range of algae typically responsible for seasonal algal blooms, from diatoms and other unicellular algae in spring to filamentous types such as Melosira more common in the summer,

surface water particles and suspended solids without the use of chemicals.

The pre-treatment of raw water is an important step in the multi-stage water treatment process, since it impacts crucially on the operating efficiency of the main treatment and after-treatment processes further downstream.

Drinking water production with surface water from reservoirs or rivers is faced with a challenge of the removal of low density suspended solids and algae. In the context of climate change, droughts may impact reservoir water quality and result in more prolonged and severe algal challenges.

An affordable chemical-free alternative to traditional processes such as sand filtration and DAF can be provided by pre-filtration with pile cloth media.

Filtration technology not only provide exciting new opportunities to advance future water and wastewater treatment, but also stand as excellent examples of the commitment to research and development shared by both Eliquo and our core technology partners.”

For further information contact (Lewis O’Brien, lewis.obrien@eliquohydrok.co.uk, 01726 862000.

Lewis O’Brien, Technical Director at Eliquo Hydrok said, “These two evolutions of the well proven Mecana Pile Cloth Media

instituteofwater.org.uk

65

THERE’S NOTHING FUN ABOUT REG 31

Regulation 31 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 (as amended) (Reg 31) can be one the biggest regulatory headaches for most water companies.

Water companies have to take the requirements of Reg 31 seriously. Use of inappropriate products can present a public health risk that is hard to detect and lead to DWI prosecutions for noncompliance which have been the subject of ever increasing fines, ranging from a £1,000 back in 1995 to £80,000 in 2017 and £500,000 in 2019 (the most recent one leading to supply of water unfit for human consumption).

Regulation 31

by Dr Guy Franklin

Head of Water Quality and Compliance, Southern Water Reg 31 requires input from departments, like procurement, which normally don’t have to deal with the DWI. Reg 31 has almost as much DWI published guidance as the rest of the Water Quality Regulations put together and guidance is very clear that the responsibility for ensuring compliance sits with the water company. Therefore it requires a robust paper trail across all aspects of asset design, build and operate to show compliance that often cannot be retrospectively assembled.

66

instituteofwater.org.uk

The working of Regulation 31 starts out prohibiting the application of any product to water intended for customers. Which actually means it stops the use of any pipe, let alone treatment. It then proceeds to allow anything with an appropriate CE mark (there are no appropriate CE marks) or an appropriate British Standard (this only applies to treatment chemicals) to be used. Fortunately, it goes on to say that products can be used if approved by the Secretary of State (in reality DWI) and published on a list, the snappily titled List of Approved Products for use in Public Water Supply in the United Kingdom.

It also allows for the use of a product if, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, it is unlikely to adversely affect the quality of water. This statement is used to allow

small surface area products to be used without full approval. Finally it allows DWI to permit the use of products for testing and research purposes.

For both approved products and those which conform to a British Standard the Secretary of State can, and normally does, apply conditions. For approved products this almost always includes a requirement that it must be used and installed in accordance with the manufacturers instructions for use (IFU). For chemicals it can include maximum dose or impurity levels.

What the big deal about products in contact with water?

Materials used in products are often mixtures of chemicals and currently there are over 160 million known of these. These mixtures can include additives used as colorants, antioxidants, fillers, elasticity modifiers and a host of other functions that give us the wide array of useful materials currently on the market. If these chemical compounds stay in the materials then they aren’t going to create a water quality problem.

Unfortunately all too often chemicals, particularly the lower molecular weight ones, can migrate through the material and find their way out into the surrounding water. It

FEATURE: WATER QUALITY would be a herculean task to analyse for even a small percentage of these additives at customers taps to check they aren’t leaching out.

There is one final complication, what goes into the material is not always what comes out. The chemicals are mixed in the material and react together or they can react with chlorine or oxygen or are otherwise degraded creating a whole research projects worth of further compounds, some of which have probably never been characterised.

Then we have in situ cured materials where the chemical reaction to form the final material takes place on site. Without careful control of application and curing, this can result in compounds from side reactions with contaminants or the substrate creating yet more unexpected compounds.

There are a few compounds from organic materials that, for historic reasons, can be predicted to potentially be present in water supply systems. Degrading coal tar pitch internal coatings installed in the last century give rise to PAHs that we sample for as the only control for the public health risk without the replacement of vast swathes of mains.

Organic materials can also give rise to unacceptable smells and tastes, for example phenolic based antioxidants can break down, migrate out of the material and react with chlorine to produce “TCP” taste problems.

Materials can also act as a food source or habitat for microbes, allowing the gradual build up of complex biofilms, even in chlorinated water. The organisms present will then excrete waste products that can create taste and odour problems, release cells, for example legionella, or slough off lumps of biofilm into the water that find their way to customers’ taps.

To be able to adequately assess the risk from materials ideally we would know what is in them. However, material manufacturers are understandably reticent about publicly disclosing formulations of their materials as this knowhow gives them commercial advantage.

In the absence of knowing what’s in the materials and not having the time, ability and resources to analyse for them all we must rely on disclosure to a third party followed by testing, assessment and approval. This allows the water company water quality team risk assessment to allow the use of the material although not fully understanding why.

Approvals The UK, unlike most other countries, has two approvals systems for products used with drinking water that have developed, more or less, independently.

on Chemicals and Materials of Construction for Use in Public Water Supply and Swimming Pools which granted voluntary approvals to manufacturers. The use of approved products was made mandatory with the introduction of Regulation 25 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations in 1989. Although grandfather rights where allowed for products being used just before the regulations came into force to allow transition to the new requirements. Grandfather rights where whittled away until finally revoked when the regulation moved to its current numbering in the 2000 Regulations.

Regulation 31 approval requires manufacturers to carry out BS6920 testing and disclose the full chemical formulation and instructions for use documents to the DWI. Leaching tests are carried out for potentially harmful substances in the formulation and unexpected chemicals by GCMS full-scan analysis. The results are assessed before final approval may be granted. The whole process often takes over a year.

The UK is almost unique in having a government body rather than a private organisation body issuing Reg 31 approval. The advantage of this approach is the independence of DWI’s assessment and the powers in the regulations making it a criminal offence to provide false information as part of an application for approval.

However, the UK is not alone in having a requirement for approval.

Art 10 of the 1998 Drinking Water Directive (DWD) requires member states to have due regard for the impact of products on water quality. The DWD is currently under review and there are big plans to change to a European wide approval, but that is a whole article in its own right.

SIMPLIFY PIPE REPAIRING

WINTER SEASON - PIPE DAMAGE CONTROL

In 1975 the water industry started approving products for use in building plumbing systems. These requirements became BS 6920 and are used by the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme (WRAS) approval.

This testing does not require the disclosure of the formulation (with a few exceptions) but is based on four tests of water which has been in contact with the material for taste and odour, appearance, toxicity and metals and a fifth test which measures the material’s ability to support microbial growth. Although this approval is not linked to Reg 31 the same BS6920 tests are also advised by DWI for companies assessment of materials with a small surface area.

Regulation 31 approval can trace its origins back to the Committee

Email: info@mvfh.co.uk • www.mvfh.co.uk

instituteofwater.org.uk

67

ADVANTAGES OF MODULAR WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Complete temporary treatment works installed to enable Wessex Water site to take existing assets offline and refurbish

Modular water treatment systems have the potential to provide the industry with solutions to achieve a successful AMP7 outcome.

The use of such systems, in conjunction with existing treatment plants, ensures that asset life is optimised, and activity is sustained, without the need for excessive capital investment.

by Rich Matthews

MD at Siltbuster Process Solutions Certainly, the water industry will face some significant pressures through the WINEP programme and the OFWAT efficiency targets. The good news is that modular water treatment systems can provide gains in flexibility and responsiveness that are vital to meeting these pressures.

68

instituteofwater.org.uk

Beyond this, they allow the treatment capacity of existing treatment plants to flex at short notice to meet changing demands. This is particularly important given the fluctuating economic and environmental climate, which is creating additional compliance risk. This can be a combination of industrial (trader) activity, transient population, asset age, along with changes in seasonal demand presenting different demands on treatment needs. It is easy to see why now is the time for organisations to increase their water treatment capacities with modular packaged systems.

