Institute of Water Magazine Autumn edition 2020

AUTUMN 2020 ISSUE207

IN THIS ISSUE INNOVATION WASTEWATER NETWORKS/SEWER FLOODING EMERGENCY PLANNING DIVERSITY

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

“What a difference a year makes!”

Had I a written an editorial this time last year setting out how a flu like virus would result in lockdowns, school closures, widespread working from home and an acceptance that gathering together to network and knowledge share could be bad for your health – you’d have called me a heretic!

Established norms to one side – this is where we find ourselves. The IoW Annual Conference, to be hosted by incoming President Bob Taylor, in Portsmouth was postponed, but our knowledge share and networking will continue. I’d like to pay a huge credit to our volunteers who have adapted and delivered webinars on a variety of themes which have been enjoyed by many who would have been unable to travel to a physical event. It is unlikely there will be any face-to-face events this year and even when they return, I expect we will see a mix of physical and online events.

On the whole it has been business as usual. We have continued to publish this Magazine and have produced the fourth issue of our technical Journal.

CPD, Innovation and Allen Bolton Awards have been presented and the last award to be decided will be the President’s Cup. Interviews for Professional Registration have been taking place remotely and the numbers have been unaffected. One programme which has stalled has been Rising Stars. Having squeezed in two visits ahead of lockdown there has been no further activity so we have put the programme on hold and the 2020 Rising Stars will remain until the end of 2021.

Sorry for anyone who was thinking of applying this year but there will be an opportunity next year to apply for 2022.

Having Portsmouth on hold until Summer 2021, I agreed to remain as President until then – subject to support from members at the AGM on 23rd September.

At the AGM we will be launching our Business Plan which is previewed in this Magazine and I am pleased to have the opportunity to oversee the delivery of the plan for the next 10 months.

In this issue you can also see the latest members to attain Professional Registration and all of our Award winners to date. Innovation is one of the features, with Diversity, Emergency Planning and Wastewater Networks/Sewer Flooding.

We recently surveyed members to ask what they would like to see in the Magazine; thanks to all who responded and helped shape the Features List going forward.

We have a great online event in store for us over 15–16 October, including Meet the Leaders on the 15th. I hope the online nature enables even more than usual to share in this showcase event.

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78

90

Features

24 Innovation 62 Wastewater Networks/

Sewer Flooding

78 Emergency Planning 84 Diversity

Regulars 4 Members Updates 7 IWA

8 Environment News 10 CPD 12 Mentoring 14 Meet a Member 14 New Registrants 18 Young Persons’ Network 96 Area News

Sara Venning President, Institute of Water and Chief Executive Officer, Northern Ireland Water

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BUSINESS PLAN In recent months the Board of Directors, Membership & Standards Committee and Area Forum have been working collectively on a Business Plan which will be launched at the AGM on 23rd September.

Our Strategic Objectives are to: ■ ■

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Engage and inspire individuals Partner with employers on professional development Collaborate with others to gain an external perspective which adds value to our institute

Our High Priority Services are: ■ ■ ■

■ ■ ■

We have evaluated all our services against the objectives and rated them as High, Medium or Low priority. Actions and Key Performance Indicators have been set for all our High Priority services which will be our main focus between now and the end of 2021.

■ ■ ■ ■

■ ■ ■

Quarterly Magazine Annual Conference Themed One-Day Conferences (Science/ Engineering/Environment) Learning Events Continuing Professional Development Professional Registration Mentoring Introduction to the Water Industry course Young Persons’ Network Collaboration with the International Water Association Website Social Media Improving the brand of the water industry, particularly its social purpose

MICHELLE HARDIE

- MEMBERSHIP ENGAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

We are delighted to welcome Michelle Hardie to our team at Head Office.

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Steve Youell, National Chair, said:

“I’m really excited to have supported the development of our new Business Plan. The plan has been structured to maximise the services we currently provide to our members whilst ensuring that we continue to identify new and innovate ways to enhance the benefits membership can bring to both members and companies.

“I wanted to thank everyone who was involved in creating the business plan and I hope you can join us at our AGM on 23rd September to celebrate its launch.”

TAX RELIEF ON PROFESSIONAL FEES OR SUBSCRIPTIONS

Michelle will play an integral part in delivering our Business Plan, articulating the benefits of all our services to employers, other stakeholders and potential members.

You can claim tax relief on professional fees or subscriptions if: ■ HMRC has approved them; and ■ being a member of the organisation is relevant to your job

Michelle joins us on 1st September from the Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust where she has been Corporate Development Manager since 2015, establishing, nurturing and maintaining relationships across the whole spectrum of corporate partners. Michelle was particularly attracted to the idea of working for an organisation so heavily focused on the professional development of its members.

The Institute of Water has been HMRC approved and you can get tax relief by either: ■ making a claim by post on a form P87 ■ entering your claim on a SelfAssessment tax return

It may be some time before you get the chance to meet in person but you will hear more from Michelle in the winter issue of the Magazine.

Professional Registrations paid through the Institute of Water are also eligible for tax relief.

MEMBERSUPDATE

AGM The 75th Annual General Meeting will be held online on Wednesday 23rd September at 14.00.

Agenda 1. Welcome and apologies for absence 2. Minutes of the seventy-fourth AGM held at the Titanic Hotel, Belfast, 26th June 2019

3. Annual Report of the Board, including 2020-21 Business Plan

4. Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2019

5. Appointment of Auditors 6. Annual Subscriptions for 2021 proposal to freeze all at 2020 rates

Fellow Member £134 Full Member £118 Associate Member £103 Technician Member £51 Student Member £31 Retired (Associate, Full or Fellow) £46 Company Affiliate (no of employees) Small (1-50) £360 Medium (51-500) £515 Large (>500) £824

7. Election of Officers for the year 2020-2021 President - Sara Venning Vice-President - Bob Taylor Vice-President Engineering - Jo Parker Vice-President Environment - Ian Barker Vice-President Science - Robin Price Chair - Steve Youell Area Director - Catherine Fearon

8. Election of other Board Members for the year 2020-2021 Liz Barber*, Lynn Cooper, James Forrest*, Paul Hickey, Ian McAulay*, Sarah Murray and Linda Williams

9. Introductions to new Board Members* and votes of thanks (Simon Cyhanko and Douglas Millican standing down)

10. Any other relevant business Please register to attend through the Events page of our website.

Regrettably we have decided not to offer any new Rising Star places for 2021 but to restart the programme for our current Rising Stars as soon as visits become possible and to carry on to the end of 2021.

When lockdown halted the programme back in March our initial thought was to restart visits in September and to extend into 2021, overlapping for a few months with the new group of Rising Stars. When the Board decided to have an online Annual Conference and to postpone Portsmouth to summer 2021 we decided to effectively write off the remainder of 2020 for Rising Stars and to restart in 2021.

Sorry for those who had planned to apply: there will be another opportunity in late summer next year to apply for 2022.

STREAMLINED ROUTE TO CENV FOR CHARTERED ENGINEERS AND CHARTERED SCIENTISTS The water industry contributes to and relies upon the quality of the natural environment and strives to sustain or improve the environment at every opportunity.

If you are a Chartered Engineer or a Chartered Scientist you are already committed to sustainable development and the Institute of Water can offer you a streamlined application route to become a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv). Adding the CEnv qualification demonstrates to employers and peers that you take your environmental responsibilities as seriously as your scientific and engineering ones.

You will still need to undergo Professional Review (application and interview) but this will focus on the competence areas not covered by CEng or CSci. You will also need to submit a CPD record covering at least the last two years with learning activities relevant to current or future environmental practice and an explanation of your development goals.

We are running this offer as a pilot so don’t delay: visit www.instituteofwater. org.uk/become-a-charteredenvironmentalist-cenv/ to download our guidance notes and application form.

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MEMBERSUPDATE

FIWATER Fellow is the highest grade of membership, awarded to people who have served well in an eminent position in the Institute of Water or who have attained an exceptional level of proficiency in their field.

Fellow Members are expected to remain active and be committed to supporting the activities of the Institute for years to come and we are pleased to introduce two of our latest Fellows.

Interested in becoming a Fellow? Visit the Membership Grades page of our website www.instituteofwater.org.uk/membership-levels to find out more.

KEN PRATT joined in 1992 and was the

first member to be awarded Chartered Engineer status by the Institute of Water.

In 2004 he also became a Chartered Environmentalist.

Ken has a passion for Civil Engineering, always looking to make a difference and to make a lasting impact on the business, team or project. Ken is an expert in Land

MARIE WHALEY joined in 2012, having been elected Chair of the IWA UK Committee and was appointed as a Director that summer.

During her time as Chair, Marie brought new faces to the IWA UK Committee and improved links with IWA HQ, the IWA membership in the UK and the Institute of Water Board. Marie also instigated competitions to fund Institute of Water members to attend the IWA YWP Conf in Cape Town in 2017 and the IWA Latin American & Caribbean YWP Conference

Drainage and Flood Defence and worked for several Internal Drainage Boards before joining WSP where he is embedded in Lincolnshire County Council as a senior member of the Flood & Drainage Team.

Ken wrote an article on Partnership Working to Protect Communities in the summer issue of our Magazine and he intends to continue to both publicise and support the activities of the Institute when he can.

(LACYWPC) in Mexico the following year.

Marie has over 30 years’ experience in the water industry – 20 within Northumbrian Water where she developed specialist expertise in Strategy and Planning, Infrastructure and Asset Management.

Marie left NWL and joined Arup in 2017 as Water Development Lead and spent 9 months at Thames Water as Head of Strategy and Planning (water) then 18 months at Affinity Water as Director Asset Strategy & Innovation then Director Regulation and Strategy.

REMEMBERING TONY COOKE: 1947-2020 We were shocked to learn in May that former President Tony Cooke had been diagnosed with cancer and had a large tumour on his brain: both were inoperable and Tony was on a course of steroids to mitigate the pressure on his brain.

Tony was admitted to a hospice in June where he was much more relaxed and comfortable and had a pain-free dignified end to his life three days later.

I shared the news of the illness with other Past Presidents and Chairs and was able to pass on their respects and good wishes to Tony while he was still able to appreciate

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them. I also relayed my memories of happy and mischievous moments of Tony at our Annual Conference including: ■ Bournemouth, 1998: “I do like to be beside the seaside”- an unforgettable Local Area Evening orchestrated by Tony and probably never matched ■ Peterborough, 2001: Tony on the bucking bronco – again at the Local Area Evening ■ York, 2002: Tony as Vice President standing on a bench at a mediaeval banquet in aid of WaterAid, goading members to throw bread plates ■ Cardiff, 2003: Tony installed as

■

President Southampton, 2004: Tony and his ever-present wife, Cheryl, helping to compile delegate packs which arrived late in the day

Tony was incredibly touched by our messages: he adored the water industry and it gave him enormous pride and a sense of fulfilment to be recognised and appreciated by former peers and colleagues. Tony’s Daughters held a small private family during lockdown but they intend to hold a memorial service and celebration later in the year.

INTERNATIONALWATERASSOCIATION

UK NEWS In the last (Summer) edition of the Magazine we explored some of the benefits of becoming a member of the International Water Association (have you joined yet?). In this edition we’ll cover some of the things that are happening in the UK. The first of these - the World Water Congress bid – is an incredibly exciting opportunity for the whole UK water sector!

IWA World Water Congress Bid The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition is a global event for water professionals, covering the entire water cycle, and is an opportunity to share learning and knowledge with colleagues from across the globe.

The Congress rotates through cities and countries and each has an additional emphasis on issues of specific interest to the region.

In early September the IWA UK Committee will take a bid to the global IWA Board for the UK to host the 2024 World Water Congress in Glasgow. If we are successful this will follow Copenhagen in 2021 and Toronto in 2022. IWA is actually a UK-based charity so it will be wonderful to see the WWC come home! The IWA UK Committee is working across the whole water sector (companies, government, supply chain, regulators and academics) to gain support and sponsorship for our bid. It’s a great opportunity to reinvigorate the UK’s engagement internationally, and we are very keen to succeed.

The theme of the congress will be the climate and environmental emergency – a challenge we all share globally. Across the four nations of the UK there is a common need to plan and invest to address the impacts of climate change and an environment under intense pressure, and to cope with the huge uncertainties facing our sector. All being well, we will have the opportunity to share our experience with colleagues from across the world, and to learn from them also. So, fingers crossed!

Water Resources Online Conference The trade body British Water kindly hosted two IWA webinars in July on ‘Water Resources – securing long-term resilience’.

They were an opportunity for the exchange of ideas and learning from around the world on the challenges related to water resource resilience. There were international contributions from the United States, Brazil, Chile, South Africa and Australia, and closing remarks from Tom Mollenkopf, presidentelect of the IWA. The first webinar included the national planning approach developed in Australia and how this was shaped by the major Millennium drought (the Big Dry) event (2001–2009). It also explored the experience in South Africa and Cape Town with their Day Zero experience. The second event focused on the experience and lessons learned from the major droughts in Brazil, Chile and California. There were important lessons on working with customers to manage demand, and the need to bring multiple sectors together to tackle water stress.

The webinars also included presentations from UK colleagues, who focused on the role of the new national framework and the work now taking place for regional planning in England and the innovative way this is helping to address resilience.

IWA UK Committee – come and join us!

An invitation to join a committee can be a signal to glaze over or turn the page.

But keep reading, because there are three opportunities to help shape how we in the UK can broaden our horizons, share

knowledge and experience with international colleagues, and contribute to more sustainable water management.

The IWA UK Committee has three vacancies for people to join the newly refreshed Committee. The Committee is a friendly and diverse group of committed professionals, led by our Chair Ben Tam, and we are looking for like-minded individuals to join us. We are keen to expand our involvement in the IWA Specialist Groups, so if you already do that – or would like to – it’s a bonus. We would also welcome applications from colleagues in academia. But primarily, we are looking for folk who are happy to muck in rather than sit on the sidelines.

The IWater team will be emailing all the UK IWA members in early September to advise them of the vacancies and the application process. If you’re not an IWA member, but think you’d like to learn more, then head to the IWA page on the IWater website where there is more information about the role and how to apply.

To join the Committee you must be a member of both IWater and IWA at the time of applying, and commit to remaining on the Committee for three years.

The deadline for applications is 30 September 2020.

If you’re interested, but would like to know more, look out for details of the two webinars we’ll be running to answer your questions.

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ENVIRONMENTNEWS

THE ENVIRONMENT CONFERENCE GOES ONLINE! Now 25th and 26th November 2020.

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster to organise this year’s Environment Conference.

Originally planned for April we then rescheduled for November in the hope that the risks from Covid-19 would have reduced enough for a physical conference to be safe to attend. That doesn’t look very likely, so we’ve decided to make it an online event: you’ll be able to attend from the comfort of your own office or living room…

The theme remains the same: ‘Climate change and water – putting urgency into the climate emergency’. The conference will now comprise three online sessions, each followed by Q&A and discussion, and features an outstanding array of speakers.

The first session on ‘Water for people and the environment’ on the morning of Wednesday 25th November will open with Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency and also includes presentations from Dr Mark Fletcher, Global Water Director at Arup, and Catherine Arnold from Southern Water.

ARE YOU A CEng OR CSci? The Institute of Water team has developed a unique, bespoke route for Chartered Engineers and Scientists to streamline applications to become a Chartered Environmentalist.

If you’re an Engineer or Scientist working in the water sector – whatever your role - the environment will benefit directly or indirectly from your actions.

Becoming a CEnv demonstrates to employers and peers that you take your environmental responsibilities as seriously as your scientific and engineering ones. The new bespoke route is set out in more detail on page 5 in this Magazine.

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The second session on the afternoon of 25th November will focus on innovative solutions to the challenges – win-wins for people and the environment - and features speakers from South West Water, Welsh Water, Jacobs and Exeter University. They will offer ideas on managing flood risk, water resources and pollution using sustainable techniques and innovative thinking.

And on the morning of Thursday 26 November we will take a different perspective, and look at our secret weapon in the fight against climate change: customers. How customers use water, and the extent to which they are willing

to support their water company, will be crucial if we are to make progress towards sustainable water supplies and cleaner rivers. And establishing new working relationships with stakeholder groups will result in productive collaborations based on shared objectives. We will hear from Emma Clancy, the new CEO of the Consumer Council for Water, Nicci Russell, MD of Waterwise, Charlotte Rhodes, Technician at Welsh Water, and Robin Price, MD of Water Resources East.

Bookings are now open for the online event, so check out the programme on the IWater website and make sure that you’re signed up.

CHARTERED ENVIRONMENTALIST OF THE YEAR Each year the Society for the Environment invites nominations for Chartered Environmentalist of the Year, to showcase the outstanding work of Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) registrants.

The awards announcement took place on World Environment Day - 5th June 2020 - via an online platform.

The Institute of Water’s Mandhy Senewiratne was announced as one of two winners of the prestigious 2020 Environmental Professional of the Year Award. Mandhy is Director at Fyrefly Global Sustainability Ltd, and an active member of our South East Area.

Chair of the judging panel, Dougal Driver CEnv said: "Inspirational environmental professionals are needed to drive change and to really engage with networks, peers and the public – Mandhy fits firmly into this category. Her personal commitment goes above and beyond due to the clear passion shown for her work."

Learning of the news, Mandhy reacted as follows: "Thank you so much! Firstly, I was delighted to be nominated at all. To then be a finalist amongst such prominent environmental leaders is something else, but to win!? I’m speechless." For those who don't know Mandhy, she is rarely lacking for words…

Mandhy’s great skill is to work with colleagues to enthuse and educate them to improve their performance.

She has a unique style that challenges people to think and to share her enthusiasm for the environment and the need for us all to protect and enhance the natural world. Many congratulations Mandhy!

Professor Ian Barker Vice President Environment

WATER & CLIMATE CHANGE Putting urgency into the climate emergency.

ENVIRONMENT CONFERENCE

NOW ONLINE 25 & 26 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.

Speakers include:

Wednesday 25 November

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair, Environment Agency and UK Commissioner on the Global Commission on Adaptation

Session 1: The climate emergency: water for people and the environment

Mark Fletcher, Global Water Leader, Arup Catherine Arnold, Public Health Scientist, Southern Water Plus many more.

Free to IWater Members ÂŁ25 +VAT to Non-Members

Session 2: Win-Win for people and the environment: innovative solutions Thursday 26 November Session 3: Our secret weapon against climate change: customers

BOOK NOW www.instituteofwater.org.uk/events instituteofwater.org.uk

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CPD AWARDS Although we’ve all been preoccupied with the coronavirus crisis, it’s important we take time to think about our development too and celebrate those in our Institute who go the extra mile.

With that in mind, The Institute’s CPD awards have proceeded as usual, with a few minor changes. As usual, entries were taken from the best of the Institute’s annual CPD monitoring exercise plus those who entered the awards directly.

Matt Bower, our CPD Champion explains: “It’s always a pleasure to administer the CPD awards – this year the number and quality of entries was the highest ever.

We had direct entries from 17 members, all who had a unique but exceptional approach to their professional development. I’m really grateful to Nicola Johnston, Training and Development Scientist at Anglian Water, and Lucy Hird, last year’s CPD award winner for helping me to judge the entries.

This year’s winning CPD record was picked up via the Institute’s annual CPD monitoring process, rather than having been entered directly into the competition.

This makes it all the more remarkable.

I’m also delighted that it shows great use being made of the Institute’s refreshed online CPD Portal, which is designed to provide a supportive tool to help our members get CPD right first time around”.

This year’s winner was Rachael Picken from Scottish Water.

Rachael was “presented” with her trophy by the Institute’s Chief Executive, Lynn Cooper at a star-studded Microsoft Teams call on 14th July. There was a surprise guest appearance from Rachael’s “Big Boss” Douglas Millican, Chief Executive of Scottish Water (right).

to record a huge variety of development activities, proving that learning doesn’t just take place during formal training or at conferences. She used a robust reflection process to identify any gaps and feed these back into her development plan to refine her learning objectives.

The two joint runners up were Izzie Peters from Southern Water and Karen Gove from Anglian Water. Both had exceptional CPD records. Izzie’s had a huge breadth of development activities and well structured, comprehensive reflection, while Karen’s was notable for its thorough reflection that highlighted the way the development benefitted others and further learning requirements.

The judges loved Rachael’s thorough and honest approach to planning her development, which clearly showed an evolving approach to CPD. Rachael made good use of the Institute’s CPD portal

LOCAL CPD CHAMPIONS We are aware that some people would welcome a little bit of extra support with their CPD, especially when they are starting out or preparing an application for professional registration.

We are creating a team of local CPD Champions who will be a friendly face members can turn to for advice. The network is still being set up, but we aim to have people spread out across the country – there might be one in your company.

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Matt Bower, our CPD Champion said “This is something I’ve been keen to do for a while as I have noticed that the CPD process is sometimes a bit unclear for people and it really doesn’t need to be. One of the great strengths of our Institute is its friendly, local structure

and I want to use this so that no-one need struggle with their CPD without some informal support. I’d like to thank all those who have volunteered to help already – I’ll be in touch soon.”

CPD

CPD MONITORING Every year, the Institute is required to sample a selection of our members’ CPD records.

This is to satisfy the terms of our licences to award professional registrations and it also gives us the opportunity to check that our corporate members are complying with our CPD code. Those selected have a few months to provide their CPD record – support is available if required. These are then sent to a team of experienced CPD assessors who, working in pairs, provide feedback to the members. This year, Rachael, our CPD award winner was identified from this process. The 2020/21 CPD monitoring is about to begin, but we thought it was worth taking a look at the 2019/20 round to see what it tells us.

Matt explains: “ The monitoring exercise is always interesting because we receive such a diverse range of CPD records and approaches to development. It’s useful to analyse the overall results as they can tell us about trends or particular aspects of CPD that our members may be struggling with. This year’s monitoring is about to begin. If your name is selected to participate, don’t panic – there’s plenty of time and support available if you need it.

Don’t ignore the request though – we are obliged to follow up all selected members and there may be implications for your grade of membership if you don’t submit something.”

Last year, 66 members were selected to submit their CPD record. These were across a range of disciplines as well as some of our corporate members too.

A good CPD record is made up of a number of components of the CPD cycle. When the results were analysed by each component, a few trends were clear. The number of people reflecting upon their learning to consider how they had benefitted was up on previous years – very good to see, as this is how you maximise the benefit of

any development. Environmentalists were especially good at this (in fact, they were the star discipline overall!). The weakest area was refining objectives – this is where reflection on learning is used to go back and review your development aims, adjusting them as necessary to complete the CPD cycle. Clearly a bit more work is

needed here – especially by scientists!

Take a look at the Institute’s website if you’d like to know more about CPD and the correct approach, or to find a few tools that you can use, including our CPD portal that was successfully used by this year’s award winner, Rachael.

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HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC AFFECTED MENTORING? The Institute of Water’s Mentoring Programme is one of the key offers of our membership and can help participants unlock their potential and support their career goals. We explore how the challenges of the pandemic have been met by some of our mentor and mentee partnerships. with colleagues in the industry and I learned a lot from his approach and charisma.

Since lockdown we’ve been in good contact. I’ve been able to thank Simon for his guidance and support as I had things to celebrate that he’d given me the encouragement and inspiration I’d needed – the first was winning the IWater committee member of the year award and the second was that I’ve secured a new role within my company.

MENTEE: ABBIE JOHNSON

Regional Service Delivery Manager at Thames Water “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” Plutarch The benefit I get from my mentor has been just as valuable during the pandemic as it was beforehand. We were lucky enough to get a visit in together just before lockdown hit where I took Simon out around the Thames Water area looking at our repair and maintenance field activities. It was brilliant seeing Simon outside his region but still able to challenge, engage and build relationships

INSTITUTE OF WATER MENTORING SCHEME Initially, the scheme begins with an online registration, where a mentee applicant registers the outcomes and goals they aim to achieve through the process.

Simon has offered some terrific insight in the business area I’ll be moving into and he also shared his current experiences of leadership, working from home and how lockdown is impacting him. This is exactly what I need from the mentoring partnership we have – long may it continue!

MENTOR: SIMON BENNETT

Head of Wholesale Services at Bristol Water “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

Benjamin Franklin

mentoring relationship has worked really well for both parties because we have met face to face on several occasions and visited each other’s offices and work sites. I must admit I have struggled in general with WFH, with not meeting up with colleagues, not going into the office and those countless online meetings where we all talk over each other, so “Teams” mentoring did not inspire me with any confidence to be honest. But I can still be there to listen, I can still be there to ask those questions, I can still be there to show lots of support and encouragement and challenge Abbie on the actions she may need to take in her fast-moving career. What was I worried about?

But also, from my own personal and wellbeing point of view, it’s just great to catch up and chat and share those lockdown experiences. Life goes on.

Personally, I am still motivated and willing to challenge myself and learn and the Institute’s mentoring scheme and working with Abbie allows me to do just that. I was once told that mentoring is like being a critical friend, but I like to think of it as more of being a mate with 38 years of water experience to share!

Covid19 should not get in the way of helping people develop. Yes, our long-term

These can range from learning about a new area of the water industry to gaining insight and guidance to enhance their career.

The mentoring programme then works to match applicants with potential mentors most suitable to meeting their

development goals.

The timescales for mentee/mentor partnerships vary depending on the requirements, commitment, and the desired development outcome, and successful partnerships are measured in many different ways.

Visit www.instituteofwater.org.uk/mentoring to find out more and to sign up as a mentor or mentee.

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MENTORING On reflection during these unprecedented times, it has been a real eye opener to how valuable and powerful good mentorship can be in some of the most challenging times our industry face. I encourage all members to seriously think about becoming a mentor or a mentee as the passing of knowledge, wisdom, insight and sometimes witty stories is critical now more than ever.

I would like to end by saying thank you to Rob for all his valuable time he has spent with me, without this support I doubt I would be where I am in my career to date.

MENTEE: EUAN BLACK

Head of Operations for WRc, Fellow and former IoW National Chairperson 2008-2010 Around 12 months ago, I approached Rob through the Institute of Water mentoring platform, with the primary objective of hearing a different view point from somebody with a different background to allow myself to learn and develop. Over the past year we have focused our discussions at a strategic level in order to help myself meet the challenging goals I have set out to achieve.

During the pandemic the conversations between Rob and myself have become vital, as many if not all the decisions I have been making on an hourly basis are new to me, had never been made before and were potentially life changing. We quickly changed our conversations from achieving long term goals, to focus on operations on a weekly basis. Having Rob as a sounding board during this turbulent period has been fantastic, as he is someone outside of my working organisation, who I can trust to give me sound advice and challenge my thought process.

MENTOR: ROB GWYTHER

Fellow of the Institute of Water, a Chartered Fellow of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, and a Member of the Chartered Management Institute

Pairing with Euan has been particularly fortunate. He has an outstanding intellect and therefore – unknowingly, I think – he always tests my own assumptions.

“Meetings” are by telephone. This adds an intimacy and clarity; it also requires preparation and follow-up which might not be so efficient if we were within strolling distance.

Euan is tirelessly busy, and increasingly so during the pandemic, which has coincided with his extra responsibilities at WRc. We often discuss his time management, which is excellent, including a proper acknowledgement of family time, and with particular regard to the welfare of his key workers, especially now. I have been able to reassure Euan that he has been making the right choices with his time and activity, always a balance, and he has found this useful to hear from a third party. Very personal discussions during the pandemic have brought us closer together.

During these dark days, we have increased our mentoring sessions to weekly. I have been able to share some of my many experiences in crisis and emergency management, including my mistakes.

In these highly unusual circumstances, our robust Institute of Water is essential, and effective bridges between past and future are increasingly crucial. With Euan as a custodian, I know that the water sector and our customers are in excellent hands.

I have had many mentoring relationships over the years, blending experiences from different occupational sectors. In the photograph, I am coaching officers and engineers of the Royal Naval Air Service.

My mentoring dialogues and friendships have always been rewarding, both as mentor and mentee.

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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. assigned to me is moving forward without any problems.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Working at my current job is amazing and I absolutely enjoy working with my colleagues. It is an astonishing atmosphere that encourages me to go to work every day.

It is a very collaborative atmosphere, and the team and I work together on almost every project, giving me the opportunity to learn new things every day.

Name: Michaela Katsarou Job title: Senior Scientific Officer Employer: Affinity Water IWater Area: South East area 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 3 years.

Describe your ‘average day’ at work A typical day in the office usually begin by checking my emails and then going over the pending work from the previous day in order to set up my priorities. I review the status of the projects I am working on and I am trying to make sure that all the work

How did you start your career in the water industry?

Upon completion of my master’s degree, I started my career at IWNL as Water Quality Scientist. I was responsible for monitoring and reporting against the sampling programme to ensure we were meeting our regulatory obligations with regards to the quality of water supply.

It was a great entry-level position and I gained a lot of experience.

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

Take the opportunity to learn and gain experience every chance you get. Look at challenges as a positive learning experience.

Be patient, work hard and you’ll be rewarded.

Hannah Gorton Drinking Water Inspectorate; Inspector Chartered Scientist

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Being part of any emerging or growing field is exciting. The water sector is dedicated to finding innovative ways to recover and recycle renewable resources like clean water, energy, and fuel to help shape a sustainable future. A position in the water industry is a career and not just a job and helping to deliver clean water is one of the most meaningful careers I could pursue.

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

The water sector faces a number of challenges, both now and in the longer term. Climate change, water scarcity and population growth are some of them but the biggest issue the companies have to manage is the lack of public appreciation for the value of water.

What interests to do have outside of work?

During my spare time, I enjoy playing tennis. I have joined the local tennis club and I spend a lot of hours there, it is a great way to stay in shape and meet new people.

Also, I love traveling, and I try to take a trip every season. Traveling is an ideal way to gain wisdom and knowledge.

NEWREGISTRANTS

SCIENCE

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

I applied to be a Chartered Scientist in recognition of the quality of the work I have been producing throughout my career and the amount of knowledge at my disposal to use within the water industry both now and in the future.

I was therefore very pleased to achieve Chartered status this year. I would encourage anyone within the water industry to look at the competencies and to put a plan together to meet them, if you need to. Sometimes this might involve doing additional work or things that you wouldn’t do all the time as part of your role, but managers should be supportive towards what you are trying to achieve. It is definitely worthwhile.

NEWREGISTRANTS SCIENCE CONTINUED David Pickard

Operations Scientist; Affinity Water Chartered Scientist

Laura Elleray

Contracts Co-ordinator and LSAM Screens Team; Anglian Water Registered Scientist

Hansa Doorgakant

Team Leader; Welsh Water Registered Scientist

Tony Wallace

Lead scientist; Anglian Water Registered Scientist

I joined IWater three years ago with the specific aim to achieve chartership.

I delayed applying at first as the process seemed daunting.

However, once I started working on my application, I soon learned that it actually complemented my day-to-day job by really giving me a chance to reflect on my experiences. Once I started working on my application I found it enjoyable and I was surprised about how much I had covered. The review itself was relaxed, the assessors made me feel at ease and it was more like a conversation between professionals than an interview. I would encourage anyone who is thinking of working towards chartership to start a CPD record as soon as possible and keep it up to date. Becoming a CSci has given me extra confidence in my abilities, and with more emphasis being put on demonstrating competence by our Regulator, this is a great time to apply.

When I first started my secondment as a Water Quality Scientist at Anglian Water, becoming a Registered Scientist was something I didn’t think I would be able to achieve.

However, when I started the process of writing my application I realised how much I had learned over the 2 years and it actually made me feel more confident as a scientist. In keeping with the pandemic ‘new normal’ my interview was done over Zoom, which was interesting trying to keep my dogs from joining the video call! I would encourage anyone thinking of becoming registered to just do it, not only does it mean you gain recognition in your field, but it is a great way to look back on past experiences and see the skills you have learned from them.

I have worked for Welsh Water for 9 years firstly as an analyst then a senior analyst and presently as Team Leader.

I am delighted to have achieved Registered Scientist from the Institute of Water and particularly grateful to my sponsor – Colin S Meikle, who gave his time, support and guidance. Due to lockdown, my interview was over video and two friendly assessors put me at ease from the start. Applying for professional recognition has boosted my confidence as it has been assessed by independent accessor and, therefore, I would highly recommend and encourage anyone to apply for professional registration.

I was encouraged by my company to apply for professional registration and finally achieved Registered Scientist (RSci) status earlier this year, which gave me a good sense of achievement.

During the application process, I was able to identify areas of my career development which needed work to expand my professional knowledge.

The CPD was particularly helpful in this respect. To address this, I took the opportunity to work with colleagues to fill any gaps in my knowledge. I am grateful to my Company for the encouragement and support I received to help me gain recognition and would recommend others to apply. Professional recognition can help as a steppingstone at any stage of your career.

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SCIENCE CONTINUED Hannah Swainston

Laboratory Analyst; Anglian Water Registered Science Technician

I am a Laboratory analyst for Anglian water.

Completing the application for registered scientist technician and developing my CPD has allowed me to develop further as an analyst; becoming trained in more methods and procedures that I may not have encountered until further in my career. It has also developed my knowledge of different areas of the laboratory and the business. The process took just under a year to write, submit and achieve. As some sections are quite similar I would advise bullet pointing all ideas for each section to start with so you know what will be explained where.

This will prevent repetition of examples so you are able to demonstrate a wide range of knowledge and skill.

ENGINEERING Carl Martin

Water Regulations Inspector; Anglian Water Engineering Technician

David Graham

Professor of Ecosystems Engineering; Newcastle University Chartered Engineer

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The Eng Tech qualification is something I became aware of when I joined the WRAS Consistency Working Group in 2017.

The qualification enabled me to become professionally recognised for my knowledge and experience I have gained over the years working within the water industry. It gave me a goal to work towards and a sense of self-achievement when I had completed it. I have recently registered with several on-line webinars hosted by the Institute of Water which allows me to gain further knowledge about various sectors of the Industry. I think it would be good for more people obtain the qualification because it allows you to demonstrate your competency and commitment to the Industry.

I have worked for almost 30 years in water quality and wastewater engineering, but my academic position has not necessarily required me to become chartered in the UK. In recent years, however, my advisory work on water and health around the world has expanded considerably, so I decided to apply for chartership at the Institute of Water to validate my expertise as an engineer. Much of my work now deals with mitigating water pollution to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). I am currently studying the impact of water pollution on AMR spread in over 10 countries. However, I am often frustrated by the lack of recognition of role of water engineers in improving community health. The world’s healthiest places have the best water quality, a message I preach to anyone who will listen. In fact, people are starting to listen, such as the World Health Organisation where I advise on waterborne AMR and mitigation, and UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), where I advise on water and wastewater issues related to COVID-19 transmission. Chartership provides me greater credibility with health advisory groups, where members are rarely engineers, but also raises awareness of the vital role engineers play in global health solutions.

NEWREGISTRANTS ENGINEERING CONTINUED Kirk Finlinson

Engineering Director; Watertight Management Ltd Incorporated Engineer

It’s great to be professionally registered to IEng status. It shows that I am able to adhere to engineering principles, standards and ethics at an Incorporated level.

My employer, the Institution and existing members gave me fantastic support and advise throughout the application process and my video interview was actually an enjoyable experience! I believe that in engineering, the best approach is to show you have sound academic and theoretical knowledge supported by strong practical understanding and experience. This is how I approached my journey to professional registration.

ENVIRONMENT Collin Picton

Area Delivery Manager; Anglian Water Chartered Environmentalist

Gemma Williams

Ecology & Biodiversity Advisor; DĹľr Cymru Welsh Water Chartered Environmentalist

Phil Ellwood

Process Optimiser; Anglian Water Registered Environmental Technician

I have worked in the industry for 29 years and had never considered applying for professional registration until I changed roles and met with colleagues who were already Chartered.

I received a lot of support from my Chartered colleagues and realised how much of what I did in my day to day role was compatible with the Competencies required to become a Chartered Environmentalist. I enjoyed the application process and the Professional Review meeting on Zoom. My role is to reduce our environmental impact and seeking Professional Qualification was a great way of committing to that goal.

Becoming CEnv demonstrates an immediate understanding of my capabilities and experiences amongst other professionals including the many external stakeholders I work alongside.

After attaining my REnvTech in 2018 I knew I wanted to start working towards CEnv and progress in my career, so I revisited my development plan to establish what new skills and experiences I needed to work towards. My CPD was a valuable tool in guiding my development as well as identifying gaps in my skill set which I could then add to my development plan. This framework was essential for my professional growth and allowed me to demonstrate my competencies. It also allowed me to reflect on my journey from REnvTech to CEnv demonstrating how my confidence and ability to believe in myself has grown.

Following my studies in Rural Environment Management I then started to work for Anglian Water as a Process Controller, I then progressed to a Process Optimiser.

I really enjoy many aspects of my role including the contribution I make to sustainability and environmental protection and so when I was chosen to apply for my Registered Environmental Technician (REnvTech) I was excited to be able to progress my skills and take my learning and professional development to a new level.

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YOUNGPERSONSNETWORK

THE GREAT YPN BAKE OFF – THE RESULTS With the nation in lockdown many people found they had extra time on their hands and turned to baking with an opportunity to learn a new skill whilst having some tasty treats to show for it!

The YPN decided to take advantage of this and hosted their first virtual bake off!

Whilst the lack of flour and yeast posed an additional challenge, our YPN were definitely up to the task!

The challenge was open to everyone, genius bakers or novices, individuals or families, and you could bake anything you like – from brownies and cookies to cakes and scones.

As always there was a bit of healthy competition with prestigious titles up for grabs including Star Baker, a water themed bake, most creative design and most technical bake. To judge the bakes we had our very own Paul Hollywood, Lynn Cooper, and Mary Berry, Phoebe Bloomfirend (a NHS frontline worker).

This was a very difficult task as the standard was exceptionally high. Both judges commented that it was a shame that they weren’t able to taste the bakes.

Water themed bake - Katherine Fish for her reservoir cake. This masterpiece is made from a maple and blueberry genoise sponge, with blueberry mousse and coated in a maple custard (the green for the hill!).

The “water” is a lemon jelly and the “trees” are a maple butter icing.

Most technical bake was awarded to Carmen Snowdown for her gluten and dairy free summer chiffon cake.

A massive thank you to all the bakers who took part. Not only did our bakers cook up a storm, but they also raised a fantastic £55 for NHS Charities together and £70 for Water Aid.

If you would still like to donate

After much deliberation Lynn and Phoebe settled on the following winners:

please go to our Just Giving pages: Water Aid: www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/greatypnbakeoffwa NHS Charities Together: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ greatypnbakeoff For more information about the YPN, please visit instituteofwater.org.uk/ young-persons-network

Most creative - Georgia Brown with

Star Baker - Hayley Wakeford for her salted caramel cake with a salted caramel drip and Swiss meringue buttercream.

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her seasonal lemon and elderflower sponge, lemon curd and elderflower filling and topped with white chocolate meringue butter cream. Lemons, mini meringues and elderflowers to decorate on top.

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WINDMILL INSIGHT SOLUTIONS

TEE-SHAPED LEARNING, THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING And one that gives to employers and employees alike

by Bob Windmill

Academic Director, British Water Engineering College I’ve done a fair bit of interim management, doing nominally full-time roles on a threeday a week contract. And, yes, I had days off, worked on other projects and had sensible work-life balance. So, what are the full-time post holders now doing on Thursdays and Friday?

The gift the keeps giving Clearly, I know and can make use of a lot about a lot, where others seemed more specialist. That made me think how I built a wide skills base over the years that stands me in good stead today, and the idea of Tee-Shaped learning, the gift the keeps giving.

TEE-shaped learning In my version the T is the task to be undertaken and the Es are Education and experience available to accomplish the task. This is set on a base of selfawareness, that is knowing how and why you react is certain situations. Figure 1 shows this.

I know this from painful experience if an individual lacks the education and experience to deliver the task, and the self-awareness to recognise this and ask for help, the bit of the task outside the individual’s expertise will get done badly, if at all. Figure 2 shows this.

I argue that increasing an individual’s self-awareness is more important than developing this experience and experience, because with good self-awareness the individual can at least recognise that they need to ask for help. Welcome to Figure 3 Clearly the best answer is to develop more EE, in my case adding financial and people EE to my scientific EE, so that tasks get delivered well. Figure 4 shows this.

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Back to the beginning

Figure 1

There is a clear trend, especially in regional water companies, for roles to become increasingly specialised in the interests of “efficiency”. I argue that this is short-sighted, with the overheads of communicating between increasingly fragmented teams outweighing any nominal gains.

The longer-term result is senior managers with limited experience having to react to new and unfamiliar challenges, and staff having difficulty transferring between roles, limiting flexibility and progression opportunities.

Figure 2

Clearly, if your most talented staff do not see the opportunities they want within your organisation, they will go elsewhere. And remember, the water industry is already forecast to have a 50% staff turnover rate in the next five years. Let’s not make it worse.

About British Water Engineering College

Figure 3

BWEC can help you develop a targeted Workforce Development Plan, a holistic look at your current and future skills needs and the range of options for meeting them.

As part of this we offer a range of technical and management courses specifically tailored for the water industry and individual clients, and delivered by Masters level tutors.

Our tutors help learners by sharing their own experiences, the good and the not-so-good, alongside the technical content to develop ell-rounded employees.

For more details, contact me and we can discuss your requirements e: bob@bwec.org.uk m:07554 994855

Figure 4

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2050 WATER INNOVATION STRATEGY

September will see a first for the UK Water industry. The 2050 Water Innovation Strategy will be published following a period of intense engagement with stakeholders within and beyond the sector.

The development of the strategy, which aims to deliver sector-wide innovation, has been a genuinely collaborative effort.

All 19 of the UK’s water companies have been involved through a series of subgroups, with facilitation from UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) and Arup. Together, they developed a draft strategy, launched in July, as a starting point for much wider participation in its development.

The draft strategy set out a vision to create open collaboration across the water sector, drive transformational change through innovation and deliver greater value for customers and the environment. It was organised into seven key themes which align with the United Nation’s sustainable development goals and incorporate UKWIR’s Big Questions that frame the current research agenda for the UK. They include: ■ Providing the services our customers and society expect and value ■ Providing clean water for all ■ Protecting and enhancing natural systems ■ Delivering resilient infrastructure systems ■ Achieving carbon neutrality ■ Taking a whole life approach to responsible consumption and production ■ Enabling diverse future-ready people and partnership working.

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The aim is for the themes to guide innovation investment across the water sector and provide insight for Ofwat in rolling out its £200m innovation fund.

However, Steve Kaye, CEO of UKWIR believes it will go further than this.

Steve said: “For the first time we can see the full picture of the innovation landscape across the UK and beyond, with the links between the many and varied organisations with a role to play set out to help us navigate our way through it. This is a web of opportunity for all involved and will be crucial to the successful delivery of the strategy.

“Its broad focus and collaborative approach will provide much more opportunity to unlock new sources of funding and bring them into the sector – delivering far greater value for companies and customers alike.”

The draft strategy was officially launched at a webinar attended by nearly 300 people. This was followed by a series of online workshops that delved deeper into the key themes and the enablers of innovation, in particular the proposal for a Centre of Excellence – a virtual hub that could bring together the people, skills, testing facilities and data needed to make the UK a world leader in water innovation and provide a single gateway

for partners interested in working with the sector.

Elin Williamson, Innovation Manager at Southern Water has been part of the engagement sub-group. She said: “There has been a real buzz around the launch of the draft strategy, and we’ve received some fantastic insight and ideas during the workshops both on the strategy itself, and what the sector needs to do next to implement the strategy.

“We will incorporate feedback from stakeholders to develop the strategy further before publishing it later this month. Comments we have received so far relate to specific themes that could be more aspirational, the need to more clearly articulate the value of what has already happened in the sector and demonstrate how the themes are interdependent.”

The final strategy will but published in late September. However, this signals the start not the end of the process.

The strategy will be a live document that will set a new pathway for the industry and deliver the transformational innovation needed for the future.

To find out more visit https://waterinnovation2050.org.uk

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INNOVATION AT YORKSHIRE WATER

Yorkshire Water's waste water treatment works

Yorkshire Water delivers clean and wastewater services for five million customers every day.

by Jon Brigg

Manager of innovation, Yorkshire Water The role of the innovation team is to deliver growth, resilience and service improvement options for the business.

We do this by thinking differently and by continually exploring and evaluating opportunities which fill gaps in currently available knowledge, technology and services. Only by thinking differently will we deliver innovative solutions that challenge and improve the way we operate.

Innovation is one of the key driving forces of our business. It allows us to deliver more for our customers, whilst keeping costs and customer bills down. It also helps us to continue providing an exceptional level of service - both now and into an increasingly

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unpredictable future. Innovation plays a key role in helping us cope with the challenges of climate change, population growth and economic pressures.

sensors and telecommunications channels including LoRaWAN and NB-IoT following the switching on of BT’s first wide area upgraded masts in the UK, as part of the project.

The innovation team’s investment program is delivering an extensive and industry leading range of projects coving all major operational functions. Within this program, some of our standout projects are:

The pilot, delivered in collaboration with Stantec, will integrate the rich data from these sources and present it in a single visualisation platform which includes a digital twin of the water network. The platform uses AI to cluster data sets, and remove false positives, to accurately inform our asset and operational decision making.

If the pilot is successful, the smart water network will revolutionise the way we manage leaks and interruptions to supply in the future.

Hadfield Smart Water Network Pilot We are currently nearing completion of the deployment of almost 4,000 sensors across the West Sheffield area providing acoustic, pressure, water quality and smart meter data in what is the UK’s largest smart water network pilot.

The ambitious multi-stakeholder collaboration is testing state-of-the-art

Although in its infancy, the pilot looks promising and has provided valuable insights already – for example, we were

FEATURE: INNOVATION able to identify that in one DMA 35% of leakage came from just 10 properties.

We are now working closely with customers to address those leaks.

Hydrogen generation, storage and utilisation WWe, along with all other water companies in the UK, have made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030. In order to achieve that we need to transform the way we operate – sustainably generated ‘green’ hydrogen is a key element in the transition to Yorkshire Water’s low carbon future.

Hydrogen can be recovered directly from the biogas produced by our anaerobic digester fleet. The waste carbon dioxide from this process can also be captured and used. Using biogas in this way reduces the need to flare excess gas and therefore cuts the associated emissions.

Alternatively, biogas can be used to generate electricity in Combined Heat and Power (CHP engines) as it is now.

The electricity can then be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. The surplus oxygen can be used, for example, in activated sludge plants to supplement or replace the need for energy intensive blowers.

In the first phase of our hydrogen work, one of our clean water tankers, a diesel LGV, was converted to a hydrogen hybrid dual fuel system. The tanker will use ITM Power’s renewable energy powered hydrogen generation and refueling facility at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre near Rotherham.

Converting the 7.5-tonne clean water tanker and removing its reliance on diesel will reduce its carbon consumption by 33%. This conversion, a first in the water industry, presents a significant step forward in our fleet strategy and the drive for carbon neutrality.

The second phase of work will establish opportunities and the model for the delivery of hydrogen generation, storage, and utilisation assets, including a hydrogen vehicle refueling station, across our asset base.

Clean water lining solutions We are committed to increasing the level of water mains lining in AMP7 to reduce leakage; improve water quality;

Hydrogen tanker and increase asset lifespans. In 2019, we hosted an innovation day in collaboration with the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC), to understand the solutions put forward by its innovation community for cost-effective potable water pipe lining.