Resilient and Responsive Packaged modular water treatment systems can be deployed rapidly. This is often

seen when such systems are installed to assist with compliance during essential capital maintenance activities, such as biological filter refurbishments using package biological plants, bridge scraper refurbishment using mobile clarifiers or reed bed refurbishments using package tertiary plants.

The role of the modular plant in these applications provides both programme and consent reliability, removing constraints that may well have prevented proactive maintenance to take place in a timely manner to provide a more resilient asset. Further merits of responsive modular systems allow additional capacity to be provided when needed, offering asset efficiencies through not having to over size treatment capacities at the initial stages in the development of a site. The benefits of this can be seen for large new residential sites as the treatment capacity grows with the development.

FEATURE: WATER QUALITY If these principles for package plant solution provided flexibility and resilience then there is no reason why packaged plant solutions cannot be installed for wider capital programmes, allowing the development of asset investment in an incremental and sustainable way.

Principles developed outside the water industry can be drawn on and translated to provide further resilient wastewater delivery. Let’s consider, for instance, the construction of effluent treatment plants for the food, beverage and process sectors.

The integration of supplier packages, utilising different construction materials and design horizons, all contribute to the sector achieving best value without impacting on production/manufacturing processes.

Water treatment solution for British Sugar

There’s much talk about the programme savings associated with offsite manufacture such as DFMA. The practical application of modular construction techniques enables the water industry to realise such savings.

For instance, using modular packaged plants allows for more focused build programmes; minimising onsite activities and therefore, site risks can be significantly reduced.

Designed for SMART Delivery Furthermore, packaged plants embrace a ‘SMART’ delivery concept - Standard, Modular, Agile, Responsive, Treatment.

As such, modular systems are well aligned to the ambition of the industry to drive for efficiencies and prove that AMP7 outcomes can be achieved in a sustainable manner.

The delivery of SMART solutions for wastewater requires increased engagement and collaboration with the supply chain.

It will enable the water industry to draw on and benefit from experiences of other industries that are deploying responsive modular solutions.

As an example, the use of Dissolved Air Flotation in the food and beverage sector provides a SMART outcome, not just for FOG applications, but also highly loaded TSS; the use of a packaged plant in this manner is proven in reducing the load on existing processes. If this type of process is proven, flexible and readily deployable, then it has a place in the water sector’s SMART delivery chain. It can be coupled with other packaged plants and become a complete works solution.

Treatment solution installed at a food factory to meet sewer consent as production increases

With the focus on environmental performance for the UK water industry, now is the time to evaluate resilience strategies to demonstrate the capabilities of the sector working together with the supply chain.

Summary We need to be prepared to rethink where and how we invest our efforts and finances.

The fact is, a modular outlook on things will bring rewards if applied in the right way. The need to adapt will not only prove how responsive the industry is to meeting the challenging targets, but will also be an opportunity to deliver resilient services to the customer in a more cost effective way.

The adoption of modular solutions doesn’t have to simply mean new technologies and

processes; it can involve simply thinking about things differently and thus using familiar technologies in smarter, more strategic ways. It is essential that any investment in water treatment is best placed to support current needs, as well as those in the future. This might mean building asset bases in an incremental manner or bolting on assets to optimise asset bases. The important thing is that it all adds up to achieving a more sustainable outcome for the industry and environment.

With modular treatment solutions, we have the opportunity to deliver investment the SMART way.

To learn more about Siltbuster Process Solutions, visit www.siltbusterprocesssolutions.com

instituteofwater.org.uk

69

SELWOOD

VICTORIA CLOUGH CULVERT REFURBISHMENT The Lancashire town of Earby has been prone to devastating flooding in recent years - most notably on Boxing Day 2015, when homes and properties suffered significant water damage.

Since that date, the Environment Agency has worked in partnership with local authorities and Yorkshire Water to develop schemes to reduce the flood risk.

A significant contributor to the problem was the Victoria Clough Culvert, which carries water under the town. Part of the culvert, underneath a disused railway embankment, had collapsed.

In July 2018, a 13-week, £1million project began to replace the collapsed section and to re-line and replace a number of sections along the culvert to reduce the flood risk to 91 properties and 17 businesses. The scheme also included the installation of an improved trash screen at the inlet to the culvert, designed to be easier to clear and to reduce the likelihood of blockages.

The Environment Agency appointed JBA Bentley as contractors for the scheme.

Selwood’s pumping solutions specialists were called upon by JBA Bentley to survey the overpumping of the culvert inlet while the trash screen was being upgraded.

The Challenge While the trash screen works were being carried out, water needed to be overpumped away from the inlet and discharged into a manhole on a public street.

Selwood’s teams needed to move the water a distance of 450m, through woodland that needed to remain open to the public and through areas used by pedestrians, for the duration of the works.

One common line rather than two was used to minimise the amount of pipework involved, and at the point of discharge, the line was enlarged to reduce friction losses within the pipework. This was vital to ensuring the water could travel the distance required.

Enabling pedestrians to safely cross the pipework and keeping access open at all times were challenges to be overcome.

In the woodland areas, pedestrian bridges were used over the pipework to keep the footpath open. On the areas of public path, road ramps were used. These are wider than the bridges, with a more shallow ramp, helping the flow of pedestrians and providing an easier journey for those using wheelchairs or prams.

The Solution

The Result

Because of the health and safety considerations and need for public access, the pumping setup needed to be as neat

70

and tidy as possible. Two Selwood D150 Drainer pumps, connected together using a Y branch, were used to pump the water flow along the 450m distance.

instituteofwater.org.uk

Selwood’s specialists were involved for seven of the 13 weeks of the project, successfully diverting the flow away from the culvert for

the duration of the works without causing significant disruption to the public. The site manager reported satisfaction with the project and praised the expertise of Selwood’s team.

The project completed in late August 2019, with a new 40-metre length of culvert installed under the railway embankment and a further 60m relined. The project has been hailed as bringing significant flood risk benefits to homes and businesses in Earby.

The Recommendation Selwood has signed a three-year deal to support JBA Bentley as a supplier of pump rental solutions. Andrew Ball, Plant Manager at JBA Bentley, said: “We are delighted to extend our long-standing partnership with Selwood. Selwood continues to demonstrate a proactive attitude to safety, an ongoing commitment to finding sustainable solutions that minimise operational carbon and total expenditure, and an unrivalled range of industry-leading assets backed up with exellent service.”

Providing engineered solutions for a wide range of water treatment problems

Providing trusted performance We manufacture and distribute a range of products, providing additional value through innovative design, vast experience and focused support.

We believe that customer service is paramount to our success and that of our clients and partners.

Our product range Our product range offers value for a variety of applications within areas covering drinking water, wastewater, leisure resorts, food processing, breweries, mining, power generation, facilities management and mainstream industrial processes.

PolyBlend Polymer Feed Systems Varea-MeterÂŽ Variable Area Flowmeters Encore Pumps and Liquid Feed Systems Dry Chemical Feed Systems Bespoke engineering solutions

For more information or to discuss a project please contact us.

Unit 10 Mill Hall Business Estate

Tel: 01622 719 945

Aylesford, Kent, ME20 7JZ

Email: enquiries@waterprocesssolutions.com

www.waterprocesssolutions.com instituteofwater.org.uk

71

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

TURNING THE TIDE - MICROPLASTICS DETECTION IN WASTEWATER Understanding the impact of microplastics on the environment and on human and animal health is a crucial challenge for the next century. However, before the true impact of microplastics can be calculated, first we must refine our methods of detecting and categorising microscopic and particle-sized plastics.

Bert Swart, Franciszek Bydalek, Professor John Chew and Dr Jannis Wenk from the University of Bath’s Water Innovation and Research Centre (WIRC) explain how they are approaching the issue and how the water industry can help.

The ecological impact of plastic on the environment has been well-reported: it causes both great ecological damage and is an eyesore. Larger plastic parts from consumer products and packaging can be found almost everywhere, for example in the oceans, at the most remote beaches, in rivers and on roadsides. But perhaps even more concerning that the plastics we can see are those we cannot. Microplastics are defined as plastic particles smaller than 5mm but they can often be microscopically small. Particles present in the environment originate from many sources, such as weathered or worn larger plastics and tyre wear from cars - but they can also be deposited through municipal wastewater.

For example, ocean sediments sampled at a depth of several thousand metres have been found to contain almost 2 million microplastic particles per square metre.

The minute size of microplastics makes studying their environmental effects extremely difficult. Like larger plastic, microplastic is persistent in the environment and it presents significant risks. Microplastics can be ingested by small organisms such as krill, shellfish and juvenile fish, as well as larger filter feeders including whale sharks. In these smaller animals, microplastics may disrupt the digestive system with deadly consequences - as many small animals comprising the base of marine, coastal and river food webs and serve as food source for commercially important fish. Therefore, microplastic pollution may eventually affect fish populations, and human food security.

Similarly harmful is the way in which plastic

72

instituteofwater.org.uk

can attract pathogens and toxic chemicals known as endocrine disrupting compounds.

These chemicals usually exist at very low concentration in water, but they can adhere to or inside plastic particles and become released once ingested. Via a process known as bioaccumulation these toxic chemical may further concentrate through the food web and slowly poison fish and humans that eat that fish.

The challenge is to have fast, less laborious but at the same time accurate, reliable and repeatable detection and characterisation methods for a wide ranging size distribution.

Beyond a better understanding of the environmental effects of microplastics it is critical to minimise the release of microplastics into natural waters.

Wastewater effluent can be a significant source of microplastics, specifically synthetic fibres from clothes and additives of cosmetics such as body scrubs and peeling products.

A successful detection followed by identification of plastic type and shape requires first the removal of any organic and inorganic impurities such as biofilms, fats, proteins and sand. Cleaning methods include the use of strong surfactants and most importantly oxidation processes that remove non-plastic compounds selectively.

Nevertheless, many detection methods suffer from 50% losses for particles smaller than 0.05 mm, which leads to a significant underestimation of the total amount of plastic particles.

Most wastewater treatment plants are not designed to efficiently remove microplastics, while detailed inventories of microplastic fluxes through wastewater treatment plants are rarely available. Data collection is often hindered by the absence of fast and reliable microplastic detection methods. Therefore, in our research groups we work on better and more rapid microplastics detection methods to differentiate and quantify microplastics, and assess the severity of the issue in UK municipal wastewaters.

Detection and identification of microplastics in wastewater presents various challenges.

While particles larger than 0.5 mm are relatively straightforward to extract, smaller particles remain often undetected or may be destroyed during sample processing.

A huge variety of approaches and equipment can be used to detect and quantify microplastics - manual and semiautomated microscopic methods can be used to count particles, as well as materials characterisation via spectroscopy or spectrometry.

An automated computer-based high speed camera method for microplastics quantification is currently in development within WIRC at Bath.

Following sample preparation, both physical and chemical plastics characterization takes place. There are a variety of different methods available including microscopic techniques for shape analysis microscopic and advanced instrumentation for material analysis. Latter methods are also useful to look at effects of weathering and identify the source of microplastic particles.

In addition to using state-of the art microplastics detection and characterisation methods we have developed a setup that allows the observation and tracking of particles in solution by utilising automated image analysis. The solution is viewed through a transparent viewing slit using a high-resolution camera. Carrying out subsequent electronic image analysis allows easy identification of particle size within the micron range. The system is also being further developed and trained to

FEATURE: WATER QUALITY

Figure 3 Investigating the fate of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants and constructed wetlands Figure 1 Microscopic picture showing a partially weathered microplastic particle.

distinguish different plastic types and non-plastic particles.

Parallel to the development of new detection methods, we are investigating the fate of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants and constructed wetlands.

However, we also observed the release of weathered and partially fragmented microplastics at our monitoring/ experimental site, attributed to intense physical and biological degradation processes.

Figure 2 Image (3.4 x 4.3 mm) showing polyethylene microplastic particles in water.

Given the global scale of plastics pollution including microplastics, it seems inevitable

We can help you reimagine your water R&D

that wastewater treatment plants may need to become better at cutting down the release of microplastics into the environment.

Progress is already being made as some treatment setups including membrane bioreactor discs and rapid sand filtration or dissolved air flotation are currently reported to be capable of reaching over 95% removal of microplastics. Financial constraints might specifically encourage looking into the potential of existing facilities first, before making large investments. Our work helps to understand the fate of microplastics and can point towards ways for better removal of microplastic from wastewater streams.

Water Innovation & Research Centre

Through the Water Innovation and Research Centre at the University of Bath our experts work with industry, academia, and other stakeholders to tackle the fundamental issues surrounding sustainable water. Through WISE, our Centre for Doctoral Training in Water Informatics: Science and Engineering, we work with collaborative partners to train the next generation of skilled water scientists and engineers.

To explore a partnership with water research experts and students at the University of Bath for your organisation, contact water-research@bath.ac.uk.

go.bath.ac.uk/water-research

instituteofwater.org.uk

73

PUMP THAT SLUDGE – WITH OPTIMUM EFFICIENCY Intensive techniques like thermohydrolysis produce sludges with higher dry solids content which are more difficult to pump. Image: Severn Trent.

Efficient sludge pumping has an important role to play as water companies gear up for zero carbon, says Mick Dawson, consultancy director, BHR Group, who urges designers and operators to better understand their sludge systems. and cut bills for customers. However, most utilities have not yet acted to reduce the carbon and financial cost of transporting sludge.

by Mick Dawson

For decades the industry standard calculation technique for sludge pumping system pressure losses has been WRc’s TR 185 How to design sewage sludge pumping systems document, which dates back to 1983 and has served the industry well. It suited a pre-digital era when water companies could afford to build in a wide safety margin because energy was less costly, carbon went unquantified and budgets were bigger.

More efficient pumping of sludge could help water companies in England reach their goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030, along with meeting the regulator’s requirement to reduce capital expenditure

Other recent factors impacting directly on sludge processing are population growth, which is increasing volumes, and legislation restricting disposal to land. This means utilities are using intensive techniques like thermohydrolysis, which result in sludges

consultancy director, BHR Group

74

instituteofwater.org.uk

with higher dry solids content.

In summary, existing equipment now has to work harder, moving thicker, more concentrated sludges that are more difficult to pump. As with any application, accurate selection and sizing of pumps used for the transport of sewage sludge has important cost implications, along with operational risk management considerations.

Under-sizing can mean failure to achieve the required throughput, whilst oversizing leads to excessive capital cost and energy consumption. Utilities can no longer squander energy and emit unnecessary carbon and the cost challenge means they need to get to know their assets and process streams much better.

Data requirement The need for leaner pump systems means more variables need to be taken into

FEATURE: WATER QUALITY account, which can be challenging where the data is not readily available. At the heart of making sludge transport and pumping more efficient is the need to better understand sludge rheology – how it flows.

BHR’s SLOT 2.0 software helps pump system operators find the operating point of their equipment.

Variables include pipe size, length, roughness, fittings and elevation as well as the viscosity and temperature of the sludge and the flow rate desired by the operator.

To ensure efficient pumping systems, design engineers estimate total pressure losses across the range of variables at a given site. If these estimates are inaccurate this can result in oversized pumps and higher frictional losses, adding considerable capital and operational cost to any system.

The good news is that engineers can now predict sludge rheology and assess and interpret the impact and interaction of these variables through a sophisticated systems losses tool developed by BHR Group. SLOT 2.0, which was launched in January 2020, is a software program developed as part of a research programme originally funded by UK water companies and suppliers.

Operating efficiency The software enables pump system operators to understand where each pump should be operating on its pump and efficiency curves, matching against the particular system pressure curve to find the operating point. This makes it possible to determine optimum pumpoperating points and identify the most effective pumps to use on a given system – selecting the optimal size, type, quantity and configuration, right down to the manufacturer. Potential blockages can also be identified by monitoring the actual versus the predicted pump performance.

The software shows what is actually happening in the network and can be used to generate scenarios in advance of anticipated changes to the system or the sludge rheology. This means it is now possible to specify pumps more precisely than ever before and the capital cost and optimum energy consumption can be calculated well ahead of installation.

Digital twinning It is realistic to envision pump system designers using SLOT 2.0 to digitally twin the sludge pipe network. Being able to accurately compare pressure and flow in

the real network with SLOT’s predictions, it is possible to see, for example, what would happen to pump operation in the event of a struvite blockage; or how the system would respond if a sludge stream was thickened by eight per cent.