Resource recovery - reducing waste and emissions

From that innovation day, we were able to build a relationship with a number of potential suppliers. One of these was Haydale: a global technology solutions company that creates advanced materials for a range of applications, and we have begun a project to test their SI-TUFF product. SI-TUFF is an additive composed of silicon-carbide fibres, that can be added to any existing coating material, with the potential to vastly improve the coating’s durability and longevity. We are now working with Haydale to test the application of SI-TUFF on both cast and ductile iron, with the ultimate aim of applying this product to potable water mains.

The technology will use carbon dioxide to stabilise nitrogen and phosphate held within the waste treated at the plant and turn them into a commercial fertiliser product. The new approach, which will cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce treatment costs to help keep customer bills low, is a world first for the wastewater sector.

We have recognized that there is need for a more consistent, industry-wide approach to testing, evaluating and selecting lining materials. As a result, we have started to explore the possibility of a collaborative project to create more robust methods to test and approve new lining materials. The ultimate aim of this project is to ensure that the very best lining solutions are bought to market as quickly as possible.

Our partnership with CCm Technologies will see a new ammonia and phosphorus recovery process at one of our wastewater treatment works.

We are currently developing the process design and identifying which treatment works will adopt the new process. We’re planning to begin implementing it later this year.

Our holistic and integrated approach is critical to the sustainability of our water and wastewater services and the business.

It is a fantastic example of the innovative measures we, and our partners, are developing to reduce our carbon footprint and ensure we maximise the resources we have available to us.

By helping society benefit from the full value of water, we deliver a wide range of economic, environmental and societal benefits for both the short and long term.

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EVOLUTION® TO REVOLUTION: ™ WATERNET TO WATERNET PRO

Innovation has always been a key driver for Ofwat and Water Companies to improve performance. ever-expanding Internet of Things meaning the scope to innovate has never been greater.

by Dr. Joe Sanders

Technical Sector Lead, RPS Whether this is controlling leakage or managing discharges to watercourses, the need to improve process, materials, equipment or modelling has persisted.

Alongside this is an ever-growing digital transformation agenda, supported by an

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However, the path to achieve innovation isn’t easy. Over the years and various AMP cycles we’ve seen many barriers to innovation, including the constraints imposed by the targets and requirements of a highly regulated industry. However, with the commencement of AMP7 and call for innovation ringing in our ears, organisations must evolve to deliver the change that is needed to meet expectations of regulators and customers.

RPS has been developing industry leading water resource management software for over 20 years, such as Perform, LMARS and Waternet®. These tools and platforms are designed to deliver greater insight into, among other things, leakage performance.

Today, 11 water companies across the UK use Waternet to help them with their

leakage management calculations, helping them reduce leakage – to date, this equates to over 200Mld between 2017-18 and 2019-20, the equivalent of 80 Olympic sized swimming pools. This is a significant saving in terms of protecting our natural resources and meeting regulatory and customer expectations.

Water resources management software Waternet is used by these water companies to measure the flow and pressure across thousands of DMAs in near real-time, and store data from an equivalent number of assets, such as PRVs, meters, valves and loggers. The insights achieved with this level of data, has facilitated the adaptation of methodologies and processes to allow water companies to develop their awareness of serviceability and performance of the network. This has led to better strategies to reactively and proactively manage the network and meet evolving regulatory

FEATURE: INNOVATION requirements. Many of these strategies have steered further improvement in data quality and robustness, allowing for continuous improvement. With the likely further reductions in leakage targets in AMP8, this journey is only just beginning.

Waternet has been developed collaboratively with clients over the years in response to their needs while maintaining its core functionality. For example, Waternet can calculate natural rate of rise and the background level of leakage in an area.

This functionality allows water companies to perform their own analysis activities in this area - work that would previously have been completed by an external consultant.

The water companies taking ownership of these activities has resulted in a financial benefit, but more importantly, a better understanding of the data and network by their own analysts.

Our active user group comprising industry users, leakage practitioners and our own water specialists, have played their part.

Every year this group meets and reviews the current features of Waternet with a view to ideating new, beneficial solutions.

Over the years, these small, incremental “crowd sourced” innovations have been collaboratively scoped at these events and have improved our collective understanding of the leakage problem we face as an industry.

A new spatial asset management reporting and analysis platform Alongside water resource management, we also have significant experience delivering innovative approaches to sewerage management planning. However, incremental tools which have benefitted existing processes, or improved targeted areas of urban drainage management, have also been developed in an ad-hoc or as-needed manner. But these small innovations have led to full-blown tools and solutions, including the rapid flood routing tools PondSIM and FlowBot which optimise data visualisation, analysis and machine learning methods to deliver 80%-time savings.

But with AMP6 providing our networks with a significant upturn in monitoring points, the introduction of ‘Event Duration Monitors’ checking ‘Combined Sewer Outflow’ performance and network monitors identifying restrictions in the system, adding to a telemetry network often focussed on pumping stations and treatment works

- there was a clear opportunity to do something different, something disruptive.

Building on the concept of ‘situational awareness’ we wanted to support our clients to make informed network decisions based on the available information from one, single location. Based on this need, the concept of WaterNet Pro™ was born.

WaterNet Pro provides one location where available catchment information can be accessed, interrogated and actioned before an incident occurs - moving from a reactive to a proactive, preventative intervention approach to serviceability management.

Exploitation of the cloud was a critical part of this process. Moving from on-premises software to cloud based software as a service, the RPS Azure environment has been harnessed to drive WaterNet Pro - providing access to live telemetry and monitoring information, and rapid access to global mapping, asset and catchment performance information. WaterNet Pro is a true digital twin, where decisions can be made based on live information, supported by historical performance.

An alerting module has been the first step along this process. Combining external live streams and cloud-to-cloud client connections, live catchment data is analysed against performance windows and critical serviceability thresholds, generating alerts requiring action. This module has also been configured to ingest predictive alarms from Innovyze ICM Live, allowing predictive responses to be compared with reality.

With weather being a critical aspect of sewerage management, access to rainfall information to support status alerts and decision making is critical. Whether this is harnessing data already owned by water companies or accessing the inbuilt weather analysis elements of WaterNet Pro, we can understand the wet/dry causality of events.

From source to tap and back again WaterNet Pro, however, is not limited to Wastewater. A critical part of our innovation journey is that situational awareness is required on all networks, clean and dirty.

So, the roadmap for the development of WaterNet Pro will encompass the transition and enhancement of our existing Waternet products into the cloud, providing software as a service solution to all water companies, water utility providers, asset managers and more. The advantage this provides is the

ability to develop and integrate clean and waste services within our development process, optimising the time it takes for software to be available to our clients to deliver benefits to their customers.

Learning from analysis undertaken for wastewater clients, we have begun to develop a water quality offering for our clean water clients too. This combines existing learnings with data that’s already been collected by WaterNet Pro for flow monitoring to provide deeper insight into water quality. Having waste and clean water engineers working side by side on these initiatives allows faster cross pollination of ideas, taking innovations from one sector and applying them to the other.

This compliments the already existing functionality that will be ported to the new platform, allowing us to take advantage of these new capabilities.

Collaboration with clients In the development of WaterNet Pro we’ve adopted the Agile Innovation process. This has been another step in our innovation journey - where success is derived by achieving a balance between short-term sprint goals and the long-term objectives to ensure the project delivers its intended goal.

A key aspect of this process of disruptive innovation has been collaboration. Not just with clients as we onboard into WaterNet Pro, but across our own technical and development teams. Continuous deployment also provides clients with new experiences as we evolve, always seeking forward momentum. With all stakeholders understanding the roadmap, we can plan out new features and modules, while understanding the benefit of those features, enabling us to achieve clean and wastewater goals together.

Final word So, can disruptive innovation occur?

And does it need belief and support of the business? Yes. Taking the innovation pathway will drive a business in a new direction while delivering tangible improvements to client serviceability, now and in the future. That first step can be a leap of faith, but it’s a crucial one if our industry is to meet, not only their regulatory targets, but the sustainability goals of a resource-scarce world.

For more information, please contact, Dr. Joe Sanders: joe.sanders@rpsgroup.com

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CDENVIRO

CDE ANNOUNCES GLOBAL VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM FOR THE WET PROCESSING INDUSTRY CDE, the industry-leading manufacturer of wet processing equipment, has announced plans to host a virtual trade event for the materials wet processing industry across the globe.

Continuing its Engineering Insights education series, the major two-day virtual event will take place on October 14–15.

Across the two days, CDE experts, together with a host of guests and industry figures, will facilitate a series of dynamic, educational and informative presentations and panel discussions covering multiple sectors, including sand and aggregates, construction and demolition waste recycling, industrial sands, mining, and wastewater. The company believes this shared approach is a better way to aid the progression of the industry.

Hosted live, the discussions will be facilitated across multiple different rooms and stages, each aligned to international time zones with some dedicated languages seminars for greater accessibility.

Interactive Q&As will conclude each session and breakaway networking chat rooms will offer attendees with the opportunity to discuss the insights and connect with leading industry experts.

Exploring the topic of construction, demolition and excavation (CD&E) waste recycling, CDE’s Head of Business Development for Reco, Eunan Kelly, will lead discussions about the role of CD&E waste material in the sustainable city agenda, as well as a technical review of the CD&E waste recycling process, an appraisal of the end-use markets, and a review of legislation for the use of CD&E recycled materials.

In the mining sector, topics covered will include improving operating economics and profits across different minerals including gold, diamond, iron ore, and mineral sands, transforming tailings into high-value product, sustainable mining, and tailings management.

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For quarry operators, the two-day event will feature discussions about the benefits of wet processing compared to crushing, how to maximise profitability through water and energy savings in washing operations, manufactured sands, unlocking hidden value in quarry by-products, and more.

Experts in the industrial sands sector will discuss the topics of sustainable silica sand operations, the demand and challenges in the industrial sands market, contaminants removal, opportunities for materials processors to diversify into industrial sands, sustainable frac sand processing, and more.

The programme also includes panel discussions and presentations focusing on municipal wastewater management, challenges to wastewater solids separation, and the pressures on infrastructure due to growing urbanisation.

Tony Convery, Managing Director at CDE, said: “In these unique and challenging times there are many restrictions that have

prevented CDE, our customers, and others in materials processing from coming together at industry events to discuss the prevalent issues of the day and latest technological advances.

“This is why we’re excited to announce our two-day Engineering Insights programme as a way to bring the insights to the industry and our customers, wherever they are based.

“Over the course of the two days we’ll be hosting live discussions in multiple languages and facilitated simultaneously across different time zones so we can engage with our customers and attendees in real time to look at challenges in the market, processing innovations and applications, and indeed the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Registrations is free, but places will be limited for some roundtable and seminar sessions. For more information about the event or to register, please visit cdeglobal.com/vevent.

ENGINEERED FOR

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Our mobile screening and classification systems recover and dewater solids from tank cleaning residues such as rag and grit from digesters, making it easier and cheaper for our customers to dispose of. Recovered grit can be reused in backfill, pipe bedding and landscaping applications creating new revenue streams.

ENGINEERING

INSIGHTS VEVENT - 14-15 OCT 2020

Register now for our Engineering Insights Virtual Event at: cdenviro.com/vevent

ENGINEERED FOR YOU. #CDEv2020 instituteofwater.org.uk

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HYDRO POWER - IS IT INNOVATIVE - A CASE OF HAVING YOUR CAKE AND EATING IT?

The main constituents of an impulse turbine – Strata Florida Pelton wheel and jet deflector

Being truly innovative within the water industry (especially potable water) is difficult. With the constraints around stringent process control, water quality, risk to customers minutes lost all needing to be addressed.

by Huw Scourfield

Hydro Engineer Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water So, is hydropower new? Certainly it is not – it originated with the Romans, in the form of Archimedes screws, water wheels, developing into its present form – with Francis/Pelton/Turgo and Crossflow turbine types from the 1800s. Cheap (or at least relatively cheap) energy has seen many installations mothballed, sit unused and forgotten. So, what has driven the readoption of this simple and reliable energy source? Quite simply – cost Vs income.

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While Feed In Tariffs have reduced the cost of many supported technologies (PV, Wind and Air source chiefly), the same cannot be said of Hydropower. In general, the problem with Hydropower is that to work effectively, each scheme must be bespoke, and designed to fit the flow and pressure available, as well as the constraints of the site, so each installation requires specific design actions, along with the design for general installation.

However, the feed in Tariff or FIT has substantially increased the income, at least for the 20 years each scheme will

be in receipt of the payment. Along with this, the increasing use of Dissolved Air Filtration (DAF) plants to remove colour at the front end, breaking the head of water and requiring re-lift pumps to push the water into the first stage filters has presented the ideal opportunity.

The basics The equation for power output, although relatively complex can be simplified due to water having a specific gravity of 1 to Power (Watts) = Pressure (also known as head) X Flow X Acceleration due to gravity (9.81) X efficiency. So for example, one of

FEATURE: INNOVATION the early installations carried out by United Utilities on Welsh Water’s Strata Florida water treatment works would have the following numbers: Head 185m X Flow 100l/s X 9.81 X .75 = 136,114Watts or 136kW The really great thing about a water treatment works of course is that they generally run continuously, so with a small correction for machine availability (.95 is an accepted value but it does vary). We get an annual expected generation in kWhours, which we can assign a value to, based on Feed in Tariff payment, offset of imported power from the grid, and one or two other marginal payments. The not so obvious, but also worthy of mention benefits are reduced wear on pressure reducing valves (PRV) and flow control valves which would previously have been reducing 180m head down to near zero. So, we can add the annual rebuild, and in some cases replacement costs to the benefits side of the argument.

Finally, there is another benefit, which has come to the fore in more recent times – namely Carbon reduction.

Making it all work Even the most efficient, reliable and well-designed installation will sometimes fall over. The conditions and stability of the power supply network has a bearing on this, as well as site load disturbances and a thing called the G59 regulations imposed by the Electricity Distribution Network Operator (DNO). This defines the sensitivity of the generator control system to the quality of the power on site and out on the supply grid. Early versions of these regulations saw very tight controls on the settings of the G59 relay – in simple terms they were very sensitive, detecting a disturbance and instantly taking the generator offline. But recently the balance of power has changed from the steam driven rotating generating plants towards these “embedded systems” (embedded as in in the wider grid, as well as on sites such as treatment works). Recent Grid disturbances, where a power station has gone offline has caused the embedded generators to trip, dropping the Grid voltages to critical levels, thus beginning a “domino effect”.

National Grid, in conjunction with the DNOs have recognised that making embedded generators less sensitive actually can help sustain the Grid. Quite simply, generators

A1960’s turbine in the process of being refurbished will now be required to modify the “G59” relays to allow longer running when a disturbance is detected – this is ostensibly to beef up the supply, but it would seem that the benefits would also be felt at the generator, with fewer “G59 Trip” events.

Avoiding plant disturbances during generator “trip” events During any design process, there are some “must have” characteristics, and some “desirable”. With Hydro turbines on the front end of a WTW the “must haves” is absolutely no treatment plant disturbances during trips. Ultimately, if there are times when the hydro plant has a negative impact on operability, be that water quality, taking the plant offline, operator call outs – there will only be one outcome – the hydroturbine will be switched off.

To reduce the likelihood of this there are a number of tools that the designer can use: ■ Turbine type selection – the use of impulse (jet and bucket) type machines which have a free discharge into a tank.

■ Control of inlet flow via valves (known as “spear” valves) by the WTW PLC rather than the hydroturbine PLC – effectively the turbine controller has to know it has flow but doesn’t control it.

■ Jet deflectors (that are within the turbine casing and will engage during a trip) that are able to be used for an extended period.

■ Chemical dosing (flocculants, pH correction etc) that is independent

■

■

■

■

■

■

on turbine status – in other words downstream of the turbine.

Surge free operation – this is a function of the length of the water main, flow rate and valve closure speed. The parameter the designer can influence here is the valve closure speed.

A functioning bypass that can be brought into service if required – this is usually the original flow path including PRV and control valves.

If the designer has all these boxes ticked, the next group of characteristics are the “nice to have”: All WTW plant flow range covered – getting this wrong can be costly in terms of lost generation, especially if the top end of flow range is cut off.

Auto restart without intervention – the main cause of this type of trip would be a G59 Grid trip.

Monitoring of all critical parameters, with flow, pressure, output and efficiency being reported.

Provided the designer has ticked all the requirements, and avoided specifying a poor quality hydro-turbine package, the availability will be at least 95%, overall efficiency should be 0.7 or better and the WTW operations team will benefit from having reduced maintenance costs as well as a second inlet flow control element.

Generating power from a clean, renewable source for decades to come will also be a welcome side effect.

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R2M LIMITED

IMPROVING ENCAPSULATION METHODS

A 150mm cQuick² encapsulating a leaking AC collar to give a 100% live repair

Amp7 requires massive leakage reduction... R2M improves it’s highly successful cQuick range of encapsulation collars to help the mission.

In 2013, R2M launched it’s range of cQuick encapsulation collars aimed at 3-8” leaking joints. These would encapsulate leaking collars, socket spigot joints and were typically aimed at AC & Cast Iron.

Market interest was strong and many water companies saw the benefits of making live repairs which alleviate the need for shut off, customer’s supply interruption, flushing, sampling, chlorination, as well as the disruption that a shut off causes to the network by provoking ongoing leaks.

The savings were substantial and came from almost every angle of our industry.

R2M’s Technical Director Will Garrod was there at the start of this, ‘we had strong sales and to spread the message, we attended as many jobs as possible to take pictures for case studies’, but that direct

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From then on, site visits had become feedback collecting visits and the requests for changes had ranged from longer lengths, less bolts, to wider tolerance ranges.

and other repairs that were subsequently leaking’. Then came a raft of minor improvements that the feedback had gathered, ‘we added stainless steel hex headed bolts, but with brass nuts so they didn’t have the binding problem stainless steel fixings often have. We also improved all the seal grooves so the seals couldn’t displace during tightening’.

Whilst it was difficult to decipher which improvements could be realised and which would realistically improve all customers experiences, a theme was emerging, ‘wider tolerance range would improve the real world sealing reliability’ says Will, ‘we achieved that with a different seal profile and softer compound’. If wider sealing tolerance was available, then more pipe types needed encapsulating, ‘we increased the encapsulation cavity to cover flanges

All of these improvements added up to an easier to fit and seal product, that could be used on a wider range of leaks and outlast the pipe they are attached to. All great steps forward, but are the R2M cQuick² encapsulation collars finished now? ‘no,’ says Will, ‘customers still want them to be lighter, easier to handle, maybe made from re-cycled PE, maybe less bolts. Until the collar jumps out of the van, fits itself and then makes the engineers a coffee, its not finished’.

exposure to the market gave R2M way more in the form of feedback. ‘we quickly realised that our lovely finished product, could be improved in so many aspects’.

R2M cQUICK

2

ENCAPSULATION COLLAR SPECIFICATION W max

R2M’s range of cQuick encapsulation collars offer a quick, light and viable solution to making a permanent repair of leaking AC collars, CI socket spigot and any other leak which falls within the OD tolerance (i.e EF couplers etc). All installations can be made under live conditions without the need to shut off the water, re-pressurise, chlorinate, sample etc and with no disruption to customers supplies.

The cQuick² has a larger 15-18mm tolerance so will capture DI pipe also as well as having a larger encapsulation cavity which can also cover leaking flanges or compression couplers. All are 16 bar rated and can be installed using only a 24mm socket and torque wrench.

The EPDM Sealing system, full fusion bonded epoxy coating and Stainless steel fasteners ensure a long service life and a permanent repair.

L Body

cQuick2

cL

Pd Min Pd Max

15-18mm tolerance Encapsulation Collar.

16 bar rated with cavity large enough for collars, socket spigot bells and flanges.

DN

Range (Pd Min / Pd Max)

Encapsulation Cavity Inside Diameter

Encapsulation Cavity Inside Length (cL)

OAL (L)

Weight

3” / 80mm (New cQuick2)

83 - 100mm (formerly 93 - 102mm)

210mm

300mm

434mm

26Kg

4” / 100mm (New cQuick2)

112 - 130mm (formerly 120 - 129mm)

235mm

300mm

434mm

32Kg

6” / 150mm (New cQuick2)

170 - 186mm (formerly 175 - 183mm)

318mm

318mm

433mm

39Kg

8” / 200mm (New cQuick2)

228 - 245mm (formerly 229 - 239mm)

345mm

318mm

433mm

41Kg

For more information contact R2M Limited. Call on 01282 778030, or visit our website www.r2mltd.co.uk Copyright © R2M Limited 2020. Unit 6 Metcalf Drive, Altham Industrial Estate, Altham, Accrington, Lancashire BB5 5TU. instituteofwater.org.uk

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ENSURING VITAL LEARNING IN WATER CONTINUES

Water industry training programmes have had to undergo a transformation to ensure essential learning continues during the coronavirus pandemic.

by Ceris Van de Vyver

Head of Technology and Training, Isle UK As the Covid-19 crisis has proven, there is no industry more critical to public health and the global economy than water and wastewater. Underpinning it are highly skilled specialists, who are duty bound to maintain in-depth knowledge of everchanging legislation and complex technical

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standards around the supply of water, treatment of wastewater and protection of the environment.

isolated and ensuring they continue to feel valued, while maintaining team-working and camaraderie.

With fast-changing travel restrictions and shifting global lockdowns likely to impact in-person training courses for some time, a shift to virtual learning has become necessary - leading to global technology and innovation consultancy Isle creating more than 30 new courses tailored specifically for a virtual audience.

As the industry adjusts to working during a pandemic and prepares for the likelihood of future resurgences, addressing the climate emergency and tackling water scarcity must also remain priorities. Urgent steps are needed to become more sustainable, such as investing in smart, data-led technologies and accelerating digitalisation. Focusing on personal development and the upskilling of employees ready for these future roles, not only expands the capability within the business and increases its resilience, it also reassures staff that they are being invested in during an uncertain time.

In developing its Programme for Water Professionals, Isle’s training team has built an e-classroom which has already reached clients in South Africa and the UK – all whilst the course facilitator Mandhy Senewiratne, was in Australia. This ability to overcome travel disruption and connect people located in different countries is just one benefit of virtual training.

With many teams still working remotely, it also provides an opportunity to engage with employees, making them feel less

As a company that seeks out innovation for others, Isle aims to bring that spirit to its own operations and has sourced the latest digital training and conferencing tools, creating virtual courses covering water treatment, wastewater treatment, sustainability and leadership. Topics range

FEATURE: INNOVATION from catchment management, abstraction and financial regulations on the water side, to preliminary treatment, activated sludge and waste-to-energy in wastewater.

Emerging pollutants, Sustainability 101, and innovation management are among the sustainability and leadership subjects.

All courses can be tailored to individual companies.

While there are now new technical elements to consider, the main principles of virtual training are the same as in-person training – delivery is just as important as content if participants are to remain engaged and focussed. Mandhy gets people out of their seats, stretching and moving around, she asks questions, encourages conversation and debate, is creative and exuberant in her approach and makes people laugh.

Recently awarded the 2020 Environmental Professional of the Year by the Society for the Environment, sustainability is entwined into all that she delivers.

Using a training platform such as Menti. com, online courses can still be interactive, with quizzes, polls and Q&As. By keeping group sizes small – with a maximum of 12

delegates - everyone becomes involved.

can be expected.

Isle’s other services that have gone digital – such as its Technology Approval Groups (TAGs) – will see much larger groups coming together and it has to be accepted that not everyone will get a chance to speak during the event. On occasions such as these, it is particularly important that all participants have an opportunity to leave comments, ask questions and give feedback afterwards and for their input to be acknowledged.