For new-build sludge processing projects, SLOT 2.0 is the best tool available for accurate sizing of pumps and pipes. It is underpinned by BHR Group’s sludge rheology database, which is the largest in the world, and makes it much easier to characterise new sludge types that cannot be predicted using existing rheology data.

Future systems Ultimately, SLOT 2.0 makes it possible for utilities to make investment decisions based on the most comprehensive assessment possible of both capital and whole-life cost of assets, bringing down the total expenditure (totex) required.

The possibilities do not end there though.

BHR is looking beyond the existing assets in the expectation that more sensors will be installed in sludge networks with the uptake of real-time monitoring.

Fifteen utility and contracting companies in the UK have already trialled sludge management operations with SLOT 2.0 and feedback to date has been very positive.

Indications are that the value of being able to predict and manage sludge network performance at the desktop, before going out on site, will prove massively powerful going into AMP 7 – the regulatory asset

BHR’s system losses tool SLOT 2.0 can be used to accurately size pumps and pipes used in sludge processing.

management period 2020-2025.

Meanwhile, BHR Group is continually improving SLOT, with further advancements anticipated as users relay their experiences and requirements. The long-term outlook heralds greater capacity sludge systems with higher velocity throughput and solids content, which means the need for close attention to the whole performance envelope is only going to grow. www.bhrgroup.com

instituteofwater.org.uk

75

EGREMONT GROUP

WHEN KEEPING YOUR HEAD ABOVE WATER IS BUSINESS AS USUAL

There is no doubting the fact that 2020 is shaping up to be the most challenging year in living memory.

by Alex Graham Egremont Group

Even before the year started Brexit preparations were followed by the existential threat of nationalisation, and then the most challenging financial settlement since privatisation. Quick breather for Christmas, and then straight

76

instituteofwater.org.uk

in to flooding which tested even the most stringent emergency plans, stretching the workforce both out in the field and back at head office. Fast forward just a few short months and the country is in the middle of the biggest public health emergency in a century.

Hardly pausing to draw breath, the same teams are being tested again. This time the problem is the complete unknown parameters of the situation – how long will the country be in lockdown? What will the restart look like? How many of the work force will be affected? Exactly how large is a ‘skeleton’ staff?

The challenge this year will be to ensure continuity of service, while keeping a close eye on the health and wellbeing of the workforce. After all, we know now that business may never fully return to ‘normal’.

It is not all doom and gloom, however.

If there is one thing the industry is good

at it is coping in a crisis. From Cockermouth in 2009 to the Whaley Dam last summer, high profile incidents involving an emergency response are well practiced.

For an industry used to operating under pressure, here are three key focus areas to help keep everyone on track.

1. Clarity of Purpose In a crisis, the shortage of time and the severity of the potential impact mean that politics and egos are pushed to one side. Teams unite behind a clear, common objective. For our country at the moment it is supporting the NHS who have deployed changes in weeks which would normally have taken 6 months. They have achieved this through absolute clarity of goal and organisational alignment.

For water companies there are only two priorities – keeping the water flowing in and ensuring the waste flows out safely.

FEATURE: HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELL-BEING All tasks will be focussed on these two activities, protecting the environment to allow both of those key elements to happen and keep customers safe. Leaders need to maintain a view of all the moving parts but also watch out for colleagues that have a ‘soldier on’ and ‘keep a stiff upper lip’ disposition which can clearly be dangerous in this situation.

Last summer Egremont partnered with United Utilities to implement new ways of working across wastewater, and our project team was based near Whaley Bridge during the dam collapse. Our team was in awe at the calm and measured response of United Utilities colleagues as they faced into a life and death scenario.

What was striking to us was the effort required to rein in the hero tendencies of technicians who felt tremendous ownership for the sites and watercourses and would seemingly stop at nothing to ‘save the day.’

Actions: Think about whether your messaging is clear to all. Does everyone on the team know what they need to do?

Are you keeping in touch with people properly and ensuring they are working safely and are not overburdened?

Do you have a mechanism for colleagues to report back if they do become overwhelmed by the situation? Keep it simple, that way everyone remains safe.

2. Decision Making Resist total centralisation and control, it can slow down decision making and the head office often doesn’t really know what is happening on the ground.

By taking positive action himself, he managed to save the store.

Action: Set out as clearly as possible which decisions can be made by the local teams but also give the front-line workers the freedom to prioritise work in times of emergency. Foster a culture of shared purpose, there will be mistakes made, but make all teams aware that wrong decisions made for the right reasons will not be judged harshly.

3. Innovation

Pushing decisions down to the front-line managers will speed up decision making and allow those with the best view of the situation to make the call. They can make decisions in line with central guidance which will free up the Head Office to work on complex systemic issues. Those on the frontline they will inevitably make mistakes, but the benefits usually outweigh the costs when well managed.

Once frontline teams know it is within their power to change working practices in an emergency, innovation will flourish.

In these uncertain times the pressure points within the organisation become visible to those on the ground. Find a way to highlight them in day to day operations in order to develop effective solutions to the critical problems.

Create virtual forums for working through the issues and sharing new ideas.

During the London riots, one store manager closed his store against the guidance of Head Office. He could clearly see the impact the social disruption was having on the surrounding retail outlets.

It would have been too late if he had escalated the issue to Head Office and waited for them to clear the closure.

During industrial action, senior employees are often deployed in different areas of the business to cover the gaps.

In particular, we worked with Senior Managers who were suddenly working in the control room 24/7 reviewing customer calls and alarms. This led to

them recognising an opportunity to better risk manage out of hours workflows and creating an official process to prioritise how the work was dispatched which was maintained upon return to business as usual significantly cutting costs.

Use the unique perspective your employees are given if asked to work in a new environment, let them use their diverse knowledge and expertise to devise new ways of working.

Action: Focus effort on equipping teams with tools and techniques that enable them to be better problem solvers ‘in the moment’ when they may well be far from management. Ensure that they feel empowered so that they can problem solve and make high stakes decisions with little support.

Building for the future Working in a crisis can bring out the very best (and also the very worst in people).

In the water industry, employees and managers have faced huge challenges in the past, let’s build on these. Use this time to really take on the positives, embrace new perspectives and ways of working to ensure that as we ease out of lockdown we have a bright future to look forward to.

instituteofwater.org.uk

77

HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELLBEING DURING COVID19 - A WELSH WATER PERSPECTIVE

Water companies have a vital role to play in normal times. Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, our role is more important now than perhaps ever before.

by Chris Elias

many aspects of our business. These wide-ranging changes have, in some way or another, affected every single person in our 3,500 workforce.

The need to provide reliable, high quality tap water and removing wastewater safely has never been more urgent as we play our role in protecting public health during this global wide pandemic.

Amongst the huge amount of change, innovation and reconfiguration, one thing at Welsh Water has remained our unwavering focus on the health, safety and wellbeing of our colleagues.

Maintaining these services over recent weeks means that we’ve had to quickly and significantly change the way we run

It’s often said that our people are our greatest asset. But they’re more than that.

These are the people, the key workers

Internal Communications Manager, Welsh Water

78

instituteofwater.org.uk

that provide the essential service to our customers – they are and always will be our number one focus.

This is why we started planning for the impact of COVID-19 on our people and our services at the start of the year.

By mid-March, we were implementing plans so that we could follow Government guidance. Traditionally, we have only had two ‘types’ of workforce (field based and office based); now we now have a third to consider, the homeworker.

FEATURE: HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELL-BEING

Are you ok?

At Welsh Water, we’re lucky that we already work closely with our Health & Safety and HR teams and so we immediately set about developing new guidance for colleagues to reflect the latest public health guidelines.

This involved developing or updating 15 H&S guidelines, 5 HR policies as well as modifying working patterns in several areas to improve service provision and developing a new portal on our intranet so that colleagues could access information freely and easily.

A key focus has been mental health – often discussed but not as well understood.

We developed a campaign at the start of the year to help increase mental wellbeing and encourage conversation and openness around the wide range of mental ill health conditions. Our ‘Are you ok?’ campaign ran for 3 months and was still live as we entered the pandemic. It was fortunate timing that the content, tools and packs that were developed as part of the campaign had been commonly adopted across the business, including digital download packs that could be accessed via QR codes meaning they were easily and readily available for anyone, at any time. The campaign helped raise awareness of the tools and services available, as well as highlighting the need for us all to reach out to peers, now on Skype, Microsoft Teams and phone instead of in person – though the need was just the same; to encourage togetherness, listen, and support each other through an unnaturally difficult time.

To help all our people understand and feel confident about what they needed to do, how, and when, we quickly set to work on developing a series of regular

communication channels that were different from anything we’d done before so that we could highlight any policy changes and ensure that we provided a single version of the truth for our colleagues. We also made this available to colleagues on an external facing website which could be accessed from anywhere on any device, at any time.

We provided extensive working from home guidance around how to properly set up home working environments and ensure we had the correct equipment and practices in place. We explained how to manage work with what was often a busy home life and ensuring that breaks and working patterns supported our people to look after children and families. Our HR team provided excellent guidance in conjunction with our Trade Unions to ensure that people were clear about the level of flexibility they needed to ensure that they could be the best at their job, as well as supporting their families and themselves adjusting to new ways of continuing their domestic responsibilities – safely and in line with government guidelines.

As information was emanating from Government quickly, and with so much media speculation about job losses and furloughing adding to general anxieties, it was important to provide reassurance to our colleagues.

Peter Perry, Chief Executive Officer made an immediate announcement to assure colleagues they did not need to worry about their pay and terms and conditions being impacted by the pandemic. He recorded regular video updates and held several all colleague phone broadcasts to reinforce our essential role as a company in this pandemic and assure colleagues that we’d

honour current terms and conditions.

The impact of the regular videos and openness and transparency of our newly appointed CEO went a long way in supporting positive mental wellbeing and enabling our people to focus on their job – earning the trust of our customers every day.

In addition to our usual internal communications activity and regular twoway briefings with the senior team and all colleagues across the business, we’ve also introduced a new internal e-magazine called “Tonic” to give a lighter update and tips on maintaining our health and mental wellbeing when working at home or alone during this period; we’ve launched a new weekly light-hearted radio-style Podcast for colleagues to feel more connected to each other; and we’re also surveying our entire workforce to take temperature checks on how they’re responding to these new working environments.

The results from our first Wellbeing Survey are positive but we know we can’t rest on our laurels. We still aren’t clear on just when this crisis will be over, but we will continue to learn and develop our communications, update our advice and keep close (social distanced) contact with our colleagues across Welsh Water and follow government guidance.

It’s generally accepted that we are unlikely to operate the way we used to and must now rethink and redesign how we work and how we keep our people safe, healthy and happy at work. Nonetheless, one thing is for certain: the Health, Safety and Wellbeing of our colleagues and customers will always be our number one priority.

instituteofwater.org.uk

79

HOW COVID19 HAS AND WILL CHANGE OUR FUTURE WELLBEING

The concept of wellbeing, in particular mental health, has been moving up the agenda in recent years.

Working from home The UK was put into lockdown on 23rd March 2020 in an effort to slow the spread of COVID19. All employees with the ability to do so were asked to work from home.

While many people may have spent an occasional day working from home in the past, most were new to the concept of doing so full time.

by Kirsty Ayres CEnv Senior Engineer, WSP

With more employers taking an active interest in the subject, we have seen an increase in support across the water industry from the introduction of mental health first aiders to step challenges to increase physical activity. However, the COVID19 pandemic has caused huge disruption to our lives and could be about to change our wellbeing forever.

80

instituteofwater.org.uk

Having worked from home full time since September 2018, I shared the tips and tricks I had learnt to be a successful homeworker in a webinar entitled “Working from home without going crazy”*.

Ultimately my best suggestion to cope with working from home is to create a separation between work life and home life, just as you would normally if heading into an office. This would ideally involve a designated place set up to do work, such as a desk or at a dining table, that is different to where you spend your leisure time i.e. your sofa. Not only does this allow your mind to relax more once your workday ends as you move to a different space, it also supports DSE requirements which are still

important for your musculo-skeletal health during this time.

Frontline staff However, there are many employees in the water industry who cannot work from home during this time as operational needs must still be fulfilled. It is vital to stay connected with these team members to ensure they are fully supported while there are fewer people on site. Simple things such as encouraging them to call a colleague during their break to catch up because social distancing prevents them from sharing a cuppa together as they normally would can help individuals still feel like part of the team.

Staying connected Social isolation and loneliness is a huge concern during lockdown, but it is also important to remember that “Zoom-fatigue” is all too real. With so many video calls, progress meetings and team catch ups being squeezed into our calendars, it can feel overwhelming. There is a fine balance to be found that provides enough contact for those who want and need it, but is not

FEATURE: HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELL-BEING enforced on those who are happy to just receive a text message rather than feel uncomfortable in endless video calls. Here, it is up to line managers to know their teams and what would work best for the whole.

Post COVID19 future wellbeing It’s very difficult to know exactly what will happen as the pandemic slows its spread and lockdown measures are relaxed. I hear many people saying they want to go back to normal but here is my question for them: wouldn’t it be better to go forwards and create a new normal, than to go back to our old ways?

Anecdotally, the friends and colleagues I have spoken to repeatedly mention how they are enjoying having more time. More time to spend with family. More time to do exercise. More time to cook a healthier meal (and maybe bake some sweet treats too!). The gift of time is something we should not give away to return to our old ways of working.

I am not suggesting that we should forever work from home and never go back into the office. But perhaps we could look to drive a more flexible working pattern,

with for example two days in the office to attend important meetings face to face and three days working from home so we can collect the children from school and finally make that early evening rugby training or pilates class. Flexible working is offered by many companies but often on request and approval, rather than as a matter of course.

By making it automatically available for everyone, this would put health and wellbeing at the forefront, making for a happier and more productive workforce because there is a greater sense of balance in our lives.

We should also continue to use technology to support our wellbeing needs. Joe Wick’s PE has been a shining example of using technology (in this case YouTube) to make exercise accessible to the masses (beware the Spiderman lunge!). In our work lives, software like Microsoft Teams can ensure we don’t all need to endure two-hour horror commutes in traffic jams or squashed like sardines on trains to attend a short meeting where we add little value. Again, many people have commented saying they are not missing the commute so now that previously dead time can be used productively on their projects.

Hotdesking is something I’ve always hated because it erases people’s personality from the space they spend most of their day.

Humans are creatures of habit and even with a hotdesking policy in place, let’s be honest that most of us will aim to sit in the same seat every day. Of course, clear desk policies to store sensitive documents away are essential but not being able to personalise the place we spend 8 hours a day can be stressful and demotivating.

I think hotdesking could become a thing of the past, with continued concerns about COVID19 spreading and different hygiene standards. Finally, my favourite photo and cactus won’t be out of place!

Disruption always provides risks and opportunities. Let us hope employers use the disruption of COVID19 as an opportunity to improve wellbeing for all employees in the water sector and beyond. *To view the “Working from home without going crazy” webinar, please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/ recording/3653779799369272332

INVITATION FOR INSTITUTE OF WATER JOURNAL PAPERS There is some world-leading research and innovation going on in the UK water industry.

We are currently inviting papers and case studies for our Autumn edition technical Journal from authors working across the water industry, including regulators, academics, water company personnel and supply chain organisations, including consultants.

We are looking for articles that: ■ Provide relevant and valuable learning for water industry professionals ■ Present new and innovative thinking or research outputs or a different slant on an existing approach

INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE?

■

■

Contain information and knowledge that readers will be able to readily apply to their role as part of their Continuing Professional Development Contain results and conclusions which are technically credible and make a significant contribution to published literature (applies to technical articles)

We cannot accept articles that appear to be a sales pitch for a particular product or service. www.instituteofwater.org.uk/journal

HERE’S HOW TO DO IT: We only need a synopsis which will be reviewed by the Institute of Water Journal Editorial Panel.

For more information or to discuss an idea, please contact our publisher, Martin Jameson on 07342 850289 or email martin@jimjammedia.com

instituteofwater.org.uk

81

BRINGING CLEAN WATER AND GOOD HYGIENE TO EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens our global community, working to bring clean water and good hygiene to everyone, everywhere has never been more critical.

Olga Ghazaryan, WaterAid’s Director of International Programmes, tells us how the charity is responding to the crisis.

What’s happening now?