Workplaces are unlikely to see a complete return to how they were before; training budgets may be cut as financial implications of the crisis begin to hit and anxiety around travel may remain for some time. At the same time, online tools will continue to evolve and expand, employees will become more confident using them and travel time and costs, such as overnight accommodation, will be saved, making virtual training and learning programmes a permanent feature for many organisations.

The same approach applies to Isle’s new open access Water Action Platform, which includes a web platform and webinars dedicated to collaboration, knowledgesharing and learning in the global water sector, launched initially to address Covid-19 challenges.

Isle is looking forward to running faceto-face training courses again, alongside the Institute of Water, but the willingness of utilities, end-users and technology developers to continue to take part and engage with each other virtually proves how adaptable they can be. Perhaps in the long-term, a greater mix of approaches to training, knowledge-sharing and networking

It is reassuring to see the water industry embracing the opportunity to interact, share and learn in new ways.

More details about Isle’s Programme for Water Professionals can be found at www.isleutilities.com/training or by emailing training@isleutilities.com Join us on the 1st of September at 12 noon for “Building your CPD during the pandemic!

‘Isle’ help you upskill” and a chance to win a free place on one of our training courses.

Isle offers a range of interactive and engaging e-classroom training courses as part of our new Programme for Water Professionals.

We also develop tailored training courses to suit your company and can deliver online or in-person.

The following courses are available now: Sustainability 16 Sept: Emerging Pollutants 11 Dec: Sustainability 101 Water Sept 22: Catchment Management

Wastewater 02 Oct: Preliminary Treatment 13 Oct: Primary Treatment 20 Oct: Activated Sludge 15 Dec: Anaerobic Digestion

“No more boring training: the course was highly interactive and there was a good balance between technical and general content. A refreshing experience!”

To register for a course or find out more please email training@isleutilities.com www.isleutilities.com/training

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MOTIVATING MATTERS

Neil Pendle argues for a new approach to tackle water inefficiency.

It’s disappointing then, that while we strive to deliver improvements in our own fields of expertise, our individual efforts to deliver water consumption savings are seemingly failing to have the desired level of impact overall, according to the latest market performance reports.

by Neil Pendle

Founder and Managing Director of Waterscan As professionals working in the industry, we naturally place a high value on water. We understand the responsibilities we all have and relish overcoming the challenges that we collectively face on the journey towards a robust, resilient and efficient supply chain and ultimately, water sustainability.

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While there’s no question of MOSL’s and Ofwat’s commitment to making the market a success and to addressing the issues that have been hampering progress, there’s an overarching matter which needs to be addressed: individuals and businesses across the UK need to fundamentally change their relationship with water. They need to understand the fragility of our supply, become aware of the risks to continuity and, most importantly, take action to reduce consumption and increase our overall resilience.

We should not forget that water efficiency was one of the main drivers for deregulation in the first place. With all the evidence pointing to increased risk of supply

shortages year on year, its importance continues to rise.

Three years into the open market, we have more transparency than ever before – an important step change in benchmarking and target setting - but data analysis and reporting alone will not achieve the desired level of change across the board.

So, what will?

Carrots or Sticks?

We have already witnessed the rollout of a multitude of market code changes, some eye-watering penalty fines, and strongly worded performance rectification plans, but it seems to me that this is all very retrospective. It’s all very well waving a stick but surely, we need more carrots?

Let’s start being proactive, looking ahead and innovating. Along with higher impact, higher frequency engaging communications that will ensure that everyone is aware of the need to value water and their specific role in doing so, we also need to encourage

FEATURE: INNOVATION and reward better behaviours. Yes, we need to instigate good old-fashioned incentives – and fast.

In my view, there are a number of measures that could be instrumental in providing opportunities for more trading parties to participate in the essential drive to water efficiency. The simplest and most effective way of promoting water efficiency is to provide these incentives through new tariff arrangements, allowances, or rebates on charges.

Here are some possible approaches to incentivising action: Speed-up AMR take-up. Smart meters are a welcome innovation to the market and, where customers want to take the initiative and invest in AMR technology, wholesalers should provide incentives to assist them.

Moreover, their approach should be aligned across the whole market (there is no reason a pulse cable costs more in one region than another!). The incentive could be delivered through wholesaler tariffs on the understanding that any data collected is freely available to wholesalers through a portal linked to the Central Market Operating System (CMOS) and this could be a condition of installation. This data would then provide further insight into customer consumption and assist with further proactive network management.

Reward customers’ water efficiency efforts. Retailers should engage more with customers on measures to reduce consumption and one way to do this is to implement a reward scheme. Prior to any implementing any water efficiency measures, a customer’s baseline consumption could easily be established through meter readings or temporary logging devices. Measuring how much water is subsequently saved could be automated and linked to CMOS for verification purposes using the same readily available technologies. Incentive payments would be calculated using a standard rate per litre per day saved and paid in a single transaction. Such a scheme is simple to administer and requires less data to encourage prompt action but would have market-wide impact as it is available to all retailers and customers.

Prioritise leak detection and repair.

Our own meter reading programme continued to be carried out consistently this year despite the challenges due to

Covid-19 lockdown. Alarmingly, we recorded a significant level of low-level usage at apparently vacant premises during this time, signalling a sizeable leakage problem.

Wholesalers need to work with retailers to find and fix external leaks and reward customers through extended allowances for leak rebates. The advantage of this incentive is that the allowance is returned directly to customers and will directly reduce water demand, albeit for the short-term.

The allowance could be put in place for a short period, say six months, to encourage customers to commission further leak detection and other audit services and stimulate the water efficiency market.

Reduce customer demand. A catchment approach is essential to provide customers with greater understanding of the specific risks and resilience of their water supplies and the treatment and disposal of their wastewater. Unfortunately, most risk data is not accessible for use in planning water reduction strategies and this needs to be addressed. By making the data open source and easy to access it would be possible to map supply point data and help wholesalers and retailers to target high risk customer groups by sector and region – this could be a particularly useful approach in alleviating specific catchment water stresses. Changing customer behaviours and operations would need to be incentivised via rebates.

For example, car wash operations in supermarkets and petrol filling stations could agree to amend their opening hours and new tariffs could be introduced that limit their opening hours to off-peak, while flow protection devices could be installed over the summer to eliminate night time flows.

Joining the Dots All of these schemes can be quickly implemented for short-term water savings as well as longer term impacts on driving down consumption to sustainable levels. They require no changes to market infrastructure, no new technologies and marginal up-front investment, but the future dividends would be considerable and long-lasting.

I appreciate that they are by no means the complete solution, but incentives like these will contribute in a meaningful way to deliver significant improvements to the customer experience and to the protection of our water supplies. Of course, this can only be achieved if we have a strong foundation based on transparency, consistency and joined-up thinking that flows through the water marketplace from wholesaler to end user. With this in mind, I welcome and support the development of bilateral arrangements and further data openness. www.waterscan.com

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HWM GLOBAL

IS THE UK REALLY A WET, RAINY COUNTRY? According to the ‘Great British Rain Paradox’ report published in June this year, 77% of the British public agree with the statement that “the UK is a wet, rainy country”.

The report, which is supported by the Environment Agency, explains that not only do the majority of the population think that the country is wet and rainy, but only 14% of people believe that it is very likely that we will experience water shortage issues over the next 25 years.

East England, one of the country’s most populated areas.

However, this perception is wrong according to Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, who explains in the report that while we have periods of intense rain (February 2020 was the wettest month on record), “climate change is also causing long spells of dry weather that are putting our water resources under increased pressure”.

2019 was the second-hottest year on record globally, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), topped only by temperatures in 2016.

This stance has been echoed by the National Audit Office in their Water Supply and Demand Management report which explained that, due to climate change, daily demand for water in England and Wales will rise almost 30%, from 14bn litres to 18bn litres by 2050.

Should temperatures continue to rise, the world would inevitably become drier, which would impact on fresh water supplies.

Warmer air holds more moisture than colder air (up to 7% per degree of warming according to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation), meaning as temperatures rise, more water is taken from the earth’s surface by evaporation.

Greater evaporation rates would negatively affect water stocks in reservoirs, leading to more incidences like Day Zero in Cape Town, where the city was at real risk of completely running out of water.

There is also a concern that, 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

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While this all might seem like a long-term problem with plenty of time to solve, the effects of climate change are already being experienced in the UK and worldwide.

“The decade that just ended is clearly the warmest decade on record” explained GISS Director Gavin Schmidt when announcing the 2019 figures. “Every decade since the 1960s clearly has been warmer than the one before”.

In the UK, the spring of 2020 (March-May) was the sunniest on record, with 626 hours of bright sunshine recorded (the previous highest was 555 hours, which was set in 1948). May 2020 was also the driest on record for England and the second driest in Wales, with both experiencing on 17% of the average rainfall for the month of May. But climate change is just one factor in the fight against water scarcity, with another key element being sharp increases in demand. According to the Great British Rain Paradox report, the average person uses 143 litres of water per day, which is up from just 85 litres in the 1960’s.

in the demand for water as people wash their hands more, stay hydrated and use more for DIY in their homes and gardens”.

“On average, water use has risen between 5 and 10% since lockdown began, but we’ve seen peaks of up to 20%, which is unprecedented for this time of year”.

Water companies in the UK, and internationally, understand the threats to their networks and are investing heavily in infrastructure to meet the challenges posed by climate change and increased demand.

The importance of access to clean water has only been amplified during the current Coronavirus outbreak. As the basis of cleanliness and hygiene, water is playing a vital role in the fight against the virus and ensuring access to it is imperative.

Effective leak detection, provided by advanced products such as PermaNET SU, is helping to dramatically reduce water loss, supporting ambitious leak reduction targets and ensuring a consistent supply to customers.

During some of the warmest days in May 2020, Anglian Water pumped an additional 200 million litres to homes across the East of England. Discussing this demand, Paul Valleley of Anglian Water explained: “since lockdown began, we have seen an increase

As the NAO report highlights, reducing unaccounted-for water is essential in fighting water shortages. Investment in leak detection is an excellent way to combat future water scarcity and help secure the stability of supply.

PermaNET SU NBIoT-enabled correlating leak noise logger NBIoT and 2G telemetry for future proofing and transition ‘Tilt alarm’ when device is removed or tampered with Full Correlation with Time Synchronisation

Advanced leak detection technology not only helps to reduce unaccounted-for water, but also supports the fight against water scarcity

www.hwmglobal.com instituteofwater.org.uk

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JOINING INDUSTRIAL AND ACADEMIC DATA TO SOLVE REAL WORLD CATCHMENT PROBLEMS Catchment management is key to protecting our water quality, resources and environment.

Southern Water strives to develop new and innovative ways of working to protect our natural resources, an ambition which has led to collaborations with a partner across our region.

by Rebecca Kennedy & Sarah Purnell PhD In 2020, Dr Sarah Purnell of the University of Brighton’s Centre for Aquatic Environments (an innovative and interdisciplinary research centre), published ‘Metaldehyde prediction by integrating existing water industry datasets with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool’, based on research completed in collaboration with Bluewave, Southern Water’s in-house innovation function. (Purnell et al., 2020)

Figure: Spatial distribution of slope class (%), soil hydrologic group (A= high infiltration rate, B= moderate infiltration rate, C= slow infiltration rate, D= very slow infiltration rate), agricultural land cover, average precipitation (mm/year) per sq km, and simulated median and maximum daily soluble metaldehyde transported out of the reach per sq km of agricultural land cover for the main tributaries of the Medway catchment, Kent, UK.

Metaldehyde is a synthetic aldehyde pesticide used globally in agriculture for the removal of molluscs. It’s highly stable in water, can be mobile in the environment and is difficult to remove from drinking water through traditional pesticide removal technologies such as granular activated carbon. Catchment management is generally considered to be the most appropriate control method to prevent the pesticide from reaching source waters. Knowing where the highest risks for metaldehyde sources are, is, therefore, important to ensure effective strategies can be built. Being based in the south east of England means Southern Water has world class research institutions with access to rich data sets and academic expertise in close proximity. This, in combination with our existing data and in-house skills, presented an exciting opportunity for a collaboration.

The research project we embarked upon used the open-source Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a catchment-scale hydrological model, to build a transferable model to map and predict incidents of aquatic pollutions, initially focussing on metaldehyde in

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the Medway River catchment in Kent.

The project brought together many disparate sources for data, including

water industry, publicly available and purchased licenced data sets.

FEATURE: INNOVATION The developed model was used to predict metaldehyde concentrations under a number of simulated scenarios: at sites with no observational data, under projected rainfall levels and after targeted catchment management. The accuracy of the simulations found a good standard of calibration and validation for flow and metaldehyde load. This resulted in successful simulation of the timing of metaldehyde peaks. The project concluded that whilst improvements could be made with greater availability of data, the model performed well; even when data collection wasn’t targeted towards modelling studies (for example, the intended use being for monitoring and reporting) and points for calibration were limited.

Since this project finished in 2017, Southern Water’s approach to managing metaldehyde in our catchments has moved on and advanced as new data and methods have emerged over time. Our catchment approach is now wider and more defined, with partnerships across our region. The benefits of the collaboration with University of Brighton still live on, however. We have defined relationships

Metaldehyde pellets

and work extensively with our local universities.

the University of Brighton, which continues to this day.

This was our first project with the University of Brighton and it has helped shape how we work with institutions across our region, along with creating a long-term collaboration between Southern Water and

Reference: Purnell, S., Kennedy, R., Williamson, E. and Remesan, R. (2020). Metaldehyde prediction by integrating existing water industry datasets with the soil and water assessment tool. Water Research. 183 (116053).

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 OPEN

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ATI UK

THE ‘SMART’ APPROACH TO BIG DATA As data analytics and collaboration are increasingly becoming key priorities within the water industry, ATi UK’s Technical Performance and Data Analyst, Derek Leslie, and Black & Veatch Water Europe Principle Consultant, Andy Bates, discuss embracing the power of data for the future of smart water networks.

Across England & Wales, there are over 340,000km of water mains and over 620,000km of sewer and drain systems.

These underground assets are critical to the sustainable future of the water industry, yet this infrastructure is aging and all too often its underlying condition is unknown. As part of the industry’s plans to manage yesterday’s infrastructure using tomorrow’s technology, water professionals are becoming more motivated to look for intelligent, resilient and effective solutions to meet tough targets.

In an effort to reduce operational costs and improve asset lifespans, water utilities are putting their data to work. But while smart water offers untold solutions, utilities are still working to understand how to gather, manage and analyse this information in a way that it can alleviate ongoing asset management challenges. This will require a ‘smart’ approach, one driven by data, new technology, collaboration and management of infrastructure, producing actionable insights to enable the water industry to become truly ‘smart’.

Collective Technical Expertise Change is already happening, but we need to think big, start small and act fast.

Water utilities, consultants, technology companies and hardware and software specialists are already collaborating on smart water innovations. By leveraging big data, analytics and the Internet of Things, key players in the water sector are proactively innovating to help solve issues of water scarcity and address the aging water infrastructure. Put simply, monitoring water quality helps identify and determine current issues and guides future investment, including predicative maintenance and analysing data in real-time to identify leaks that affect water usage.

In addition, skilled, technical analysts are required to understand and interpret the data, with expertise in how to operate

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the systems accordingly to identify issues and how to resolve them. If smart water is to become a success, these skills need to become the norm.

Data To Decisions It is now widely accepted that the only sensible option for the future of the water industry is to prolong the life of assets, using investment in a very sparing, targeted and sustainable manner to get the very most for your money. And there’s only one way to get to this kind of new paradigm, one essential element that underpins all decision making – data.

Whether you are looking at physical condition data, readings from sensors or hearing the predictions of an AI system, there is an inevitability of the transition to a digital ecosystem. With the right sensing technology and analytics, asset performance can be greatly improved and life extended – but only if you have the correct focus on “data to decisions”.

And this is the crux. Understanding and interpreting this data is essential if we are to achieve true smart water.

Sufficient, accurate and timely data needs to feed backwards and forwards from different departments to optimise treatment, cost, protect assets and predict the future, whilst avoiding issues in the present. In order to gain insight into these analytics, companies

need to open up the data to allow sharing with partners, or risk getting deselected from the supply chain.

Digital Innovation & Transformation By embracing this digital transformation, water utilities can perform preventive maintenance on existing infrastructure, cutting maintenance costs, reducing water loss, driving down incident risk, enabling indepth incident analysis and preventing sewer overflows. Data analytics are allowing water utilities to unlock operational efficiencies, improve revenue collection, gain system insights, boost customer services, provide early warning and monitor quality issues affecting customers, whilst guiding longrange planning and investment strategies.

The right data, analytics and decision framework can drive water utilities to optimal performance.

We are now on the cusp of something very exciting and digital innovation will be the key to success and survival, enabling organisations build a connected workforce, modernise operational processes and deliver enhanced customer service.

Smart water is changing the water industry as we know it and embracing digital transformation is not only enabling utilities to address today’s unprecedented challenges, but also to invest in the future.

Enhance your decision making with data analytics, from the leaders in smart water quality monitoring.

ATi UK’s data hub delivers accurate, smart water quality data analytics to support evidence-based investment in networks.

Taking water quality data from our Network Monitoring range of intelligent solutions, our in-house team of experts extracts deeper, real-time insights on pipeline networks, allowing customers to enhance operational efficiencies and enabling us to better meet their needs.

By utilising these insights, customers can identify leaks, improve operational tactics and make informed investment decisions, leading to greater outcomes and removing the guesswork from planning and investment.

Become data rich and knowledge smart, with water quality analytics from ATi UK.

sales@atiuk.com / +44 (0) 1457 873 318 / atiuk.com ATi UK is a leading provider of engineered, analytical sensor monitoring solutions for water and gas applications and data analytics. Our pioneering and industry leading range of Smart 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

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EMPOWERING A MARKET - EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT SELF GOVERNANCE

The introduction of the water retail market just over three years ago fundamentally changed the way the industry served business customers.

by Adam Richardson

Market Design Director, MOSL With the launch of the market came the creation of a framework of market codes, with new obligations, new processes and a new emphasis on industry self-governance.

Like other utilities, industry self-governance allows wholesalers and retailers to drive amendments to the market rules. And, through the market codes Panel and its committees and sub-groups, industry expertise is a cornerstone of decisionmaking.

Overall, the water industry invests considerable time and resources into

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the governance of the market. This is significant. Robust, efficient and effective governance sets the tone and environment for a well-functioning market. It enables all interested parties to have a voice, whether they’re a majority or a minority, making it easy to engage to ensure the best possible decision-making.

and committees, I have recognised the significant impact governance arrangements can have on markets.

As it moves through its fourth year, the market faces many challenges.

Common features of effective and efficient governance include active participation, equitable and inclusive engagement, clear accountability, transparency, responsiveness, and consideration of strategic vision.

Ofwat’s State of the Market report highlight ongoing market frictions including poor data quality and inefficient wholesalerretailer interactions. At our annual CEO Forum in November 2019, the primary issue of concern raised by attendees related to metering. The market rules (and associated code documents) are often cited as being too complex. And these concerns are set against wider matters such as the need for greater water efficiency, and the clear and significant challenges created by COVID-19.

Governance is important Reflecting on my time at ELEXON, the electricity market operator for the balancing and settlement code, I have been involved in utility market governance in one way or another for the past 20 years. In that time, working with various market code panels

Effective governance is fundamental in enabling the change and innovation that is needed to tackle wide-ranging, strategic challenges and deliver a successful market.

Poor governance can exclude stakeholders (or disincentivise their participation) and may lead to inefficiency or duplication of effort.

Resolution of market frictions can be inhibited by ineffective or inefficient governance. Conversely, efficient and effective governance can facilitate earlier resolution of market pain-points with associated benefits for customers.

Governance considerations in other utilities Extensive work in other industries (notably

by Ofgem, BEIS and the Competition and

FEATURE: INNOVATION Markets Authority) has indicated that effective governance is a pre-requisite for an effective market. The energy market investigation conducted by the CMA in 2016 concluded that issues with code governance and the influence of incumbents in this governance was a key inhibitor in the development of the gas and electricity markets. Subsequently, Ofgem and BEIS have been considering the future direction of market governance. In summer 2019, they noted that:

■

“The rules governing the energy system need to adapt much more rapidly to enable the transition towards a more flexible energy system with net zero emissions, while minimising costs and protecting consumers. Reforming the code governance framework could, therefore better facilitate strategic changes in the sector, unlocking innovation and significant benefits to consumers.”

In order to deliver the strategic outcomes for effective code governance, Ofgem and BEIS outlined four areas of reform: 1. Strategic direction: ensuring the regulatory framework is forward looking and is informed by the Government’s vision.

2. Empowered and accountable code management: ensuring the strategic direction is delivered through appropriate changes to codes that are progressed in a clear and logical manner.

3. Independent decision-making: re-balancing decision-making towards arrangements that are agile and responsive to change and work in the interests of existing and future customers, where the right incentives drive the design of rules and systems, while continuing to draw on industry input and expertise.

4. Code simplification: simplifying codes, removing unnecessary content, to improve accessibility and ensuring they are suitably adaptive to a changing industry to enable innovation and lower barriers to entry (by making codes clearer, more transparent, and accessible).

Recent Governance Improvements Over the last twelve months, MOSL has worked with the market codes Panel to streamline and improve aspects of governance in the non-household water market: For example; ■ There is now a customer representative

■

■

with voting rights on the Panel to increase the voice of the customer in decision-making.

The Panel voting rules have been simplified, with a simple majority plus one now required to pass votes. This has replaced the previous high bar which required almost unanimous (or in certain circumstances unanimous) support for a vote to pass and has encouraged more active debate and participation, enabling more decisions to be passed.

A new ‘Urgent Change’ mechanism has been introduced to enable urgent matters to be dealt with appropriately and changes to be prioritised against documented criteria.

This summer we also appointed two governance experts to deliver the dedicated secretariat service to the Panel and its committees as outlined in our 2020/21 business plan and consistent with the Governance theme of the plan, we have proposed changes to improve clarity and accountability across the governance of the market and MOSL: We have separated the roles of the chair of the MOSL Board and the chair of the market codes Panel. This creates a clear distinction between the two, formally combined, roles with the Panel now being responsible for the appointment of its own chair.

At our recent AGM, members supported resolutions to update and modernise our governance under MOSL’s Articles of Association. This included streamlined member voting procedures, provision for the appointment of a senior independent director and amendments to provide continuity and good practice in relation to the composition of the MOSL Board.

Reviewing Market Governance As outlined in our current business plan and our recently published strategic architecture, we are now taking forward a wider review of market governance.

This work will take account of feedback we have received regarding various aspects of governance.

It includes consideration of: 1. whether existing market governance can adequately address strategic issues; 2. whether governance and decision-making is sufficiently focused on customer impacts; 3. whether assessment and implementation of tactical change is too slow to drive improvement, or too fast to appropriately

engage industry experts; and 4. whether the Panel is operating efficiently and effectively, including how it engages with its stakeholders.

The review is a key focus for the Panel and we are working closely with Panel Members in delivering this work under a new Panel workstream.

Code Simplification In parallel with the Market Governance Review, together with the Panel, we are looking at the market code documents themselves.

This Market Codes Review will consider the clarity and structure of the market codes (i.e. the rule books). It will seek to simplify the way obligations and processes (“the rules”) are captured in the current market documents. By making the rules easier to interpret, easier to navigate and easier to change, indirect costs associated with code complexity can be reduced.

Looking ahead While more challenges lie ahead, I have been impressed at the way our industry has tackled the issues raised by COVID-19, demonstrating an ability to work positively, collaboratively and with agility to seek the best outcomes for the market and customers.

Technology has allowed us to come together. It has enabled greater engagement and transparency. Going forward, I anticipate this approach will become part of the “new normal” and it will facilitate greater efficiency and participation in industry governance.

It is positive that this market is asking similar governance questions to those arising in other utilities but at a much earlier stage in its lifecycle.

The Market Governance Review and the Market Codes Review present great opportunities to ensure our market governance promotes easy and active engagement and supports improvement and innovation for the benefit of customers both now and in the future. I’m really looking forward to building on our collective experiences to build best practice and empower the market through efficient and effective self-governance.

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MACKENZIE CONSTRUCTION

A PIPELINE OF TALENT: FOCUSING ON SPECIALIST SKILLS FOR THE WATER INDUSTRY Mackenzie Construction has always had people at the heart of its success and a keen focus on talent development. Sharing knowledge and skills is at the core of its latest offering – the Mackenzie Construction Training Academy.

Plans for a training centre at Mackenzie Construction began with acknowledgement of an aging workforce within the industry.

The team set plans in motion to act on this in order to safeguard the future of the business and to create positive impacts for the wider industry.

Mackenzie’s team of 60 foremen have over 1000 years’ service between them and so it became evident it was a business priority for us to capture and retain this valuable knowledge and experience.

Through support from the Workplace Equality Fund, Mackenzie Construction developed a bespoke foreman training course, seeking to create a programme that would empower and support its foremen and equip them with the appropriate tools and techniques to coach and mentor our younger workforce.

The initial programme was structured around three modules (‘Your zero’, ‘Your team’ and ‘Your legacy’) focusing firstly on zero accidents on site, secondly on coaching and mentoring a team and thirdly through empowering leadership, the ability to leave a lasting legacy through people. An approach of blended learning was taken and supported by some of the best speakers in the industry, including Eddie Woods of Karrdale and our people ambassador, Scott Meenagh.

The Foreman’s Training Course was a huge success and sparked plans for Mackenzie Construction to find more ways to support in talent development, for both young people and current staff at all levels.

Although a range of future plans for the growth of the Training Academy are under regular review in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the team have been working on the first of many opportunities for the

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centre, offering training and development to new or inexperienced teams who are working to support our projects in the water sector.

for a broad range of clients, such as Scottish Water, Aberdeen City Council and Edinburgh City Council.

Immediate team-led training sessions at the centre have been planned around the sharing of team experience and knowledge, building of core technical skills and increased confidence across the workforce, with upskilled teams able to add further value to clients.

Though Mark has always been generous in passing on his considerable knowledge and expertise with his teams, this opportunity offers a new avenue for his passion for learning and sharing skills with a wider audience at the training centre.

With the Academy in its infancy, Mackenzie Construction has prioritised an initial focus on training for specialist teams working in the water sector, with an emphasis on water quality and maintaining quality integrity and safety, whilst working on live assets.

Sessions to date have offered technical skills training on a number of critical service areas, from concrete repairs to over banding and joints work or waterproofing, in line with the core project work of our teams working across the water industry.

To lead the initial training, the team turned to seasoned Structural Foreman, Mark Keegan, who has worked at Mackenzie Construction for 15 years, delivering projects

Speaking about the sessions so far, Mark said “Although we’re just getting started at the Mackenzie Construction Training Academy, it’s been a real pleasure being able to share my experience, methods and systems of work with a group of keen staff, who have the needs of our clients in mind. It’s brilliant to be a part of developing the tremendous talent in our business and with some great feedback from the team already, I can’t wait to see their confidence and skillsets grow as we deliver further sessions over the coming months.”

Mackenzie Construction now plans to adopt this model for further training in the future with experienced Foreman, Drew Nelson, as our next in-house trainer.

STRUCT N O

STRUCT N O

• 40 YE N IO

AN EXPERIENCED, AGILE AND RESPONSIVE PARTNER IN THE UK WATER INDUSTRY UCT

ENZIE C CK

UCT

ENZIE C CK

• 40 YE N IO

S AR

S AR

• 40 YE N mackenzieconstruction.com IO

S OF MA AR

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WATER COMPANIES URGED TO ACCELERATE RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

CCW is calling for water companies in England and Wales to continue to pick up the pace in tackling the impact of climate change on water supplies, following the publication of the consumer group’s annual Water, Water, Everywhere? report.

by Karen Gibbs

Senior Policy Manager – Environment, CCWater Key findings of the report include: ■

■

■

■

Up to 14% more properties were flooded with sewage in 2019-20 compared to the previous year.

People’s consumption of water reduced for the first time in 5 years but is still 2% higher than 2014-15.

Leakage falls by 8% to its lowest level in a decade.

Customers were cut off from their water supply for an average of 11 minutes 45 seconds1.

Published recently, the report explores the resilience of water supplies in England in Wales by taking a close look at company performance in five key areas: leakage, sewer flooding, drinking water quality, supply interruptions and water consumption.

This year’s figures reveal that while the industry has made positive progress in fixing leaks, these efforts must be accelerated to meet the immediate and

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long-term pressures on our water networks.

Meeting this challenge will require water companies stepping up investment and using innovation to identify the weak points within their networks, then putting in place appropriate measures to prepare for more extreme weather events. Speeding up these efforts could prevent consumers suffering devastating disruptions to services such as sewer flooding, which occurred more than 30,000 times last year.

Last year, incidents of internal and external sewer flooding increased by 14 and 15% respectively, with most wastewater companies reporting an increase. Sewer flooding can be devastating for those having to experience it - we expect companies to be more proactive in preventing these incidents from occurring.

In other areas explored by the report, progress is being made, but at a comparatively slow pace. Leakage levels, overall water consumption and the length of time customers were cut off supply all decreased in 2019-20, but longer-term trends indicate that these improvements aren’t happening fast enough. Overall water

consumption has actually increased over the last five years and is continuing to do so as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown combined with an unusually warm spring and summer.

The water industry has generally coped well with the increased demand for water throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and through the recent extreme weather events, but this does highlight some of the potential challenges ahead. That’s why we at CCW have lent our support to Government and regulators’ calls for companies to act ‘further and faster’ to maintain positive progress as part of the nation’s green economic recovery.

Our regional teams in England and Wales will be working with water companies to share the insight gained from the best performers to drive improvements within the rest of the industry.

You can find a copy of the report at www.ccwater.org.uk 1 Supply interruptions are measured as the average supply interruption greater than 3 hours

FEATURE: INNOVATION Advancing the Competence of the Water industry through Virtual Learning

New 2-day course

For AMP7 Ofwat have been very clear on the importance they have placed on Innovation and their expectation of Water Companies and their partners to demonstrate their aspiration to embrace an Innovative Culture within their organisation, as highlighted in Ofwat’s UK 2050 Water Innovation Strategy.

in the Water & Environmental Industries

To support the Water Sector in meeting this challenge Learning & Development Associates have developed flexible, role-focused, bespoke interventions which will provide various backgrounds with the skills necessary to better understand the principals of Innovation at a level appropriate to their roles.

We offer our courses in either the 2-day Classroom events or through Webex based Virtual Learning.

2-day Classroom or 4 Virtual Learning workshops addressing the following Learning Outcomes:

Learning & Development Associates

•

www.learninganddevelopment.associates

•

Advancing the Competence of the Water Industry Tel: +44(0)330 111 3344

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

in the water and environmental industries • •

Understand how personal skills and behaviours

• • •

within their own role Understand how to build a successful business case Understand why good ideas don’t always lead to sustainable results

www.learninganddevelopment.associates instituteofwater.org.uk

51

Equipped to support the needs of the water sector in AMP 7 Stonbury – a leading contractor to both the water industry and water environment – continues to evolve, offering unrivalled

certification, a significant milestone in Stonbury’s journey to net-zero carbon.

Proud to be driving an innovative approach to reducing CO2 emissions along the entire carbon curve, Stonbury offers asset life extension services, green engineering capabilities and clever asset creation strategies which provide the most carbon-efficient and cost-effective new builds.

reliability, sustainability and value in their bid to

Suceeding Stonbury’s industry leading annual

become the top contractor in the water sector.

Water Asset and Quality conferences, Stonbury

Stonbury has confidently adapted to change and continues to deliver innovative industry-leading solutions for the water sector. Offering expanded services that incorporate a caring culture and environment-conscious strategies, Stonbury is a market-leader for sustainable and cost-effective water asset management.

is currently developing plans for an inaugural Sustainability Conference for the Water Sector, intending to promote sustainability, best practice and collaborative carbon thinking among clients, consultants, and the supply chain.

BROADENING SERVICES Following a successful AMP 6 period which saw

PROGRESSING TO NET ZERO CARBON

the acquisition of Kingcombe Aquacare and the

In line with the sector’s requirement to be carbon

launch of Stonbury in Scotland, Stonbury is keen to

neutral by 2030, Stonbury has recently achieved

emphasise their capabilities in wastewater services

the Achilles-administered Carbon Emission

and green engineering projects, in addition to their

Measurement and Reduction (CEMARS)

excellent track-record in potable water.

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Since the company’s nationwide expansion,

clear decision-guiding values, Stonbury’s people

Stonbury has been delivering a number of

remain fully united and motivated to drive

wastewater contracts, particularly across

quality and value for clients.

Scotland as well as catchment works across the South of England.

In an effort to become a top employer brand, Stonbury has aligned itself to the Purpose, Vision

In addition, Stonbury recently secured a five-year

and Values by expanding the remit of their People

framework with Yorkshire water which covers

and Culture team, replacing their Health and

specialist works on water-retaining structures,

Safety policy with Safety, Health, Environment and

including refurbishment and repair works to

Wellbeing to add focus towards integrity, respect

wastewater assets, both above and below ground.

and welfare.

As Environment Agency-approved framework

In addition to these values, Stonbury continues to drive

contractors, Stonbury is excited to offer green

innovation with the use of technologies that improve

solutions that reduce both environmental impact

processes for both clients and staff. Along with their

and cost, whilst actively improving river habitats.

in-house communication platform Client Portal, virtual site-visit software and paperless site files, Stonbury

This broad-ranging expertise positions the company

has recently utilised Augmented Reality to improve

as a comprehensive solution for all aspects of water

training, communications and education.

asset management from catchment to tap.

Implementation of these values and tools has proved

ADHERING TO CORE VALUES

invaluable during the challenges of the past six

The introduction of Stonbury’s new Purpose,

months, with the company effectively modifying safe

Vision and Values (PVV) has played a significant

working practices and introducing virtual recruitment

role in a company-wide restructure to enhance

for new starters. Increasing online working for off-

the company’s caring culture and better

site staff members is expected to play a key role in

support the needs of the water sector and their

helping to reduce carbon emissions and increase

employees. By surrounding their purpose with

company-wide sustainability. instituteofwater.org.uk

53

AVK LAUNCHES INTELLIGENT, INNOVATIVE AND INTERACTIVE DISTRIBUTOR LOCATION MAP Find your nearest stockist of AVK products wherever you are in the UK. Are you a contractor or an OEM operating in the UK Water and Gas utilities market who typically buys valves, hydrants and fittings from a stockholder? If you are, it is now even easier to locate your nearest stockist of AVK products designed specifically to meet and exceed the requirements for these industries.

AVK has launched an interactive distributor map. Developed by AVK and hosted on the UK website, the map is available on any device, with no login required. The map is just one element of AVK’s programme to make the customer journey as simple and effective as possible.

Simply enter the place name or postcode and the map identifies your local stockists for each AVK product range. You can find the map at: www.avkuk.co.uk/en-gb/ solutions-and-information/distributor-map The AVK sales and customer service team believes the map will be a major benefit to help customers access the wide range of products manufactured by AVK UK. Gareth Toyer, AVK UK Gas Sales Director, explains: ‘AVK UK has been successful in winning a number of utility framework contracts. The next step is to ensure framework contractors, sub-contractors and other parties are able to get the right product, as quickly as possible, wherever their project is located.

The AVK UK website is already the ‘hub’ for technical and commercial information.

The interactive map acts as the bridge between product knowledge and our distributor network.’

No login is required to access the map.

Customers simply have to choose a product category, enter their current location by place name or postcode, and the map displays the location of AVK distributors

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within a 40-mile radius. When a customer clicks on a distributor ‘pin’, they are given the distributor’s address and directions via a Google map link, with an option to email the distributor depot directly. The depot phone number is also displayed and, if using a mobile phone, you will be able to click on the phone number and speak to the distributor’s sales desk.

For proactive distributors with AVK product in stock, the map is a really powerful sales tool. Today’s generation of AVK customers have grown up in a digital world. More and more they are using the internet to access product information and place orders. The interactive map is yet another demonstration of AVK UK’s commitment to digital investment.

FEATURE: INNOVATION

Intelligent Innovative Interactive

AVK UK Distributor Location Map Find your nearest stockist of AVK products, wherever you are in the UK.

It is now even easier to locate your nearest stockist of market leading AVK products!

Developed by AVK and hosted on the UK website, the map is available on any device, with no login required.

Simply enter the town, postcode or select the product you need and the map identifies local stockists of the AVK product range.

Follow this link to start searching! https://www.avkuk.co.uk/en-gb/solutions-and-information/distributor-map

www.avkuk.co.uk

@AVK UK Ltd

@avk_uk

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IDEXX

UK RECOGNITION FOR LEGIOLERT®

IDEXX Legiolert® Receives UK “Blue Book” Acceptance for Legionella pneumophila Testing in Waters and Other Environmental Samples.

The Legiolert culture testing method, developed by IDEXX to identify Legionella pneumophila, has been accepted by the UK’s Standing Committee of Analysts (SCA).

Legiolert, for the accurate analysis of samples from cooling towers, hot and cold water systems, spa pools and a variety of other water sources, is now specified as a recommended method in the Committee’s “blue book” publication “The determination of Legionella bacteria in waters and other environmental samples (2020) – Part 2 – Culture Methods for their detection and enumeration.”

Legiolert was launched in Europe by IDEXX in 2017 and is a highly sensitive method for the confirmed detection of Legionella pneumophila in water, delivering results up to seven days faster than traditional culture testing methods. Legionella pneumophila is the most common Legionella species in

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water and according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control clinical culture data, causes 97% of all cases of Legionnaires’ disease.1 Legionnaires’ disease is deadly for about 1 in 10 people who contract it and often causes long-lasting symptoms for survivors.

A number of peer reviewed studies2-5 have highlighted superior performance of Legiolert when compared to the standard method for detection of Legionella pneumophila. The ISO 11731 has a number of limitations including a significant false negative error rate which can result in undetected contamination and consequent risk to human health, especially in the case of vulnerable populations. In contrast, Legiolert is a culture method which is both accurate and easy to use. Legiolert is also recognised with AFNOR certification for hot and cold sanitary water and cooling tower

water (Reference No IDX 33/06 06/19).

The Legiolert test is based on a bacterial enzyme detection technology that signals the presence of Legionella pneumophila through utilisation of the Legiolert reagent.

Legionella pneumophila cells grow rapidly and reproduce using the rich supply of amino acids, vitamins and other nutrients present in the Legiolert reagent. Actively growing strains of Legionella pneumophila produce a brown colour indicator.

Legiolert is the latest IDEXX method specified as a recognised method by the SCA. Others include Pseudalert® for the rapid, accurate testing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Colilert®-18 for the rapid detection of coliforms and Escherichia coli, and Enterolert®-DW or Enterolert®-E for the isolation and enumeration of enterococci.

FEATURE: INNOVATION

LEGIOLERT AGAINST TRADITIONAL TESTING PROTOCOLS The traditional plate culture testing protocol requires large sample volumes, of up to a litre. Bacteria are concentrated using centrifugation or membrane filtration, processes that may damage, or even destroy, the bacteria, making results unlikely to represent the true levels of contamination. The organisms are then re-suspended and culture plates are inoculated, then incubated for 10 days.

This long process is further extended by the requirement for a second, confirmatory test.

There are several drawbacks to spreadplate methods. Slow-growing Legionella are often overwhelmed by non-target bacteria that grow more quickly. Such plates are likely to be discarded as ‘too numerous to count’, with no indication of whether Legionella were present in the mix but not detected. To counteract this problem, the media usually contain antibiotics to improve selectivity over

non-Legionella species. However, different laboratories use different media, agar and filters, introducing significant variability. Variability has even been demonstrated between different batches of media from the same manufacturer.2 In addition, protocol implementation is very technician-dependent; for example, technicians decide which of multiple incubated plates to enumerate, and results can even vary between the same technician on different runs. With so many sources of variability, it is difficult to generate sufficiently reproducible results over time to make informed water management decisions.

The Legiolert liquid culture method removes the need for many of the laborious steps involved in the plate culture method and much of the associated variability. The agar plate is replaced by a liquid culture medium, which is much closer to the bacterium’s

natural water habitat. The Legiolert reagent is added to a 100 mL sample of water and includes the nutrients for the bacteria to grow, plus additives to suppress the growth of non-Legionella pneumophila bacteria. The reagent also contains an indicator which enables the target bacteria to be easily identified after incubation by a colour change, reducing the subjectivity of results.

Legiolert samples take between two and four minutes to prepare before they are added to an IDEXX Quanti-Tray® Legiolert, where the liquid is distributed between six large and 90 small reservoirs, sealed and incubated for seven days. The Legiolert colour indicator used for enumeration is extremely specific for the target Legionella pneumophila bacteria, thus there is no requirement for further confirmatory testing. The result is a testing protocol that is substantially faster.

For more information on Legiolert and IDEXX Water please contact: IDEXX Water UK Units 1B and 1C, Newmarket Business Park, Studlands Park Avenue, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 7ER T: 01638 676800 E: wateruk@idexx.com W: www.idexx.co.uk/water References: 1. Surveillance report: Legionnaires’ disease in Europe (Years 2009-2015). Stockholm, Sweden: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control; published 2011-2017].

2. Spies, K. Pleischl, B., Lange B., Longer, B., Hübner, J., Jurzki, L.,Luden, K., Exner, M. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health 221 (2018) 1047–1053.

Full text at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/article/pii/S1438463917306818 3. D.P. Sartory, K. Spies., B. Lange., S. Schneider and B. Langer (2017) Evaluation of a most probable number method for the enumeration of Legionella pneumophila from potable and related water samples. Lett. Appl. Microbiol.

64(4):271-275 4. Petrisek R., Hall J. (2018) Evaluation of a most probable number method for the enumeration of Legionella pneumophila from

North American potable and nonpotable water samples, Journal of Water & Health 5. Rech, M., Swalla, S., Dobani, J. (2018) Evaluation of Legiolert for Quantification of Legionella pneumophila from Non-potable Water, Current Microbiology

® Trademark or registered trademark of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries

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THE BENEFITS OF USING DRIVES ON SUBMERSIBLE PUMPS Variable speed drives (VSDs) are rarely used on submersible pumps, despite such pumps operating up to 8,000 hours per year and offering substantial energy saving opportunities.

by Martin Richardson ABB

VSDs are common in standard pump applications and rarely present any problems. In submersible pump applications, however, users are often unsure about the measures necessary to achieve the longest lifetime and highest system reliability.

There are many advantages of using VSDs with submersible pumps. In applications where there is a need to vary velocity, head or flow and with long running hours, energy savings of 30-50 percent can be achieved. Also, by matching pump output flow or pressure directly to the process requirements, small variations can be corrected more accurately than with other types of control. VSDs can also help reduce stagnant water storage in pressurised systems.

When using VSDs in submersible pump systems, users need to be aware of potential complications. But these can generally be overcome with careful planning. For instance, motors in borehole pumps can have a motor cable length from about 100 up to 300 metres and it is often necessary to fit output reactors or sine filters. These are quite effective at reducing the rate of voltage change (du/dt) and the peak motor voltage, helping to protect the motor from premature failure.

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Other potential complications include undesirable network distortion, which can occur if the VSD uses a simple diode bridge. This can be avoided by using ultralow harmonic (ULH) drives. High rates of voltage change can also lead to radio frequency interference unless special care is taken during the installation phase, as the cabling design and install is critical.

Earthing is also critical, especially where junction boxes are concerned. Specialist advice should be sought on the effect of cable length, voltage spikes, motor insulation and other technical issues like harmonics before installation.

Reduced speed saves energy Using a VSD in systems running below maximum capacity saves energy, reduces maintenance and also avoids the challenges associated with impeller trim. Impeller trim may seem equivalent to varying the speed and most pump manufacturers accept a 15 percent impeller trim, however excessive trims change the hydraulic condition within the pump. This can lead to reduction in efficiency and instability in operation.

When using a VSD and running the motor at low speed in systems with a high static head, users have to be careful not to move too close to the shut-off point, as this risks stopping the flow through the pump. This may typically happen to pumps that pump out of a tank which has a variable input.

It may be tempting to implement the very simple control philosophy of maintaining a fixed level in the tank, but this will only work if the inflow meets the minimum flow requirements of the pump. If the inflow does not meet the minimum flow requirement, the pump could be severely damaged. The way around this problem is to determine the minimum acceptable running speed of the pump and to use this as the minimum speed setting for the VSD. In some applications, reduced speed can also cause particles to come out of suspension and cause problems.

VSDs enable over-speed VSDs are generally used to reduce speed, but the drive may also be used to increase speed if there is sufficient motor power available, to help during storms, for instance. However, it is necessary to check the operational limits for the pump and the motor.

There will be a change in the noise from both the pump and the motor as the speed is changed. With higher speed, greater noise and potentially greater vibration will occur. If the pump is handling liquid containing abrasive particles, an increase in flow will result in increased abrasion and wear. With higher speed, it is necessary to ensure that the net positive suction head available at the pump is still sufficient to prevent cavitation.

Reverse rotation can cause tripping Unless a non-return valve is installed in the discharge, reverse rotation may occur on shutdown. When stopping, the column of fluid may pass back through the pump hydraulics and turn the motor into a generator, which can cause the VSD to trip.

A VSD with an active rectifier – also know as a regenerative drive - can feed the power back to the supply network. Alternatively, a non-return valve can be installed.

Avoiding critical speeds and vibration The risk of the pump or motor reaching a critical speed whereby the mechanics vibrate or resonate, increases when using a VSD. When running at fixed speed, the chance of the fixed speed coinciding with a critical speed is small. But when the speed varies across a wide range, this likelihood increases. Lateral critical speeds occur when running speed excitation coincides with one of the rotor’s lateral natural frequencies.

This can be remedied by programming the VSD to lock out certain speeds or speed ranges from the continuous operating speed range. It can also be achieved by detuning the excitation frequency, or by reducing excitation levels by improving balance

FEATURE: INNOVATION and alignment. Submersible motors in installations without rigid fixing to a base plate or foundation (e.g. duck foot bend or pipe shaft) may have a higher vibration level. This is also the case for deep well motors, where the absence of a rigid fixing leads to a higher vibration level.

Dimension according to motor plate data A VSD is a source of current and must always be selected based on the motor name plate current. Where a catalogue gives kW ratings, these are always based on typical values for conventional motors of 4 pole or 6 pole speed; these should be ignored for the purposes of submersible pumps. The kW rating of a motor is the power that is delivered at the motor shaft and not the power delivered to the motor terminals.

The current drawn from the supply is related to the kW rating, the supply voltage, the motor efficiency and the motor power factor. It is common for submerisble pump motors to have lower power factor and lower efficiencies than standard motors purely because of their mechanical design.

VSDs need better motor insulation Using a VSD enables gentle starting of the pump system, potentially extending the life of the motor. However, it is important that the motor is suitable for VSD operation.

Variable speed operation puts a higher voltage stress on the motor insulation system and it is recommended to have either reinforced insulation system or a filter between the motor and the drive. The rating of the motor insulation is of little help in this context. Motor insulation is generally only defined by the thermal capability, i.e. class B, Class F or Class H. These classes do not define the electrical capabilities of the insulation system. The manufacturer’s advice has to be sought on whether the motor is suitable for variable speed drive operation.