We are moving quickly to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the countries where we work, supporting governments and communities on hygiene behaviour change campaigns, installing innovative handsfree handwashing stations and scaling up our existing work to improve hygiene behaviour. Country teams are also providing hygiene essentials such as soap, rubbing alcohol, and disinfectant to support already fragile health facilities.

We’ve launched large-scale campaigns specifically for COVID-19 in 16 countries.

Life-saving messages are being shared in so many ways, often as part of national campaigns, from loudspeakers in the streets through to radio, TV and online. It’s been amazing to see how our country teams have responded, doing what they can in an everchanging situation. Between them they are reaching millions.

We’ve also joined a number of external expert networks such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Hygiene Hub so we can share our expertise and campaign resources.

What about support for the water sectors in those countries?

Like the water industry in the UK, utilities are at the front line of the COVID-19 response internationally, too. We are continuing our work supporting vital water and sanitation service providers and championing the contributions of their key workers at local utilities in densely populated areas. We’re both supporting and also advocating for these companies, which are often government-owned, to maintain continuity of their current services and, where possible, to extend these through temporary supplies and fee breaks

82

instituteofwater.org.uk

Handwashing is the first line of defence against COVID-19. Students in Kavre, Nepal, wash their hands, Feb 2018. WaterAid/ Mani Karmacharya for the most vulnerable people. We have also issued new technical and programme guidance on support for sanitation workers.

What’s the big picture?

One in ten people globally do not have clean water close to home. The world must wake up to the importance of clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene and the role they play keeping people healthy, educated and financially secure – especially at a critical time like this. Our advocacy work – both nationally and globally – is critical.

We’ve already begun lobbying national governments to ensure access to water for the most vulnerable communities.

Governments and development agencies don’t prioritise water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) enough in their emergency preparedness, so this will continue to be a key part of our advocacy work.

What’s next?

Until a vaccine is developed, we must work in new ways in the ‘new normal’.

Handwashing is the first line of defence against COVID-19 and while two out of five people globally – that’s three billion people – have nowhere to wash their hands with soap and water at home, we will adapt our

programmes, keep delivering services and pressing for long-term change.

We’ve just launched a new Programme and Advocacy Framework which is designed to help us move from our initial response to COVID-19 through to reviewing, planning and adapting for 12 months and beyond.

What about funding?

We hugely appreciate everyone continuing to support us at this time, including IOW members. Many donors are allowing us to redirect funds where work is impossible to deliver right now and to scale-up activities that can continue. This flexibility will save lives. We’re actively fundraising for both dedicated hygiene work and vital water and sanitation services as well as for specific countries so we can help target work where is practical and in most need.

We are committed to continuing our work wherever possible throughout this time, building lasting services that will ensure good health for the future. We know that lives will depend on it, as they always have.

Find out more about WaterAid’s global COVID-19 response at: wateraid.org/global-covid-19-response

BUSINESSCARDDIRECTORY MaNuFacTuRERs & suppliERs OF valvEs, FiTTiNgs & siTE sOluTiONs FOR ThE uk & glOBal waTER, wasTE waTER & gas iNdusTRiEs

PO BOX 5, Birds Royd Lane, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 3UD www.gavalves.co.uk

Northampton Office 8 Rushmills, Northampton, NN4 7YB, England T: +44 (0) 1604 601188 F: +44 (0) 1604 604818 E: customerservice@avkuk.co.uk

GA Valves are manufacturers and distributors of valves to the water & sewage industries. Including gates, checks, air valves & miscellaneous valves.

www.avkuk.co.uk

Tel: 07884 004 802 E-mail: u.d.s@live.co.uk Web: utilitydesignservices.com Web: utilitydesignservices.co.uk Proactive and professional civil engineering design consultancy services.

We have extensive experience and expertise within the design of water network distribution & water network trunk mains. From initial overview through to detail civil design, while also equipped to provide planning, project management and construction support services.

We would welcome the opportunity to visit you for an initial consultation to discuss your aims and needs. We would endeavour to incorporate our design and engineering solutions to match your business requirements.

UK distributors and Technical Support of Dorot Flowcontrol valves.

Surge control systems and compressed air engineering from Quantum Engineering Developments Ltd

Tel: 01527 577888

www.surgevessels.co.uk

Windmill Insight Solutions Tailored Training, Real Results Quality Training for the Water Industry -

Personalised for your people Relaxed but thorough training On site delivery Discounts for ongoing contracts

• Leadership and Management • Tailored L4 programmes • EUSR Training

m: 07554 994855 e: bob@windmillinsights.co.uk www.windmillinsights.co.uk

AUTUMN EDITION 2020 - PUBLISHING MID-SEPT Innovation Emergency Planning Wastewater Networks/Sewer Flooding Diversity To advertise your company contact Martin Jameson on 07342 850289 or martin@jimjammedia.com

instituteofwater.org.uk

83

EASTERNAREANEWS

APRIL’S SUCCESSFUL WEBINARS The Eastern Area ran two successful webinars in the few weeks of April following the announcement of widescale lockdown.

The first webinar was “Making the most of LinkedIn”, Luke Stanbridge and Chris Gethins from Z-Tech discussed the importance of this tool as an introduction to you and your network. The attendees got a fantastic view of Linked from an individual and a recruiter perspective. Some top tips for beginners were around skills and endorsements, think about what skills you have and what skills you need for your next role. Remember to include 10 years of experience plus your highest level of education. To engage followers, you should post once or twice a week and an insider tip – try to do this outside of business hours!

took the attendees through several stretches and exercises that target muscle and joint areas that are affected by long periods of sitting. Some tips the attendees took away were to break up the day with short periods of activity and the importance of taking time away from work, especially when working from home.

Our second webinar was “Let’s get physical!” a mobility and stability session aimed at individuals who are desk workers or working from home. Jonny Evans, Personal Trainer

Keep an eye out for up-coming webinars from the Eastern Area over the next few months, including events in collaboration with the Young Persons Network. If there are any subjects you would like to hear about from the Eastern Area, please let us know!

DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS AWARDS: Nicola Johnston Training and Development Scientist at Anglian Water

Nicola provides a great contribution to the Eastern area and the wider Institute of Water through her support and passion for professional registration and career development. Nicola is a speaker at the annual Professional Registration and CPD workshops in the Eastern Area, a mentor and is also involved in running CPD learning sessions internally for Anglian Water and externally for the Institute of Water and Science Council. Her enthusiasm and energy shown towards the Institute of Water, actively promoting the Institute and encouraging new members to join is fantastic. Her open and friendly approach to all those that she meets is one of the many qualities the Institute of Water represents.

Nicola said “I am delighted to have been nominated and awarded the distinguished members award for my work with the IOW. I joined the institute to broaden my experiences in the industry.

Through my work with the professional registration process and CPD (Continual Professional Development) it has helped me grow both professionally and personally. The biggest reward for me is supporting others achieve their personal goals. I would encourage anyone at any stage of their career in the industry to explore these opportunities and the support that is out there. Thank you.”

84

instituteofwater.org.uk

Kara Sadler

Training and Development Business Partner Anglian Water Kara has been an active member of the Institute of Water for eight years.

She received this award following her support and dedication to the Eastern Area Committee, which without, would not be in the stable and ambitious position it is now. For a period of time, the committee was without anyone in the secretariat role which is obviously a key function in the running of the committee. Kara remained within her previous position as secretariat as well as taking on the new role of Communications Lead until someone else was willing to take up the position permanently. She dedicated a large amount of her free time ensuring both role needs were delivered and set up support and training for an interim secretariat and more recently a permanent secretariat. She is still very supportive in handing over the role and was pivotal in constructing the events plan for 2020.

Kara said “I am delighted to have received this award. I have sat on the Eastern Area Committee for six years and it is a great honour to be rewarded for all the effort put in to helping successfully run our Area. I am extremely passionate about the Institute due to the support and opportunities they offer. I cannot recommend anyone in the Water Industry joining them enough, regardless of your role.

Thank you.”

NORTHERN IRELANDAREANEWS

YPN DRUMAROAD WTW TOUR The Northern Ireland Area YPN held its first event of 2020 on Friday 28 February.

The morning started with a tour around Drumaroad WTW which everyone thoroughly enjoyed - thank you to Maurice McEvoy of Northern Ireland Water for sharing his knowledge and expertise of the treatment process.

Ciaran Moohan of Graham Construction and Jonathan McIlwaine of RPS then delivered a presentation about the Clear Water Tank which is currently being constructed adjacent to the WTW. This will provide 35.7Ml of storage to the site which will see up to 540,000 people, almost a quarter of Northern Ireland’s population benefit from increased resilience and security of the water supply, particularly in emergency situations.

On visiting the construction site it became apparent the scale of the works and engineering challenges involved – thank

you to Ciaran and Jonathan for showing the group around the site and explaining the progress to date.

If you would like to know more about the Young Persons Network and get involved in our next event, please get in touch!

THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC LUNCH AND LEARN On 26 February, the Institute of Water hosted a fascinating presentation from Neville Llewellyn of Thermo Fisher Scientific at at Gelvin Grange, the home of Northern Ireland Water’s wastewater analytical laboratories.

Neville provided an insight into water analysis using HRAM (High resolution accuracy mass) spectrometry - including the occasional unexpected discovery!

He explained how the Orbitrap™ technology enables incredibly accurate characterisation of chemicals present in water, in conjunction with an expansive database of different compound characteristics.

In the image, Neville is joined by Karen Topping from the Northern Ireland Area Committee thanking him for his presentation with Mark Collins, Chemistry Technical Specialist at NI Water.

instituteofwater.org.uk

85

SOUTHWESTAREANEWS

PLASTICS, REGULATION AND THE WATER SECTOR The South West committee have been holding web-meetings monthly to adapt and adjust our plans for the year ahead. Although we were sad to have to take the decision to postpone our flagship ‘Putting Plastics into Perspective’ event it has given us an opportunity to transfer our activities across to a webinar format and reach an audience right across the UK. We were delighted that Judy Proctor, the Environment Agency’s National Plastics Strategy Lead, led a webinar exploring plastics regulation and the water sector.

In May this year a plastic bag was found at the bottom of the Marianna trench – the world’s deepest ocean trench – and microplastics were found in the Artic. This, along with the plastics we see on beaches, rivers and soils are as Judy put it ‘our call for action’. Judy’s role within the EA is to lead the response to widespread concern and co-ordinate and implement activity across the organisation. This is in the capacity as an operator (reducing plastics and driving resource efficiency across the EA estate and supply chain), as an advisor understanding the sources, pathways and impacts of plastics escaping into the environment, and finally as a regulator ensuring that the EA are working with businesses to reduce plastics reaching the environment and bearing down on waste crime.

The session was interactive and full of surprises. A poll of the 150 audience members revealed that only 12% were aware of the most prevalent plastics found along our shorelines. Much of the media attention and individual level action has been around plastics drinks bottles, however in reality more cigarette butts and cotton bud sticks are actually found littering our beaches. Judy highlighted that “6% of items found on beaches are thought to have a source as having been flushed” which sparked a number of questions from the audience members relating in particular to CSOs and actions that water companies can take to prevent sewage litter reaching these locations.

86

instituteofwater.org.uk

Judy also spoke at length about microplastics, their sources and the work being undertaken with partners from academia and water companies to better understand scale and impact of them in the environment. This is to help identify how, where and when to take the most effective preventative action.

Our enormous thanks to Judy Proctor for so generously sharing her time with the Institute, to committee member Carmen Snowdon from WRc for organising and

Chairing the event, and to all of our sponsors and attendees for making the event so successful. Please get in touch if you would like to view the recorded webinar.

A date for your diaries - the ‘Putting Plastics into Perspective’ event has been rescheduled for the 2nd October – we will update on the latest plans as we respond to further Government advice and consider if this is able to go ahead.

MIDLANDSAREANEWS

WELCOME TO OUR NEW AREA PRESIDENT The committee has welcomed a new Area President who will be taking over from our current President, Bob Stear, from September 2020.

Meet Stuart Moss, Managing Director for Europe at Isle Utilities.

Stuart holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering and is Managing Director for Isle’s European business. Stuart’s team of engineers, scientists and business

professionals actively source and screen emerging technologies, undertake strategic horizon scanning and technology roadmapping, organise innovation forums and events, and support technology adoption through market assessment studies and technology trials. Stuart has broad commercial and technical experience in the cleantech sector; he has an extensive knowledge of the technology landscape (both established and emerging) and has advised utility companies, industrial multinationals, government agencies, investors and technology companies, operating across this space. Stuart has developed excellent relationships with an extensive network of contacts within the global cleantech sector, focusing on identifying needs in the industry and matching these to technological and strategic solutions. Stuart will no doubt bring a wealth of knowledge and experience

into the committee, and we really look forward to hearing his views and ideas for the year ahead.

Stuart would also like to add in…

‘I am honoured to have been asked by the incumbent president Bob Stear to take on the role from September 2020. The Institute of Water is an excellent platform for anyone making their way in the industry through to seasoned water industry professionals.

I look forward to working with the Midlands committee to carry on the great work of recent years. My aim will be to continue building the diversity of the IoW Midland members by using my own diverse network and bring insight from activities in water from across the globe into a Midlands context, and of course trying to top the infamous president’s party! I look forward to getting to know you all better and meeting you all soon.’

WEBINAR - DIGITAL WATER AND SMART NETWORKS The Midlands Area hosted their first webinar discussing the digitalisation of water and it proved to be very popular with almost 350 registered attendees.

The event was led by Manbir Thandi, Co-Head of Water and Utilities at DWF with an introduction to the ways digital innovation and collaboration were reshaping the industry. Paul Haggerty, Head of UK Water Sector at Capgemini gave an engaging presentation discussing the opportunities, solutions and benefits in going digital.

Sam Bright, Innovation Programme Manager at Yorkshire Water provided

great insight around Yorkshire Water’s collaboratively developed smart water network in Hadfield. The event concluded with an interesting presentation from John Brewington, Innovation Trials Practice Lead at Severn Trent Water.

He discussed Severn Trent’s asset intelligence programme and the benefits being realised in the Spernal Urban Catchment and Llys Rhysnant Rural Catchment projects.

instituteofwater.org.uk

87

SCOTTISHAREANEWS

ANNUAL REVIEW The summer edition of the magazine usually finds us giving a review of one of our most loved events of the year, our President’s Dinner & Innovation Awards.

Circumstances have meant that the dinner has been cancelled and our awards ceremony replaced by phone calls and emails to our finalists but below are a few words from our outgoing president, Mark Wilson, summing up another successful year for the Scottish area and our members, and welcoming our new president for the coming year

sub-committee continued to provide us with a varied and interesting mix of professional and social engagements and I would like to highlight a few key events.

It was a real delight to host over 80 delegates at such a great venue in the University of Strathclyde at our greenest ever Autumn Seminar. It was also a pleasure to introduce a wide range of speakers with varied perspectives on some of the key topics challenging our sector today. I would also recognise our exhibitors at the conference, in particular Morrison Construction with a glimpse into the world of augmented reality, and McRae Training for hosting a speed mentoring session an energising alternative to the usual post lunch lull.

In August we held our annual fishing competition and despite some challenging weather, our participants had a great time with the winning plaudits this year going to Kenny Speirs.

“My first thoughts as I pen this review, is for our members who have been closely impacted by Covid-19. Whilst for the vast majority of us the current situation brings uncertainty, stress and inconvenience, for a few the pandemic is exacting a much longer-lasting and painful toll. My thoughts are with them and their families.

My year as Area President started with our annual dinner in Glasgow. This was quickly followed by another social evening of skittles, beer and pizza in our “Meet the Committee” evening in Edinburgh. Those evenings spent in the close company of many friends now seems a long distant and fond memory, but at the same time, only a short while ago.

I have had the pleasure to work with a great committee over these past 12 months and despite the obvious impact of Covid, we achieved much. Our events

88

instituteofwater.org.uk

In October we selected our Rising Star for the year, Anna Figueras Carill, a senior scientist in Scottish Water’s laboratory team.

Throughout the autumn and winter we hosted several lunch byte session, seminars and webinars looking, amongst other things, at renewable energy, our Innovation Award winning entry from 2019 on hydraulic valve actuation, professional registration, CPD and the benefits of mentoring. Our Young Persons network was launched in February to welcome our younger and aspiring members.