Automatic EMC shield Good practice installation technique involves ensuring the lowest possible impedance path on the shield connection to ground.

In submersible motors, this principle is implemented automatically as the water around the housing provides a perfect electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) shield and equalizes the electric potential of all metal construction elements.

The VSD is installed as an item of wall or floor mounted equipment, with a continuous cable running to the motor, allowing the Faraday Cage to be readily

completed. Generally, the cable length is greater than in conventional installations due to the distance between pump and cabinet. To reduce the distance, the VSD should be installed as close to the well head as possible.

With longer cable runs, it is necessary to consider the drive’s filtering capabilities.

Manufacturers recommend specific conducted emissions filters, based on tests with maximum lengths of cables. Longer cables will reduce the performance of the filter. Two basic forms of output filtering can be utilised; du/dt filters will reduce the rate of change of the voltage pulses and this will reduce the effects of long cables, although there will still be a finite limit. Sinus (or sinusoidal) filters are designed to produce a completely sinusoidal waveform, which has no distance limitation.

Remote monitoring reduces maintenance costs It is difficult to get access to submersible pump motors once they are installed and inspection may not be possible. The motors are often equipped with sensors to enable remote condition monitoring, which must operate without disturbance from the VSD. Monitoring of motor winding temperatures is particularly important, as ageing and lifetime are closely related to temperature.

Operating at 10° C above the thermal class temperature will halve the winding lifetime.

Sensors that are robust in relation to electromagnetic interference are PTC temperature sensors, thermal contact temperature sensors (bi-metal), and float switches with mechanical contacts.

In general, these sensors do not need separate screened sensor cables. Even

combined power and control cables are possible for small VSD systems.

Critical sensors which need some attention include all conductivity electrodes and Pt 100 RTD thermometers. These sensors always need a separate control cable.

Special monitoring relays with electronic filters may be necessary to suppress nuisance tripping. Combined power and sensor cables are not possible.

Vibration sensors can be problematic to use in a VSD installation. These need a separate screened control cable, as well as screened power cables. Special digital filters may be needed to eliminate high harmonics from the VSD.

Generator supply in critical applications Many borehole pumps are used in rural areas or in applications where reliability of the supply is of high importance. These are fed by generators either permanently or as a backup. Special care must be taken in this case. Maximum allowable voltage dip at starting and continuous run must be specified by the VSD manufacturer. It is also necessary to keep an eye on the harmonic content, as generators might be an additional source of, or be susceptible to, harmonics. The presence of harmonics must also be considered when dimensioning feeder cables and the generator itself. As with diode rectifier VSDs, the generator may have to be at least twice as big as the VSD rating.

Generator frequency may not be of great importance since the input voltage waveform is rectified to obtain an approximately constant DC voltage source.

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OVARRO

FINNISH UTILITY TRIALS ASSET INVESTMENT PLANNING SOFTWARE Finnish multi-utility Alva is the first in Scandinavia to trial Ovarro’s PIONEER asset investment planning (AIP) software.

The six-month trial, which started in May focuses on Alva’s water distribution network, but will also assess the potential benefits of optimal investment planning right across its asset base.

Alva serves the city of Jyväskylä in central Finland and its surrounding area and, along with its subsidiaries, generates and distributes electricity and produces, sells and distributes heat and water in the networks they own. PIONEER is a webbased decision support platform that can optimise asset management planning and operational strategies.

Kimmo Järvinen, head of Alva’s asset management programme said, “As a frontrunner in utility asset management in Nordic countries, Alva is excited by this proof of concept. The aim of the trial is to assess our readiness in terms of data; we also have an important requirement for the tool to improve Alva’s long-term, risk-based investment planning.”

George Heywood, technical director, Ovarro said, “We are very excited to be working with a visionary utility like Alva that can see the potential of our platform across

Ovarro’s PIONEER software can be used across all utility network asset types.

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The recently developed PIONEER Express interface makes it easier for operatives to use the software.

water and non-water assets. PIONEER has the potential to help the company carry out renewals across the asset base, supporting the coordination of programmes of works in power and water together, to minimise the total number of excavations.

“Alva is also our first customer to benefit from the recently developed PIONEER Express interface, which makes it easier for non-specialists to use PIONEER’s powerful planning capability. We are currently rolling it out to our existing clients too.”

The simplified functionality of the Express interface was developed at Ovarro’s data analytics centre in Reigate, UK, over the last 12 months. It is designed to be used by operatives with varying levels of technical expertise, speeding up decision-making on investment plans.

Alva’s bespoke PIONEER software environment has been deployed via Microsoft’s Azure cloud service in a very short period of time, to meet the customer’s ambitious schedule and programme of works. It can be used for all utility network asset types including potable water and heat distribution mains, sewers and electrical cabling, as well as point assets

such as pumping stations, treatment works and transformers.

Heywood said, “Given the timing, this project has not been without challenges.

Our plans to travel to Finland were disrupted by Covid-19 and training had to be provided remotely via Teams. We will continue to provide close support throughout the trial.”

PIONEER has been in use in the UK for over 10 years, with six water companies making use of the platform, including United Utilities, Southern Water and Northern Ireland Water. www.ovarro.com

FEATURE: INNOVATION KESSEL EasyCleanÂŽ Grease Separators The new Kessel EasyClean grease separators bring ease of installation, cleaning performance and energy efficiency up to a new level and are designed according to EN 1825.

Optional Sonic Control For the measurement, display and control of the grease layer thickness in a grease separator Interchangeable Inlet/Outlet Direction of flow can be changed on site by changing inlet and outlet

Control Unit With digital display for operating state and servicing instructions as well as connection option for building management system

Improved Cleaning Results Wedge-shaped bottom for extraction at the lowest point

Easier Installation Thanks to the curved shape, also ideal for retrofitting and renovation work in rooms with very narrow access

IPS Flow Systems Seaham Co Durham SR7 0PT Tel: 0191 521 3111 sales@ipsflowsystems.com www.ipsflowsystems.com instituteofwater.org.uk

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COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS – INTERMITTENT OPERATION BUT AN URGENT PROBLEM

We owe the Victorians a great debt for the investment they made in water infrastructure.

by Professor Ian Barker

Vice President Environment and Managing Director, Water Policy International But as well as constructing reservoirs and pumping stations, and laying water mains and sewers, they also left us with another sort of legacy. Not a tangible one, but a mindset that there was only one way of delivering water and sanitation services: one involving bricks and mortar, concrete and cast iron.

For sewerage infrastructure Victorian engineers saw little wrong with designing a sewer network that took both rainwater runoff as well as foul sewage (although a patent was awarded in 1868 for separate systems for sewage and rainwater it was not adopted widely). Collecting all the sewage and drainage from cities and towns, and discharging into the nearest

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river or coastal waters where it would be flushed away by the river flow or the next tide was the norm. And in order to ensure that the sewerage network didn’t become overwhelmed during periods of intense rainfall they developed the concept of overflows to spill as necessary, into whatever watercourse was handiest.

growing public concern about the health and environmental impacts of discharges from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO’s), and from storm overflows at sewage treatment works.

These basic principles adopted by the Victorians stood the test of time for over a century, and because the assets were generally well constructed they locked future expansion into the same system.

But times change, and today we are struggling to turn this inheritance into one which is fit for purpose for the future – or indeed, for the present.

Two reasons have generated this concern. The first is increased interest in wild swimming, paddleboarding and kayaking, and in the health of the water environment, which has resulted in increased scrutiny of river water quality, both chemical and bacteriological. The second is greater understanding thanks to the availability of information about the duration and frequency of CSO spills as water companies fulfil their regulatory obligation to better understand the behaviour of their sewerage networks.

Perceptions of acceptability change with greater public awareness and changing attitudes. For many years leakage has been an Achilles heel of the water sector (and still is) but recently there has been

The expectation is that CSO’s should only discharge in exceptional circumstances, to relieve the sewerage network when it is at risk of being overwhelmed by intense rainfall. In theory, during such events foul

FEATURE: WASTEWATER NETWORKS/SEWER FLOODING sewage would be substantially diluted by the rainfall, and the discharge would be made into a river in spate. However, the reality is that as our climate changes and we see more and more locally intense storms it means that the receiving rivers may not have a flood flow, and the impact of CSO discharges therefore is more significant. And groundwater fed rivers, such as the Chalk streams of southern and eastern England, typically respond sluggishly to rainfall and may even be dry when the CSO is discharging.

The impact of the chronic, regular pollution from frequent CSO discharges can lead to aesthetic and environmental degradation in the receiving watercourse, fuelling criticism of water companies and regulators, and hindering progress towards Good Ecological Status under the Water Framework Directive. In addition, greater public awareness has grown about the risk of bacteriological contamination from CSO’s, and as more river reaches start to be proposed as inland bathing waters the same level of investment will be needed as has happened to protect coastal bathing waters from CSO discharges. Much of the

good performance in bathing water quality can be attributed to CSO improvements – showing what can be done where there is good information, a high level of public and regulatory support, and adequate funding.

In July this year The Guardian reported that 6508 inland CSO’s in England released sewage 204,134 times in 2019, for a total of 1.53 million hours. The discharges are monitored by the water companies, and more than 60 a year (or 40 where there is three or more years of data) should trigger an investigation by the Environment Agency. For many commentators this bar is set too high (how can rainfall events 40 or more times a year be deemed ‘exceptional’?) and the process of analysis, investigation and rectification takes too long. They want to see immediate improvements.

In the meantime the industry’s reputation is suffering, and trust in its ability to protect rivers from pollution is declining.

Although the newly introduced Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans will help to address the lack of current and future capacity in sewerage networks and

increase their resilience, and will help to reduce the amount of rainwater ingress, the level of future investment needs urgently to overcome decades of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ operation. The traditional view of CSO’s is that they are a three way balance between flood risk, the environment and cost to bill payers, which to date has led to a highly targeted approach to dealing with only the grossly unacceptable ones.

Climate change, housing growth, public awareness and reputational risks are shifting that balance and increasing the urgency of ensuring that drainage networks are fit for the future. Better monitoring is starting to show the scale of the challenge, and how the water industry and regulators respond to this challenge will be crucial.

As part of its consultation (19 August 2020) on the Environment Bill the UK government has said that it will consider developing targets (for England) to reduce the impact of CSO’s. It would be better if the problem were sorted before the government felt that the problem was so acute that it needed to intervene.

NEW LOW COST COMPACT 80 GHZ LEVEL SENSORS Extended family for water and waste industries VEGA introduces the latest FMCW 80 GHz non-contact radar level technology for the water industry – using their very own radar level microchip, to deliver excellent performance and a low price that represents a real alternative to ultrasonic level sensors.

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

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Benefits include: ■ Strong focusing - smooth measurement right down to the bottom ■ No dead zones - measure up to the sensor, ideal when there is limited head room

Low power and fast start up - for remote sites, datalogger and telemetry operation Handles build up – enables longer reliable 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

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EGREMONT GROUP

DIGGING DEEP. HOW TO MANAGE INTERNAL SEWER FLOODING

Internal sewer flooding (ISF) can be disastrous for water companies and their customers.

For the individual resident the effects of an event can leave a home uninhabitable. step these up, further putting pressure on water companies to ensure every possible procedure is in place to avoid ISF happening in the first place.

Dean Wheeler from Egremont Group and James Harrison from Yorkshire Water set out below three practical ways to reduce unnecessary costs incurred from the hefty penalties charged for ISF incidents.

Get the basics right

by Dean Wheeler Egremont Group

and James Harrison Yorkshire Water

For the water company the financial penalties are understandably eyewatering.

The new AMP7 regulations look likely to

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Make sure that maintenance across the sewerage network is proactive, carried out correctly and on time. Too often the pressure of budget cuts can lead to a focus on short term wins rather than the bigger picture. Occasionally this results in relaxing the schedule so much that the maintenance of vital assets is missed altogether.

Dean Wheeler advises “If the engineers

focus on reacting to fires rather than blowing out the candles the results could be devastating further down the line.

It is far better to maintain the assets regularly than to uncover years of poor maintenance once an ISF event, and subsequent penalty, has occurred.”

Right first time, every time Promoting a culture where success is equated with the number of jobs done in a day will never be helpful in the long run.

Particularly if there is no accountability for how well the job is done. By taking the time to fix the problem properly rather than patching it up quickly to tick it off the job sheet, will save the workforce from expensive repeat visits in the future.

James Harrison from Yorkshire Water explains: “By examining maintenance schedules we discovered that half of all of repeat visits took place two weeks after

FEATURE: WASTEWATER NETWORKS/SEWER FLOODING the initial work was completed. We quickly realised that while spending more time fixing the initial problem properly would mean more operator time spent up front, this cost could be quickly recouped by removing the extra operator time spent attending the repeat visit. Plus, we would avoid the large regulatory penalties every time a sewer floods internally and the reputational damage with our customers caused by a repeat incident.”

Dean Wheeler adds: “Further data analysis at Yorkshire Water of a particular area of the network revealed that 73% of repeat visits were coming from just 47 properties in one estate. These repeat visits could cost up to £55m over the course of AMP7.

By deep diving into the data proactively the team identified where investment is needed in the infrastructure to fix a recurring problem early and ultimately save money across the course of the AMP.”

Centralising the Knowledge In 2019 Yorkshire Water insourced their non-civil sewerage activity in readiness for the new AMP. This was also combined with an upscaling of the non-civils fleet and a large recruitment drive bringing in employees who were new to the industry. This created the challenge of how to integrate a new and inexperienced workforce into an upscaled frontline operation.

James Harrison explains the problem: “The challenge laid down by the regulator in the most recent AMP performance levels means that water companies need to invest across the asset base. New recruits require a specific skill set which is not readily available in the market, making the recruitment process slow. We quickly realised that we would need to utilise the skills within our existing team if we were going to meet the regulator’s targets while onboarding new team members to boost our workforce.”

At Yorkshire Water, the management brought together a team of experienced sewerage engineers, who normally worked independently of each other, and based them in a centralised office location.

New field engineers were able to draw on this centralised resource while out on the job, utilising video technology to relay any issues back to HQ. This way the new engineers were able to fix more problems in the field at the first attempt, knowing

that they had the reassurance of a second opinion. Dean Wheeler comments: “The Yorkshire Water team immediately saw results. At the end of the pilot the team achieved a 50% reduction in repeat incidents and a 55% reduction in followon work.”

James Harrison concluded: “By drawing on an experienced and centralised team, in real time, our new workforce received their training on the job rather than learning theory in an office. Hands-on experience started immediately, backed up by our existing team who could virtually oversee the work of a far larger number of new engineers. We found that this worked much better than traditional methods and we are able to continue servicing our network while training new staff.”

Creating a Centre of Excellence for field maintenance teams has been a useful blueprint for Yorkshire Water. Initially rolled out across maintenance to aid in ISF, it has been taken up by the planning and scheduling teams. In these times of

social distancing this method has enabled the business to share the experience held by the entire workforce, without being physically present. What started as a single team of six people working five days a week, is now 20 people working seven days a week with plans to replicate the team across a number of different departments.

Lessons for the future Summing up, Dean Wheeler said: “Rather than dealing with ISF after the event, taking the time to assess previous incidents to establish a pattern can lead to proactive maintenance schedules which will fix the issue before it becomes a major incident. Drawing on the existing experience within the team and deploying them from a Centre of Excellence is best way to train the volume of new staff needed to satisfy the new AMP7 regulations.”

ISF is not a new problem, but finding new ways to deal with it can be the difference between happy or irate customers and avoiding serious financial penalties.

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Glenfield Invicta Delivering Project Solutions

NEW AND EXTENDED PENSTOCKS RANGE FROM GLENFIELD INVICTA

In isolation, a penstock is a simple sluice or gate that controls the flow of fluids in open environments. In reality, as any water engineer will tell you, specifying, building and installing an effective penstock is a challenging exercise.

Imagine for a moment you are the engineer responsible for the safety and performance of critical assets. You, and your procurement team, have to appoint a company to specify, design, install, commission and maintain vital penstocks. In an ideal world, what would that company look like?

You would probably look for a penstock specialist, a company with a proven track record in delivering successful penstock projects, large and small, over many years.

Choosing a novice would be a risk.

by Alex Philo

Glenfield Invicta, Business Development Manager Penstocks

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However, you’re only as good as your next penstock, so you would look for a company with engineers that understand penstock engineering from first principles.

The ability to deliver a design that is specific to your location and requirements is a must have.

You would probably be concerned if different companies were designing, manufacturing and installing your penstock: unnecessarily complex. You would probably look for a company that can deliver from start to finish. A company that employs its own specialist penstock installation teams.

You would want to be sure that the company you choose is going to be around for many years to come. They would ideally have a track record of financial stability with the resources to accommodate whatever shocks the economy throws at them.

FEATURE: WASTEWATER NETWORKS/SEWER FLOODING You are going to have to work closely together, so you would probably look for a company which can show a track record of partnership in delivering penstock projects.

Finally, in an ideal world you would probably want the company you choose to have an office close by. Even in a virtual meeting world, nothing beats talking through a project face-to-face.

Welcome to Glenfield Invicta. The company you (probably) would have designed.

A company with over 160 years of penstock experience; a company with a team of penstock engineers that have delivered an unrivalled portfolio of penstock projects; a company with directly employed installation teams; a company supported by the resources of the AVK Group; a company with offices throughout the UK; a company that believes in partnerships, in sitting down with you and getting things right.

We are launching our new and extended, market leading, penstock solutions offer, and we would welcome the opportunity to talk through this with you. Our mission is to provide you with the optimal penstock engineering and installation solution on every project.

Here at Glenfield Invicta, we recognise the need to keep learning. We will shortly be opening our 120,000 sq. foot, (that’s almost 3 football pitches) Kilmarnock Learning Academy, visitor centre and manufacturing and distribution centre, where we will share our penstock know-how with you and hope that you will share your expertise with us.

Visit www.glenfieldinvicta.co.uk to download the brochure or to discuss your penstock project please contact: Alex Philo Glenfield Invicta Business Development Manager Penstocks T: 07876 860319 E: alex.philo@avkukprojects.co.uk

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UNIVERSITY OF BATH

BIG DATA GOES DOWN THE PLUGHOLE TO FIGHT FUTURE PUBLIC HEALTH THREATS

Scientists at the University of Bath’s Water Innovation and Research Centre are developing new ways of monitoring public health at home and in low-income countries by analysing wastewater.

Rising antimicrobial resistance and fastspreading epidemics like Ebola and the Zika virus are well-publicised threats to global health. Now, scientists at the University of Bath’s Water Innovation and Research Centre (WIRC @ Bath) are working out how big data and wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) could help combat these issues and keep people around the world healthy.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated in 2016 that antimicrobial resistance (also known as AMR or drug resistance) is a major threat to health and human development.

AMR is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.

Now, studies being carried out by WIRC @ Bath staff could point to how wastewater monitoring could contribute to fighting both

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AMR and the spread of aggressive epidemics by reducing the level of pharmaceuticals reaching wastewater treatment works, and creating an early warning system aimed at safeguarding public health.

Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, Professor in Environmental and Analytical Chemistry, is based in the University of Bath’s Department of Chemistry and is a member of its Water Innovation and Research Centre, WIRC @ Bath. Prof Kasprzyk-Hordern says that instead of monitoring the health of individuals through blood or urine samples, more can be learned about a community’s health at a ‘birds eye’ level when wastewater is monitored.

Doing so over wide geographic areas and in long-term studies will give public health bodies new tools in understanding a population’s health, the risks it is facing, and the possibility of developing early warning systems to highlight potential threats before they become crises.

She says: “We have been studying for several years how water systems form a critical part of the public health landscape.

“It’s thanks to this that current research focused on safeguarding people’s health both in the UK and internationally is progressing rapidly, on several fronts.”

ReNEW – developing early warning systems in urban wastewater systems A project managed jointly with South Africa’s Stellenbosch University seeks to develop an early-warning system to quickly highlight emerging public health issues in the Stellenbosch area. Following a year’s study of the underlying geographic conditions and seasonal variabilities, the team is now using state-of-the-art tools to target more than 200 biomarkers, including genes, proteins and chemicals that help paint a picture of local community health.

Prof Kasprzyk-Hordern says: “We hope that monitoring of selected biomarkers over long periods will speed up the evaluation

FEATURE: WASTEWATER NETWORKS/SEWER FLOODING of public health status, prediction of future crises, and development of mitigation strategies for rapid- or slow-onset hazards, even before they manifest characteristic end points, such as death in the case of pandemics.”

By engineering new integrated sensors for on-site monitoring and building a big data approach to modelling markers within the urban water system in Stellenbosch, the team hopes that urban water profiling can provide real-time responses when certain biomarkers are detected and reduce the burden on public health worldwide.

Urban water fingerprinting Developed from a Europe-wide study that used wastewater sampling to determine levels of illicit drug use in cities, Urban Water Fingerprinting (or UWF) is a recent concept in water science.

Anyone working in the water industry will know that urban water is complex and ever-changing.

A mixture of substances, it includes a wide range of human excretion products, all of which have different levels of exposure

to stressors (e.g. toxicants and infectious agents) and physiological processes (e.g. specific disease-linked proteins, genes and metabolites). The quantitative measurement of these residues continuously pooled by sewerage systems can provide evidence of the quantity and type of chemical, biological or physical stressors to which the population is exposed and can profile the effects of this exposure, anonymously, at low cost and in real time.

Results of UWF studies so far are very promising and therefore it is anticipated that use of the technique will become more widespread. UWF capable of collating and analysing long term datasets has the potential to unravel complexities behind key 21st century public health issues focused on non-communicable and communicable disease epidemics which are rapidly spreading globally.

For example, only one daily urban water sample is needed to evaluate more than 300 biomarkers that can determine the state of community-wide health for a community of 100 thousand people, served by one wastewater treatment works – or in lowerand middle-income countries, disposing

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directly to the local river or open sewer.

If undertaken every day for a year, changes in public exposure over time, as well as infectious disease spread and the appearance of new pathogenic strains, could be surveyed for the whole community at a relatively low cost. As yet, such a tool does not exist. However, KasprzykHordern says that if developed, it would have the potential to vastly improve health outcomes, provide quality-of-life benefits and reduce cost of healthcare globally.

“Most importantly it could benefit all community members, irrespective of their socioeconomic status,” she adds.

Further work is critically needed to develop a system that is recognised internationally to influence regulatory and political decisions both of localised importance (e.g. air pollution in urban areas or infectious disease spread in low resource settings) and at an international scale (e.g. antimicrobial resistance).

Several aspects – including accurate measurement of population sizes, work into identifying biomarkers and crucially the development of low-cost sensors, require further investigation.

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

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FLUSH TO TREATMENT Anglian Water announce new local trial to understand the extent of unflushables blighting its sewer network after spending millions to clear around 40,000 blockages a year.

Anglian Water engineers are embarking on a new trial to clean and clear an entire length of sewer pipe to help raise awareness of the issue and complete an in-depth study into the volume of unflushable waste that ends up in the sewer network. Ben HatfieldWright, Anglian’s Water Recycling Networks Efficiency Manager explains more: “Blockages are a real problem right across the Anglian Water region. The wrongful disposal of food waste, wet wipes or other products can lead to flooding or pollution to the environment. We spend £19m every year to clear 40,000 blockages – around one every 15 minutes – on our network, of which 80% are completely avoidable.

Some assets such as pumped sewers (rising mains), specific lengths of sewer and non-return valves are designated as critical because of the risk posed by blockages on their performance. These assets require regular maintenance and we describe this as PPM (Planned Preventative Maintenance) which is carried out to a defined schedule.

We also carry out high pressure water jetting of smaller pipes because our data tells us that they are at greatest risk of blocking, as well as high water jetting of our large trunk mains.