Thanks to our continuing support from the Scottish Government’s Hydro Nation Team, we were also able to continue our annual Innovations Awards. This year we received a particularly large number of excellent entries. We see this as testament to the

ambition and passion of the companies and individuals supporting the water industry as a whole. Our winning entry from Ajay Nair and Microvi came out on top due to their rethinking of traditional approaches to treatment, which our panel judged to be highly innovative with the potential to revolutionise the way wastewater is treated in the future.

Also with the continuing generosity of our sponsor, our finances remain strong and we were delighted to announce the continuation of our Hydro Nation Leadership Series. This year we planned a residential seminar on key leadership topics hosted by the award winning team, Tree of Knowledge. With the venue booked and the event advertised, we had to take the forced decision to postpone, and alas, this brings us to our current situation. The good news is the venue and our hosts agreed to hold over our bookings which we hope to resurrect in the autumn if the developing situation allows.

We also took the decision to cancel rather than delay this year’s Presidents dinner, on the basis that our autumn schedule was already looking busy and it will be next year’s dinner before we know it.

This year we have taken the decision to forego the public and symbolic handover of the Chain of Office, and instead I am delighted to announce through this newsletter that Kes Juskowiak, Water Operations General Manager at Scottish Water will take on the role of Area President. I know Kes will enjoy as much support as I have from our committee and members and I wish him every success in the coming year.”

Mark Wilson, Outgoing President, Scottish Area Committee & Director, Northern Region, Veolia

SOUTHEASTAREANEWS

INNOVATION AWARDS Virtual Reality Training from Lanes wins the South East Area Innovation Award.

The South East Area Innovation Awards was held on 19th March. Because of the restrictions relating to Coronavirus and the need to put delegates health first, the event was turned in to a webinar this year. Nevertheless, the presentations were still fascinating, and everyone involved demonstrated great enthusiasm and a willingness to make the best of it!

The webinar was chaired by Anna Boyles, Regional Manager at Thames Water and the judging panel also included; Luke Stanbridge, Z-Tech; Sarah Murray, Affinity Water and Abbie Johnson, Thames Water.

The winners were Lanes PLC with their innovative virtual reality initiative for operational training. Lanes will go on to represent the South East Area at the National Innovation Awards held at the Institute of Water President’s Dinner later this year.

development in team training.

As always, the standard of entries was extremely high and any of them would have been worthy winners, but the judging panel felt that the people driven innovation was timely and it had clearly delivered results over a significant period.

The finalists were; AFECO - Final Effluent reuse skid ■ Lanes PLC - Shared VR in Training Igloo ■ Oxfiniti - Nanobubble Generators ■ Southern Water - Integrated Bathing Water Modelling Framework ■

Lanes Group plc, working in partnership with Thames Water, has developed the world’s first virtual reality enabled training centre inside a 360-degree video theatre. This is enabling Lanes to develop high impact training games for key operational task that are aligned with the learning preferences of a new generation of employees entering the water utility industry. This innovation is called “Shared VR in Igloo”. It is now supporting key elements of the business and people strategy, including enhancing health, wellbeing and safety; improving staff and skill retention; and increasing the operational capability of the teams and is now recognised globally as an exciting

The South East Area innovation webinar was one of eye-opening interest and amazing innovation as always. A big thank you from the area committee to all the entries and finalists, it was great to see such a diverse field of submissions. Finally, many thanks to Z-Tech Control Systems who sponsored the event.

To find out more visit www.instituteofwater. org.uk/innovation-awards

DISTINGUISHED MEMBER AWARD We had the honour of informing Steve Youell, IWater National Chair, that he had been awarded the prestigious honour of “Distinguished Member” of the Institute of Water.

The South East Area Committee unanimously agreed to put his name forward for the award and we are pleased the nomination got accepted at National level. Steve’s commitment to the South East Area and the Institute of Water over the last 15 years has been unwavering.

There were 3 key paragraphs from the nomination form that summed up how we thought of Steve as an Area, and why we thought he truly is a Distinguished Member of the Institute of Water: “…Although now focussed on his National duties, Steve hasn’t neglected his area and has remained a critical member of the committee. His attendance at

local meetings and support for events is impressive considering the demands on his time and he’s always available to support or give advice to his area colleagues.

In his time as our regional Chair, Steve took the committee from strength to strength and developed what is now a thriving and vibrant group, able to put on a plethora of events for our members that support their careers, networks and CPD. Most notably, our annual flagship event of the Weekend School, as well as World Environment Day and our Wellbeing Conference, wouldn’t have been such successes over the years without Steve’s

encouragement and input.

Having moved to a new role at Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and moving to live in the area too, we will be losing Steve from our committee and so the South East Area would like to take this opportunity to thank Steve for his commitment, encouragement and dedication in making us as passionate for our Industry and IWater as he is.”

This is an accolade that he really does deserve and everyone on the South East Committee looks forward to being able share a toast in celebration at some point in the future.

instituteofwater.org.uk

89

WELSHAREANEWS

WEBINARS DURING COVID-19 Since lockdown kicked in Welsh Area have been busy forming an impressive events calendar to keep our members occupied and engaged throughout this troubling time.

WATER & FASHION: A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP On the 5th May we saw Welsh Area Secretary and keen environmentalist, Charlotte Rhodes, deliver an engaging and insightful webinar on the relationship between the fashion industry and water consumption, which was attended live by over 90 people across the country and received fantastic feedback.

Charlie discussed the problems associated with fast fashion, its impact on the environment, communities and water resources as well as how consumer habits directly relate to and influence this.

Alternatives were then presented alongside some helpful tips on how consumers can adjust their behaviours or use their voices to make a difference. It was fantastic to learn about something a little different from our work in the UK but which we can all relate to, so thank you!

WATER NETWORK SAFETY WITH AVK UK AVK UK have been loyal Institute of Water members for some time and Welsh Area were delighted to collaborate with them on this technical webinar regarding the common causes of pipe failure and how to fix them.

David Hurley, Business Development Manager at AVK Smart Water, gave an insightful talk detailing the various ways in which pipes can collapse, incorrect or damaged valves can lead to failure and how maintaining ancillaries in both water and wastewater networks is crucial to operating at efficient capacities. The talk was attended live by over 150 people, with attendance even stretching as far as Trinidad thanks to AVK’s global network! After the presentation there was an engaging Q&A session and positive feedback from attendees.

The Welsh Area would like to thank AVK UK for working with us on this webinar and we hope for more collaborative events in the future.

If you’d like to catch up on this or any of the other webinar recordings, please get in touch with Charlotte Rhodes or Megan Williams.

90

instituteofwater.org.uk

UPCOMING EVENTS Coming up next from the Welsh Area is The Science Behind Wastewater Treatment on the 3rd June – registration details available on the Institute of Water website.

There are also several other events planned throughout the year so keep an eye out on the IW social channels and emails for more information!

Additionally, our Innovation Awards 2020 have currently been postponed to 1st October due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Following a sold out 2019 event this remains a key attraction in the Welsh Area calendar, so please keep an eye out for further details.

MEET THE COMMITTEE In March 2020 the Welsh Area had arranged for a Meet the Committee Social at a Cardiff Devils ice hockey game – sadly this had to be postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions but that didn’t stop the Committee!

Please visit our IW social channels to see our Welsh Area Toilet Roll Challenge to introduce ourselves and hopefully make you smile too!

Securing National Infrastructure

LPCB Security Housings, Doors, Bar-sets, Cages and Access Covers Steel and GRP Buildings and Cabinets Tested to LPS 1175 SR2 and SR3 and SR4 Please refer to Red Book Live for full listings

Morgan Marine Ltd., LlandybĂŻe, Ammanford, Carms SA18 3GY

Telephone: 01269 850 437 Email: sales@morgan-marine.com Web: www.morgan-marine.com

Providing pumping solutions for all Selwood’s reputation as the UK’s number one pump rental solutions provider is built on the quality, reliability and longevity of our range of surface and submersible pumps.

Designed for the most demanding applications, our pumps are trusted by the leading water and wastewater service providers.

Our team work with you to create the best solution for the job. Providing efficient, suitable, safe, integrated solutions for both diesel and electric pumps.

Available from our comprehensive network of For more information on our products UK branches and international distributors, all call today on 03330 142000 our pumps come with the Selwood guarantee of specialist support and outstanding service.

www.selwood.co.uk