Out of the 300 sewer catchments in our region, 12 of them make up 80% of our workload as repeat offenders for blockages.

That’s why we’re embarking on a trial called ‘Flush to Treatment’ starting on a single stretch of ’problem pipe’ on Canvey Island.

Every day we’ll clear the sewer between local homes through to the water recycling centres, taking out waste and weighing it to understand the extent of the issue, identify areas that are at a greater risk of blockages and raising awareness with the local community through our Keep It Clear behavioural change programme.

This Flush to Treatment approach will target certain areas we class as ‘high risk’ for blockages but also gives us the opportunity to check our pipes and check the network is working as it should and identify future needs for investment.

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It will also provide our engineers with the opportunity to identify unmapped pipes, find misconnected drains and update our records. Improvements to our data further adds to our ability to create better models for pollution prevention in the future.

This initiative forms just one part of our recently published ‘Pollution Incident Reduction Plan’, which outlines the holistic approach the we’re taking as a company to tackling pollution incidents across the region.

As a provider of water recycling services to almost seven million people across the east of England, we have a clear-cut duty to safeguard our environment. One of the most important contributions we can make is to ensure that our activity does not contribute to environmental pollution Because fatbergs and unflushable blockages ultimately cause flooding to people’s homes and pollutions in the environment it’s key that we work with local communities to highlight the risks of flushing the wrong thing.

Caring for our environment is fundamental to the way we operate at Anglian, so much

so that our commitment to protect it is woven into the fabric of how we operate as a company. In 2019, we became the first major utility to change our Articles of Association to enshrine public interest for the long term, going beyond the services we provide day to day.

Once the work is complete, we will be studying the volume and type of debris from within the wastewater system and looking at measures to ensure they can run at full capacity. The CCTV camera surveyance will also allow us to ensure that the sewer is in good working order and allow us to mitigate any future pollution risks.

The completion of the trial will also allow us to evaluate whether we have carried out the process in the most efficient way and whether we have been successful in reducing the risk of both internal and external flooding, and environmental pollutions.

It’s a fantastic opportunity - and one we seldom get on this scale - for us to have a closer look inside our network to really see what is going on, allowing us to accurately predict and inform further work on our network moving forward.”

FEATURE: WASTEWATER NETWORKS/SEWER FLOODING

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ASSET MAINTENANCE REQUIRES PLANNING FOR GOOD ROI Generally, obtaining buy in from the water industry for OEM planned maintenance programmes has always traditionally proven to be a formidable task, as many water companies place the emphasis on capital expenditure rather than maintenance, with the temptation to rely on inhouse staff to carry out general maintenance tasks.

However, it is becoming clear to several water companies that the number of staff required to carry out such tasks safely, make them difficult to plan for. Maintenance staff within the water companies are often spread thinly territorially, so getting them together in one place for a day or several days at a time can prove to be difficult.

OEM service contracts may not always initially look attractive to the UK Water Industry, but, given the increasing pressures to achieve compliance with equipment that is becoming ever more complex, and the demand on staff who are becoming stretched even more thinly, service contracts can be proven to make good business sense and help increase the return on investment of the initial outlay.

Eliquo Hydrok have been manufacturing water treatment equipment for more than 25 years, historically the technologies had previously been supplied to clients without the expectation for any form of servicing requirement. With the development of the Integrated Fixed-film Activated Sludge (IFAS) and Fixed Bed Diffused Aeration (FBDA) process treatments, plus the Mecana tertiary filtration systems, it became clear that offering a service and maintenance package would essential for the client Water Companies, and would provide additional reassurance that the product would meet its forecast, expected life span.

Many Eliquo Hydrok clients who purchased equipment stated that maintenance would be carried out by their in-house personnel, they have subsequently found that, even after the training supplied by the OEM, the tasks have proven time consuming, less efficient and costly. This has led to a recognition that reverting to the OEM for service tasks is not only desirable, but in some cases, imperative. Leaving valuable assets to deteriorate as evident

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Mecana unit before cleaning in the images shown, can not only result in potential damage to the equipment, but also result in the failure to comply with discharge permits. Once serviced, the units are returned to good working order with minimal disruption to the treatment process.

As a solution, Eliquo Hydrok have spent time and investment developing a service team format that allows a service package to be offered requiring minimal input from the water company whilst offering maximum efficiency in the maintenance process.

Having teams carrying out the tasks in line with Reliability Centred Maintenance is cost effective. The Eliquo Hydrok teams are proficient in these tasks and able to reduce the down time required of the assets.

After cleaning Eliquo Hydrok teams are fully equipped with all the required plant including critical spares in purposefully fitted vehicles. This allows for replacement of parts during annual servicing that have or imminently due to fail thus preventing plant downtime and reactive maintenance and once on site the only external requirement is wash water from the client. The use of petrol driven cleaning equipment ensures that our teams are selfreliant even on remote parts of the site, the task can be achieved without further input from the clients.

The cost efficiencies mean that the water companies can concentrate their resources on the day to day tasks required to keep the plants running, leaving the equipment OEM to specialise in the tasks that they understand.

Using the OEM service teams, who are trained and equipped to carry out the task, also reduces the requirements for the temporary supply of specialist equipment such as pumps and pressure washers

For further information or to discuss your requirements contact: Jim Prout, Service & Maintenance Manager, 01726 861900, jamie.prout@eliquohydrok.co.uk

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A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES TO MANAGE SURFACE WATER

Potential to intercept the surface water flows through an increase in Green Infrastructure whilst putting place at heart of the design. (Image Courtesy of susdrain)

alternative futures that we might be able to learn from and consider in the plans and strategies we create.

Technical Director at Stantec and Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield

As a water industry, we have historically thought about managing wastewater and stormwater in our future urban drainage systems in a traditional manner. This is particularly the case when it comes to making and delivering intervention choices, even recently choosing grey infrastructure over sustainable drainage. We often react to problems rather than risk (probability and consequence of something happening).

We tend to accept (intentionally or by default) the significant uncertainties that exist about the future and the data and tools we use to predict it, because that is what we have always done.

At the start of 2020, our world changed, with some devastating consequences.

However, it also provided us with an opportunity. A chance to see some

This in many ways is understandable.

We need to make decisions and intervene.

Furthermore, the tools and practices to understand the performance of urban

by Prof. Chris Digman

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drainage systems with their multiple variables and interactions with other systems creates complexity – far greater for example than when investigating a river system.

Combined with these challenges, we know the future is not reliably predictable as we have recently seen. No single view of the future will be true. Yet our decision making is often linked to a simplified view that assumes a level of precision which is commonly misinterpreted as accuracy.

We have seen the requirement to create more resilient water systems being driven by government and regulators in recent years. And now following the devastating economic effects of COVID19 there are calls for an acceleration in green investment and greener, more sustainable outcomes.

In July, Defra, Environment Agency and Ofwat wrote to the Water Companies requesting ‘how they can assist with increased green investment?’.

FEATURE: ALTERNATIVE FUTURES Could the water companies bring forward future investment or identify areas of extra investment? What an opportunity to encourage and enable change – as long as this investment is not needed immediately.

This is because many organisations will truly struggle to fully implement resilient approaches very quickly because of cost and integration challenges that take time to overcome particularly in drainage networks when creating greener and more adaptable interventions.

So, before we explore what that might look like, what broad observations can we draw from the recent effects of and response to COVID19? We have endured a period of lockdown and we are now adapting to a period of rule changes. But this period provides a unique opportunity to consider the future opportunities to manage flows in urban drainage through a future lens.

During the early weeks of lockdown, there was a level of peace and stillness created which is rarely witnessed. Whilst this created obvious challenges it brought some significant other benefits. Roads were empty, cars didn’t move and became expensive exhibits outside houses. We saw a big improvement in air quality. There was an apparent urge to undertake more exercise. Access to green space and the natural environment took on greater importance. Could this be a viable future in 10 to 20 years, even if not so extreme?

More people working more frequently from home, lower car ownership, autonomous vehicles. Imagine the effect this would have on the required highway space.

A future opportunity?

So, what could this mean for managing surface water? Well firstly there is potential to offset the forecasted increase in rainfall from climate change by reducing the amount of rapid runoff from the hardstanding needed for our car-based transport system. This surface reduction and subsequent creation of space enables the greater use of green infrastructure to manage the runoff from those remaining surfaces. The triple win then comes by providing such green infrastructure that creates far wider benefits to people and the environment that could importantly help with people’s mental health and wellbeing.

During the lockdown and now different phases of recovery, we have seen a change in behaviours where large parts of

communities acted and behaved differently.

Now, we should not compare this year and effects created by the COVID19 directly to the impact of flooding and pollution.

However, should we not believe there is real potential to work with communities and recognise that they can be part of the solution to do something different on an individual and community level – even related to stormwater? This should not only relate to interventions in public spaces creating multiple benefits but imagine what we might be able to achieve by working with citizens to implement micro-initiatives on their property – often such a difficult area to intervene.

We as a water industry need to push for, consider and help shape what community investment in green interventions look like. There have been pilots, small local projects and research, completed and ongoing that have started to consider this. A recent research project to kick off is the MAGIC (Mobilising Adaptation –Green-blue Infrastructure through Coproduction) project at University of Sheffield, investigating what will bring communities to the table to participate in being involved in not just the design but implementation and management thereafter. The lessons from this and other projects will help pave the way for more local interventions.

A wider observation of the effects of COVID19 really highlighted how changes in one system then changes another.

Therefore, to really ensure that current and future investment provides the socioeconomic and environmental benefits for the long term, our approach to infrastructure delivery needs to evolve.

We can no longer continue to operate in silos if we are to create common benefits for communities whilst making wise investment choices.

Considering and planning for changes in other sectors outside of water will be needed to create more overarching investment plans. We can see strong linkages between multiple systems both within water (water, wastewater, stormwater) but also in the transportation, energy, health, and housing sectors. By looking outside of our systems, we also have the chance to think and start to account for what is certain, and uncertain in the future. We can create adaptable

plans that will cater more for external influences and enable smarter infrastructure spending choices.

To become more joined up, we need to look at our approach to systems integration, embracing and engaging the planners and operators of other systems to identify and deliver joint outcomes. The challenge for now is that good integration and cocreation takes time and importantly trust.

Relationships need to form and build. Cocreated programmes of work that balance investment and critically the timing of that investment will be necessary across different systems. However, we cannot afford to put this off. The result maybe interventions that take time and patience but will create multiple benefits and are flexible and adaptable – along with the investment frameworks to support this.

Within the water industry we have some opportunities to build on. Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans can provide part of the strategic platform to kick start this. Key aspects including getting the engagement right and truly applying a long-term lens to drainage thinking, should help provide a foundation for subsequent co-creation. Strategically they may not yet reach and integrate with the other systems partially or fully – but they do provide the opportunity to create the basis for good decision making and place making.

However, they themselves would need to become more cross connected. But could this be a particular opportunity for the UK Water Utilities AMP8 programmes onwards if we get the planning right in the preceding AMP7 programmes?

Many of the same challenges and aspirations that were present at the start of the year remain now. For example, tackling the climate emergency and journeying toward net zero Carbon. In the last few months, we may have seen the potential and ambition to do something differently, that will result in a cleaner, healthier and long-lasting environment for future generations. This should not though rely on doing things the same as in the past.

Whilst we all hope that we will not have the opportunity to learn from a repeat of another severe bout of COVID19, we should reflect on the learning and chance it has given us to effect change for the future, planning for uncertainty.

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SELWOOD

LITTLE EATON RIVER INTAKE Severn Trent Water’s Little Eaton Water Treatment Works is a vital facility that helps provide clean drinking water to Derby and the surrounding area at a rate of up to 80 megalitres a day – more than 900 litres a second.

The river intake at Little Eaton has several large pumps which supply water from the River Derwent to the treatment works.

Selwood customer nmcn – formerly known as North Midland Construction – was commissioned to replace the mechanical screens which usually prevent debris from the river entering these pumps.

To enable the removal of the existing screens while maintaining an uninterrupted water supply, nmcn called upon Selwood’s pump rental specialists to overpump from the river to the rising main pipeline that feeds the treatment works.

The Challenge Because the works were taking place within the water inlet area, the only available space to position the temporary pumps was on the riverbed itself. Once in position, Selwood’s team needed to connect them the existing rising main in a lower level of the main pump building.

The only access to this building was through a standard-sized door – so the task at hand was to install a pipe large enough to meet the required flow, but small enough to fit through the door and connect to the existing 600mm pipework.

The Solution Selwood’s team chose the Sulzer J 604 ND 10” pump for the job, because of its ability to provide the 231 litres per second required at over static head. Friction losses needed to be kept to a minimum because of the oversized pipework being used.

A total of five of these pumps were used – four duty and one on standby – to achieve a total flow of 924 litres per second.

The pumps were installed on the riverbed with fish basket strainers to prevent fish and other items entering the works. They were then attached to 12” outlet pipework “risers”, a distance of approximately 15m.

Once on solid ground this pipework was manifolded first into 500mm pipework,

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to a flowmeter which enabled the team to check the flows provided), and then through the doorway into the pump building.

from the river bank would be enough – but it became apparent during installation that a distance of six metres out what required to sit the pumps securely.

Once in the building the pipework was immediately enlarged to 600mm for a distance of 15m to reduce any friction losses. This larger pipework was attached to the existing rising main via a non -return valve on the lower level within the pump room.

A 30-ton crane was used to install the units and for any lifting outside the building. An existing gantry crane was used for internal lifting.

The Delivery The riverbed was uneven, with large rocks and logs present, which meant there was an element of trial and error in the placing of the pumps.

As the water level was high during the site survey and scoping work, Selwood’s team had presumed a distance of three metres

Time Installation took 4 days to complete.

The project is due to commission and start pumping on 3/6/20.

The Outcomes NMCN were able to complete the work replacing the screens on schedule, while the Selwood pumps ensured an uninterrupted supply to the Little Eaton water works.

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FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN TO FAIL – THE IMPORTANCE OF EMERGENCY PLANS

The flooding at Mythe works (2007), the Freeze/Thaw event in Northern Ireland (2010-11) and the cryptosporidium contamination at Franklaw works (2015).

by Steve Youell

Head of Emergency Planning & Security, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water Three of the largest impacting events in the sectors recent history have one thing in common; the response to each event was based around a sound approach to incident management and a set of well-rehearsed emergency plans.

Such plans are invaluable in an emergency and their very existence is enshrined in law.

In England and Wales, Section 208 of the Water Industry Act (WIA) 1991 gives the Secretary of State and Welsh Ministers the authority to issue both general and specific directions to water undertakers in the interests of national security or to mitigate the effects of any civil emergency. Similar legislation is also in place for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 outlines further responsibilities with regards emergency preparedness as water undertakers are designated Category 2 responders. Under the Act, Category 2 responders liaise with Category 1 responders (e.g. emergency services and local authorities) to co-ordinate and co-operate in multi-agency planning frameworks.

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These are managed at a local level through Local Resilience Forums (LRF’s) which are based on individual police areas.

The principal direction issued under section 208 of the WIA is the Security and Emergency Measures (Water and Sewerage Undertakers) Direction 1998 (SEMD). SEMD states that water undertakers are required to have, keep under review and revise plans to ensure the continued provision of water supplies, in the event of operational incidents, threats to national security and/ or natural disasters. These plans should be supported by sufficiently trained and experienced personnel, appropriate emergency equipment and analytical services.

The last few years have certainly seen companies having to utilise their emergency plans in order to respond to a number of severe weather events. In 2018, the UK was hit in quick succession by Storm Emma and the Beast from the East which brought about a subsequent Freeze/Thaw event. This was then followed by a prolonged period of drought due to the hot summer period.

And whilst the focus during 2020 has been on reviewing and implementing Business Continuity plans in response to Covid19, emergency plans were once more required

during February as the sector responded to further severe weather events as Storms Ciara and Dennis hit the UK in quick succession.

In Wales, whilst Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water was able to survive Storm Ciara relatively unscathed the damage caused by Storm Dennis to the company’s infrastructure was arguably among the worst ever experienced over such a short period. Within the UK, South Wales saw the highest red level of severe weather warnings for rain, with south-east Wales and Herefordshire particularly badly affected.

On the waste side of our business we were temporarily unable to access 26 treatment works, the largest being Llanfoist near Abergavenny and Eign near Hereford, as well as 18 pumping stations. Eleven sewer pipe bridges had also been completely washed away.

But it was the town of Monmouth where our main emergency response was centred. As the River Wye increased in level, peaking at seven metres depth, we took the decision to evacuate our Mayhill water treatment works due to the rising water which left much of the electrical and mechanical equipment at the works inoperable.

FEATURE: EMERGENCY PLANNING To ensure we were able to maintain a piped supply to the 7,400 affected properties supplied by Mayhill, we commissioned our largest ever mobile tanker fleet to either direct inject water into the distribution network or to supplement the supplying service reservoirs. At its peak the operation had over 50 tankers mobilised including welcomed support from United Utilities, Severn Trent Water, Yorkshire Water, Bristol Water, South West Water and Water Direct who provided tankers and personnel through the Water UK Mutual Aid scheme.

Whilst supplies were being maintained in the pipes, we proactively delivered bottled water to our vulnerable customers on the Priority Services Register throughout the incident. We also made the decision to deliver a pack of bottled water to all affected consumers in the area as a precautionary measure and to help with minimising the use of the piped supply.

To ensure we provided a continued presence within the town during our response, two mobile customer care vans were set up in key locations to allow residents to ask questions and provide reassurance. As it was half-term, we were also allowed to use the local schools to set up the three bottled water distribution stations.

Our communications team were very active over social media, with numerous posts aimed to reassure consumers of the measures we were taking. This included during the initial phase of the incident, the tankering efforts, provision of bottled water and also several short videos with our CEO, Peter Perry. As the work at Mayhill progressed, we then kept consumers informed of the different restoration stages until the works was back in supply.

The Gwent Local Resilience Forum (LRF) had set up a Strategic Control Group (SCG) to coordinate and provide a multi-agency response to the impacts of the Storm.

Through the SCG we were able to obtain support from the blue light services to get priority crossing over the Wye Bridge for our tankers and emergency equipment, coordinate directly with Western Power in order to get power restored to the site once it was deemed safe and liaise with the local council to ensure identification of all vulnerable customers.

The treatment stages at Mayhill works were systematically restored and the

works re-entered supply on Sunday 23 February, 7 days after it was lost to flood water. Through the combined efforts of Welsh Water colleagues, Alliance Partners, and the support from other companies, we were able to maintain a piped supply throughout. This effort did not go unrecognised by the local community as we received hundreds of positive responses from customers – on social media, posters in the streets and even A3 thank you cards sent to our HQ - particularly around the volume and quality of the information we provided during the event.

The combination of Storms Ciara and Dennis caused a month’s worth of rainfall in around 24–48 hours and as outlined above had the potential to impact the water supply to a large number of consumers which could have led to a loss of confidence in the services we provide. However, having a well-structured incident management team supported by robust emergency plans and great people, this incident is just another example of the way in which our sector has successfully respond to operational incidents, ensuring consumers remain in supply and maintaining confidence in our services.

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THE IMPACT OF COVID ON WATER UTILITIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

by Jo Parker M.B.E., CEng

Figure 1.

Vice President Engineering, Institute of Water

Water utilities in this country have had to face a number of challenges due to the pandemic.

Imagine what it must be like if you work for a water utility that is barely funded for day to day operations, let alone some of the financial impacts of Covid 19. Imagine living in a city where water is not always available 24/7 and where not every house has a piped water supply, let alone connection to a sewerage system. This is the issue which the not for profit organisation ROCKBlue (www.rockblue.org) has been dealing with.

ROCKBlue partners with public utilities in the developing world to provide affordable advisory support to executives and managers. They do this through an extensive roster of international specialists who team up with senior staff members at the utilities to support and mentor them in the many aspects of managing and financing their operations on a voluntary basis.

Their objective is to collaboratively solve the unique challenges faced by the utility, in order to provide reliable and high-quality water and sanitation services

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to urban customers. There is a clear focus on strengthening the capacity of these utilities to: ■ Secure much needed financing to extend and improve services; ■ Respond to challenges in a timely and

■

effective manner to minimize water supply disruption; Strengthen relations between communities, customers and utilities so that all can work together to ensure reliable supplies of water; and

FEATURE: EMERGENCY PLANNING ■

Enhance the long-term financial viability and durability of utilities so that services can continue well after external support is withdrawn.

Ultimately, ROCKBlue strives to collaborate with the utility until the utility successfully operates independently.

Therefore when the new challenge of Covid 19 came along, ROCKBlue called upon its experts to ask how they could help. I had been working with ROCKBlue for the last year and had developed a close relationship with the Chief Engineer of the 3rd largest city in Zimbabwe – Mutare. Zimbabwe faces financial shortages as well as sanctions which means that some essentials such as chlorine gas and pipe repair materials are hard to obtain. Generally I communicate with the Chief Engineer and his staff through Whatsapp. In spite of frequent power outages and at times very limited Wifi, we usually managed to keep in touch.

His professionalism in the face of at times seemingly overwhelming odds was always impressive.

I volunteered to put together a training course in emergency planning and business continuity using Covid 19 as an example.

This would be part of their Online Lecture Series (OLS) which ROCKBlue is managing and which is made available to staff in a number of utilities throughout the developing world. That way in addition to helping them prepare for the pandemic to hit their country they could learn a skill in which many of them had had no training.

Many African utilities tend to be constantly ‘firefighting’, too busy fighting crocodiles to be able to drain the swamp. As Europe was several months ahead of Africa in the spread of the disease I was able to use my experience and that of Institute of Water colleagues to assess the impact. I also used my experience working in operations across a number of water companies to develop the key themes for my presentation.

There are a number of BSI and ISO publications which I could use as a basis for my presentation. In particular the document ‘Crisis Management – Guidance for developing a strategic capability’ was useful with its clear structure as in Figure 1 above.

I explained how utilities should assess the situation, giving Covid 19 as the example, then prepare and once cases were identified in their country respond. I also covered the thorny issue of how to come back out of

any government restrictions which might be imposed and importantly, how they should review their plans once the risk had diminished – whenever that might be.

I also put together a package of documents available via the web of useful references and example emergency plans with the intention that afterwards the utilities would be able to write their own emergency plans.

Of course some preparations might not be quite the same as in the UK. Sorting out emergency water supplies in the peri-urban areas might not be an issue UK companies have had to consider but many issues are common, although the scale might be different. Ensuring staff can come to work to e.g. operate treatment plants is still an issue and with the lack of private cars and crowded public transport, providing emergency accommodation might be critical. Talking to suppliers and ensuring they have emergency plans was a new concept to some. A major issue was the loss of income – just as in the UK commerce has largely closed because of the pandemic with the loss of income from commercial properties. How to obtain emergency funding was covered by another of my colleagues with ongoing bulletins to ROCKBlue utilities about what donors are making funds available. Since the first webinar ROCKBlue has held another looking at the issues of managing staff which have arisen – including how to lay off staff if funding requires this. We had experts

speaking from Uganda, Mali and Croatia as well as myself, all managed from South Africa – a truly international team.

The webinars which have been run on Zoom have been very well attended and although people sometimes had problems with the internet, the technical support from ROCKBlue in South Africa was superb.

Most of the utilities partnering with ROCKBlue have prepared emergency plans and estimates of the financial impact which some of us have reviewed. These are being used to support applications for funding.

Most of the countries are now facing ‘lockdown’ with many staff having to work in rather less comfortable conditions than those which most people in the UK Water Industry enjoy. I’m sure all of you will wish them well.

If anyone is interested in joining the panel of experts then they should contact ROCKBlue at info@rockblue.org or www.rockblue.org/contact

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Z-TECH

COMPLETING THE MARATHON Another quarter has moved on and Z-Techers continue to be all out working, which is a testament to their commitment to help keep Water flowing, Power stations lighting our homes and Rail transport running.

by Luke Stanbridge

Z-Tech’s Commercial Director There’s no getting away from generally feeling that we are still in groundhog day, but as restrictions hopefully continue to ease and we enter a ‘new norm’, the key here is to utilise this time as an opportunity for reflection, both from a business point of view and personally.

Working from home is the ‘new norm’ for office based staff, it would have been just too risky to trial this mass working from home without COVID and speaking to other business professionals, it seems we are all coming to the same conclusion: that working from home has some great advantages – both for the company in office space and assets, and for the individual from travel and work/life balance. It’s also has downsides where individuals can feel isolated and this puts more emphasis on putting energy into engaging with colleagues to actively ‘checkin’ – we’ve encountered normally bubbly people not sleeping and really missing colleague interaction.

People potentially struggling were able to offer a rotation into Z-Tech offices quite early on: to spend some safe time, getting away from kids or their own company.

This really helped.

The company has grown closer together

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with the increased distance, we’re actively engaging in our internal social media, ‘workplace’: running events (see the Marathon for ‘Mind’ above, 27 Z-Techers because we like to go the extra mile!), competitions and general chat, coming together to get through it.

Remember to re-charge!

It’s increasingly easy to not take ‘holiday’ through the current situation, but by the time this goes to print we will be at least two thirds through the year and although foreign holidays don’t seem as appealing, we’ve been encouraging individuals to take some time off, even a long weekend gives you time to help re-charge, we all need a break.

Skills Gap Pressure We’ve seen an increased pressure to help our customers with supplying people, particularly for Electrical Control and Instrumentation Technicians which are in

even more demand to join water company teams and help fix things. Hopefully apprentice programmes and utilisation of Degree Level Apprenticeships doesn’t take a dip as we start to feel the economic effects of the situation, without a continued effort to fill the skills gap, training requirements will continue to slip further back. …and finally There will continue to be negative news moving forward, it’s likely we are just at the beginning of seeing the economic implications. Take stock, last years’ Institute of Water Conference was based on Disrupt, or be Disrupted - COVID has and will be a huge Disruptor, but there are a host of positives to come from this time, of questioning the way we work, play and what is really important.

If you need help, you know where we are!

FEATURE: EMERGENCY PLANNING

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Water authorities across the globe rely on our datadriven solutions to advance productivity, safety and security.

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www.ovarro.com instituteofwater.org.uk

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DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) UPDATE Over the past few months, the Institute of Water has been working hard on its DEI policy and action plan.

We are conducting a diversity survey in October 2020 following National Inclusion Week (28 September – 4 October).

Gathering data on how diverse we are as an Institute and comparing ourselves to the industry we serve will help us to understand whether our membership offering, including our professional registrations and the events we run, truly serve to support the careers of everyone who works in our industry. This will also help develop our DEI policy and action plan. The survey will be sent out via email to all members and only takes five minutes to complete.

The Institute of Water has joined over 40 other employers in making a commitment to ensure the Energy & Utilities sector workforce is inclusive and diverse by signing the Energy and Utility Skills Inclusion Commitment. A key priority of the Energy & Utilities Workforce Renewal Skills Strategy 2020 is attracting and recruiting more diverse talent into our sector which reflects our local communities. Currently, our sector is not yet representative of the UK workforce for gender, BAME, disability, and under 24s. Only 5% of the sector’s employees are from black, Asian or minority ethnic groups compared to 15% nationally; most of our workforce is male and white.

The diversity and inclusion progression framework was developed in collaboration between the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Science Council to progress diversity and inclusion across 63 engineering and science professional bodies. Following participation in this process in 2017, we are participating in the next benchmarking process in April 2021. This is a self-assessment to show the progression of diversity and inclusion and we have used this framework to shape

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our DE&I aims and action plan for the past few years.

DE&I has been the theme for some amazing webinars in the last few months.

In June, the South East area hosted a series of Women in Water webinars to coincide with Women in Engineering day including talks from various inspiring leaders from across the industry. At the start of August, Bevita Mattu from the Welsh area hosted an incredibly powerful Black Voices in the Water Industry webinar. The recording from this you can find on YouTube and I would recommend you all to watch this. Recently, we have been showing our support for Pride Month via our communications channels and will continue to support various initiatives.

The Institute of Water is committed to a policy of inclusion and equality for all its staff, members and stakeholders. We recognise the value that a diverse water industry brings to society and we are committed to promoting these benefits.

We aim to be representative of the industry we serve and to ensure that there are no barriers to membership.

More information can be found on the Institute of Water website or by contacting Sarah Murray our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Champion at sarah.murray@affinitywater.co.uk

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BRIDGING THE GAP ON GENDER DIVERSITY

Innovation Festival STEAM activities

According to WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), for the first time ever, there are now more than one million women working in core-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) roles across the UK.

by Kay Penney

Northumbrian Water Group HR Director That’s almost a quarter of the core-STEM workforce who are women and with over 50,000 of them in engineering roles (almost double the number ten years ago), it’s clear the country is making some progress towards bridging the gap on gender diversity.

In fact, in the water and wastewater sector, more women are taking up a wider range of careers in the industry than ever before, but there is still lots that can be done to make water an attractive career option for a diverse workforce.

I was delighted to join Northumbrian Water back in April last year, where I became one of five women on the company’s executive leadership team.

The sheer fact that women make up 45% of Northumbrian Water’s executive leadership

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team is testament to the importance we place on gender equality and continuing to improve the gender balance within our organisation is something I’m really passionate about.

engaging with our future workforce.

We know that tackling this issue will deliver tangible benefits for our business. Diverse teams with the greatest mix of skills, are proven to make better decisions, generate more innovative ideas and help us ensure that we can provide the very best service to our customers all day, every day.

This series of videos, shared across our social media channels and at events, highlights the careers of those amazing women across our business, from apprentices, to directors, who help us to deliver excellent services to our customers.

As part of this, we have recently recruited a new Diversity & Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager to work with people throughout in our organisation to further encourage greater diversity, including gender, and career mobility.

#WaterWomen One of the key areas of focus where we know we can have the biggest impact on gender diversity, is through our recruitment process and our NWG Academy, where we are

We launched our #WaterWomen campaign more than 18 months ago, promoting the industry as a career choice for women.

One of the videos features Aimee Hall, a Project Management Technician, who was the first of our people to film a #WaterWomen video. Aimee joined us in her mid-20s, using an apprenticeship to help get her back into the workplace after taking time out to have children.

She said: “I truly love my job. I came back to work after my youngest started school and I just felt like I needed to do something for me again. Northumbrian Water have been great. From my initial studies as an

FEATURE: DIVERSITY apprentice to working fully on the job, I’ve been able to strike the right balance between managing the demands of the workplace, with the needs of my family throughout.”

Aimee originally joined us through our apprenticeship programme, where we currently employ 10 female apprentices, from distribution technicians and flushing operatives, to production operators, data controllers and project management technicians.

We monitor the gender balance of those on our apprenticeship and undergraduate development programmes, and even though a high proportion of the roles were operational or STEM-related, we managed to achieve an overall 50:50 ratio of males to females in 2019.

Tilly Maloney

Aimee Hall

Throughout this year, I’ve been disheartened to read stories about apprentices either losing their placement or missing out on valuable study during the disruption caused by the COVID19 pandemic. I’m pleased to say that we have made sure that this has not happened to any of our apprentices at Northumbrian Water.

In fact, we were delighted that in August, two of our maintenance apprentices, Tilly Maloney and Sam Wright, joined us having completed their apprenticeships during lockdown.

Innovation Festival We want to see applications for roles coming from the most diverse range of candidates possible, and we are very keen to see the girls and young women who will be the potential future leaders of the business, join in the exciting range of opportunities we have through the NWG Academy.

We know that diverse organisations lead to innovative ideas so what better place to start, than at our incredible Innovation Festival, which is focussed wholly around looking for new and better ways of working, and finding solutions to some of the biggest environmental and societal problems our country faces.

I was delighted to join Northumbrian Water’s annual summer festival for the first time last year.

As part of the five-day extravaganza, more than 1,300 local school pupils and

young people descended on Newcastle Racecourse to take part in several activities and workshops aimed at inspiring them to consider careers related to science, technology, engineering, art or maths (STEAM).

We had sessions led by the Centre for Life, which had young people building bridges and testing them to destruction, as well as programming robots to move remotely.

We also had a three day workshop with Fix it Café focusing on fixing skills, for everything from clothes to electronics, which would otherwise go to landfill.

A mothers’ and daughters’ workshop brought people together from a range of organisations, to give a taster of just how many opportunities there are in the North East using STEM skills. Fathers and sons were welcome too, but given there’s still more to do in influencing girls to choose a STEM career, we wanted to raise awareness amongst girls as a priority.

The Festival is about to kick off again this year (14-17 September), albeit this time virtually due to COVID, but once again

we’re inviting more young people to join us online. We’d love for some of them to be inspired to follow a STEAM related career and come back to the Innovation Festival in future years!

Overall, Northumbrian Water paints a positive picture; we strive to be a company where there is ample opportunity for talented people to experience a diverse career. We know that in future people will have multiple career changes, we know women’s circumstances can change throughout their lives (e.g. with caring responsibilities), and so as Northumbrian Water is a hugely diverse business with many functions and roles, we can focus our efforts on how we provide colleagues with opportunities to build a career to suit them at every stage of their life.

However, this is not just a job for women to tackle. We must draw upon the support of our men too who can also help enthuse, encourage and support girls and women to see the fantastic opportunities that can be found in engineering and to really go for a career in our industry.

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ATTRACTING AND RETAINING DIVERSE TALENT WITHIN THE WATER INDUSTRY In the World Economic Forum’s 2015 global risk report, water crises ranked as the greatest risk for concern over the next decade along with other water related risks such as extreme weather events.

Several studies highlight the benefits of a diverse workforce – from GDP growth to increases in performance with a study by global management consultancy firm McKinsey finding that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform and gender diverse businesses 15% more likely to experience above average performance.

Yet there is still an ethnic and gender under-representation in STEM and in the water industry.

by Sarah Gosiewska

HR Manager: culture, inclusion and engagement, Thames Water Economically the risk of highest concern was unemployment. Certainly, the Energy and Utilities 2020 workforce renewal and skills strategy stresses the need for companies to proactively recruit significant numbers of people into the sector to plug the gap in skills shortages.

Recruiting people to fill a gap is one thing but if we are to truly succeed as a sector in proactively combating a global water crisis, we need to tap into the best talent the world has to offer. This means attracting people with diversity of thought that overcome ‘group think’, offering different perspectives to tackle issues and generate innovative sustainable solutions.

In this article, Sarah Gosiewska HR Manager: culture, inclusion and engagement, provides food for thought highlighting the approach Thames Water has taken to attract and retain diverse talent within an inclusive culture that enables people to bring their whole selves to work to perform at their best.

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Inspiring children during their formative years to consider careers in STEM can go some way to increasing talent pools.

That’s one of the reasons why we aim to educate every school age child across our patch, London to Thames Valley about water and wastewater.

Even during the pandemic Thames Water continued to reach out to school children - from Facebook live events with fun science experiments promoting campaigns such as #Bin it don’t block it, to keeping access to our sites open, including a new visitor centre at our Farmoor Reservoir, whilst adhering to social distancing measures.

Consideration of imagery and language used on websites and job advertisements can also impact on whether or not people see themselves working in our sector.

Our careers site includes diverse images along with information on our inclusion networks, promoting our family friendly ethos and the fact that we are Disability Confident leaders, Stonewall diversity champions, members of Women in Science and Engineering, Women in Utilities and signed up to the Race at Work Charter.

Role models and mentoring also plays an important part in inspiring people to consider careers in the water industry.

There’s a saying that, typically, different genders approach job applications in very different ways with females less likely to apply if they feel they do not meet all of the criteria listed.

Gender-neutral job adverts inclusive by design helps break down barriers but furthermore gives people confidence in the first place to realise potential.

At Thames Water we facilitate mentoring circles for under-represented groups.

In addition to sharing more about what we do and the range of opportunities within the water sector, we also support people to think about their passion and transferable skills. This includes CV writing and interview skills.

Our Give Someone a Start scheme goes further offering under-represented talent and those with physical or mental disabilities who are not in employment, education or training, three weeks work experience. Candidates shadow experienced professionals, learning what we do via site visits and as a result grow exponentially in confidence. Of our most recent cohort 40% secured permanent roles with us and 100% stated their confidence improved.

The employer value proposition is equally important. Why would someone want to work in our sector? A lot of the time people typically share similar values of wanting to make a positive difference through the delivery of life’s essential service, providing access to clean water 24/7. However, inclusive policies also go a long way to attracting and retaining talent.

FEATURE: DIVERSITY Our family friendly policies offer enhanced shared parental leave aligned with our maternity and adoption leave.

We also have flexible working policies and encourage work/ life balance, additionally providing support and 24/7 employee assistance.

As well as internal BAME, DisAbility, MultiFaith, LGBT+, Women’s employee networks, we are also proud co-founders and cochairs of Employers Inclusion networks bringing together companies to share best practice and work collaboratively to drive inclusion within society.

Removing barriers is key but attracting and crucially then retaining diverse talent is only possible if companies create the right conditions that enable people to flourish. If employees truly feel able to bring their whole selves to work, they are more likely to perform at their best.

Finally, leadership and setting the tone right at the top is crucial to maintaining an inclusive great place to work that enables us to tap into diverse talent.

At Thames Water we introduced adjustment passports to ensure people with disabilities and long-term health conditions are supported. We also have a number of employee networks in place providing support as well as raising awareness and helping to enable an inclusive environment.

Senior leaders within Thames Water are actively involved; from providing senior sponsorship and support of our networks to being mentored themselves via our reverse mentoring scheme. The latter pairs up senior leaders with diversity and inclusion champions that have different characteristics. This has enabled “better decision making” at Executive level as senior leaders can better understand how it feels to work in the water sector from a different perspective.

Richard Hoult, pictured, one of our senior sponsors commented: “If companies truly want to drive innovation, continuous improvements across the water industry and perform well, they need to ensure they create an inclusive culture that attracts and retains diverse talent in an environment that enables people to bring their whole selves to work to give their best and flourish.”

Water is essential to daily life, and that means our business is always open. We’re passionate about providing world-class tap water, now and for the future. Our region is consuming more water and producing more waste than ever before. To overcome the challenges of our growing population and our unpredictable weather, we’re investing for the future, replacing hundreds of miles of pipes, rolling out smart technology and investing £1m a day on our network to prevent leaks.

Recruitment & Opportunities

We are very proud “to deliver life’s essential service, so our customers, communities and the environment can thrive”. We are key workers, committed to our values, reaching higher and being better every day to achieve our purpose under these challenging circumstances, doing the best for our customers and the environment.

To view our opportunities go to www.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/careers

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LET’S TALK ABOUT RACE

The topic of race in the Western world has come to the fore stronger than it ever has in recent history; race being colour, nationality and ethnic or national origin. also in the United Kingdom. From what are often discussions filled with stereotypes, inaccuracies, and biases, recent events have led people across all walks of life to reflect upon their own biases and contributions to discrimination, harassment and victimisation. All being said, the present offers a great opportunity for the water industry to have its own discussion around what is commonly, an uncomfortable topic.

So, let’s start now, as the Water Industry in the UK has a diversity of race issue to address.

by Patrick Adesite

Why the race discussion in needed

This has been driven by the recent coverage of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the well published racial injustices faced by black people not only in America, but

According to the 2011 Census1, the total population of England and Wales was made up of 14.1% of people who identified themselves as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME). Comparatively, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) 2017 Business

Affinity Water

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Register and Employment Survey2 showed 4% of the water industry’s workforce identify themselves as coming from a BAME background compared to 5% in the energy and utilities sector and 15% in all sectors across the UK. The disparity is evident.

The water industry, on the whole, is unrepresentative of the society it serves for which a number of reasons could be the cause: ■ A lack of BAME representatives in the work pipeline as a result of hindered access to education.

■ A lack of awareness of the industry.

The provision of water has long been described as a silent service. The agenda has now changed and there is a further drive to serve in the public interest with public inclusion ■ Generational barriers to entry for leadership roles3. Lack of visible leaders

FEATURE: DIVERSITY may mean opportunities in the industry do not present themselves as viable and/or attainable for the younger generations.

Why might the race conversation be avoided?

Typically, in the workplace, we are encouraged to avoid controversial topics – politics, religion, gender to name a few. Race is often included in this group, possibly for fear of offending. Indeed, the conversation around race can be a difficult one. In and of itself, race cannot be truly discussed without acknowledging the lack of social mobility and the poor socioeconomic climate widely experienced

by BAME individuals in comparison to their white counterparts.

Unfortunately, there is a relationship between socioeconomics and politics, but this should not be a reason to hinder progress. In the name of equality, diversity and inclusion, it must be seen that racial diversity makes up a key part of the strategic objectives of any establishment.

To further any agenda, it is key to have open, and honest conversations. Therefore, these issues should not be allowed to stand in the way.

In the last few years, they haven’t.

What is the industry currently doing?

There has been a unified approach by a number of companies within the energy and utilities industries to address the unique workforce renewal and skill challenges the sector faces.

The Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership brings companies together to collectively address these challenges with engagement from governments, regulators and other senior stakeholders. This helps to develop an informed and supportive policies, and regulatory environment. The partnership has a Diversity & Inclusion Network Forum which is a cross-sector task and finish group established for the purpose of leading in-depth reviews of any services, policies or issues that affects the sector.

Such an initiative is demonstrative of an awareness of the problems that need to be addressed at a corporate level. It must

also be acknowledged that the discussions need to happen at a functional level (departmentally).

How can we accommodate for the wider discussion?

Beyond buzzwords and legal compliance in order to meet a minimum standard, there are a number of ways the pursuit of true racial diversity and inclusion can be fostered. To begin with: ■ organisations and people must acknowledge their biases which can manifest itself in the form of, and is not limited to, unconscious bias training or online resources such as the Harvard Implicit Bias tests ■ organisations and people must address any biases ■ organisations and people must learn from their biases Some specific ideas include: ■ creation of easy access, inclusive spaces which would offer opportunities to have open dialogue around personal experiences. Such spaces would encourage different perspectives and experiences from different communities and backgrounds. Such spaces would also support and facilitate networking within ethnic communities.

■ provision of educational tools, resources and platforms to drive education for all. This could manifest itself in many forms: podcasts, webinars, books, articles.

■ celebration events which mark racial diversity. Celebration of these events on a functional level can help spread company goals and highlight inclusion policies beyond the company intranet and the small celebration in HQ foyer.

Innovation is key in enabling diverse work environments and highlighting local diversity.

There is no one solution to fulfil the industry needs4. Each solution is specific to the environment in which the discussions need to be had. Nevertheless, there are simple steps which can be easily implemented as demonstrated above.

My personal experience I am a black man. I’ve worked for eight different teams, within four different companies, in seven locations, within six different cities/towns across the UK. With the two hundred or so colleagues I have directly worked with, only two others have been people who are classified as BAME. I have been subject to racism, stereotypes, biases and ill-education in every company I have worked for and I am still hopeful for the industry.

Let’s continue to educate one another on race issues and celebrate racial diversity in the workplace. Let’s continue to seek the benefits of a racially diverse workforce.

Let’s strive to create environments where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their potential. Let’s continue the discussion about race.

References 1 England and Wales (2018). Population of England and Wales. [online] Service.gov.uk.

Available at: https://www.ethnicity-factsfigures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-byethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/ population-of-england-and-wales/latest#byethnicity.

2 www.ons.gov.uk. (n.d.). UK Business Register and Employment Survey - Office for National Statistics. [online] Available at: https://www. ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/ peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/ bulletins/ 3 Addressing the barriers to BAME employee career progression to the top Report. (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.cipd. co.uk/Images/addressing-the-barriers-toBAME-employee-career-progression-to-thetop_tcm18-33336.pdf.

4 Race in the workplace Issues faced by businesses in developing Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) talent in the workplace. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ file/594336/race-in-workplace-mcgregorsmith-review.pdf.

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WOMEN IN WATER

The Eastern Area committee is a strong advocate for Diversity and Inclusion. Our event in March 2021, “Supporting Women in Water” provides an opportunity for members to understand how they can help to bridge the gap, despite gender or background. Here, Susannah Clements explains more. contributing to something so valuable is what will keep them here.

by Susannah Clements

Group People Director, Anglian Water and Eastern Area President I’ve recently been appointed as the Eastern Area President for the Institute of Water, which is a fabulous way of meeting professionals in our industry from across the region. I believe that we can be too deprecating about the advantages of working in an industry that is so vital to people’s lives and in which there are so many opportunities to tackle core issues like climate change and plastic reduction, and to contribute to the prosperity of a region. It’s a vision of making a difference to challenges such as these that will attract young women into the sector, and the satisfaction of

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two children along the way.

The Eastern Area Institute of Water event “Supporting Women in Water” will be taking place on 8 March 2021, International Women’s Day, to promote our industry and these vital roles to women and girls.

So, as we launch the event, we thought we’d share some insights from some of the wonderful women leaders in the industry who will be speaking at the event. Here they share their thoughts on managing the balance, setting your goals and what to do when it all goes wrong!

Goal setting Career goals can be a really powerful way to drive your progression and to celebrate your successes. Angela Nilsson, Director of Operations at Z-Tech, was driven by her goal to be the first ever female senior manager at her company. Through a lot of hard work, gaining a thorough understanding of the intricacies of the interactions between people, managers and departments and assessing the effectiveness of different management styles she saw applied, Angela earned the respect of her peers and ultimately her promotion to senior management. Angela succeeded in leaps and bounds, going from a graduate position to Managing Director in 14 years and having

Professor Vanessa Speight, Professor of Integrated Water Systems at the University of Sheffield, found that goal setting has also been very important for her career, but she steered away from typical goals – an approach she actually first discovered in an in-flight magazine!

Vanessa’s approach defines personal development goals in terms of criteria or features, for example independence or work-life balance. She said: “For me personally, the importance of features like independence, global outlook, and innovation have led me to my current role as an academic with research projects all over the world.” It is these goals which define what career decisions we make.

FEATURE: DIVERSITY Career decisions

Building confidence

Work/life balance

There comes a time in every career where you have to make decisions to steer your future which will hopefully benefit you as an individual but which can also involve a certain level of risk.

It takes an awful lot of confidence to make a decision that may involve risk, as does having the confidence to hold your head up high and work through any choices that have ended badly. But how do we build our confidence to react like this?

It may seem that work is incredibly important, but to be a well-rounded, happy individual, it is really important to show the same enthusiasm for your life outside of work. Yet the desirable work/life balance can be difficult to achieve for many. Today, being away from the workplace does not always mean the end of work, particularly during the present pandemic and the new shift towards homeworking. Shaunna advises us that “It’s hard not to blur the lines between work and home, especially since the dawn of mobile phones. Try to switch off emotionally and more important, literally. Recognise when it is creeping in and why.”

Fiona Waller, Head of Water Quality at Affinity Water, advised that “Early on in your career, don’t be afraid to try new and ‘scary’ things. Take presentations for example: it’s natural to be nervous when talking to a group of people, but the more you do it, the more you understand how to cope with the feeling you get just before you are on stage. It’s true that practice makes perfect, or at least makes you much better!”

Rachel Walters, Strategic Engagement Senior Advisor at the Environment Agency, says that “the best career decision I have made was to re-join the Environment Agency after a 10-year gap. It was a difficult decision to go back to working from the same office, wondering what people would think but concentrating on what I wanted and needed and who I already knew who could support me, and lead me through an uncertain time.” In this instance, Rachel took a difficult decision and it ended up being the right move to make.

But we are all human, everyone makes mistakes and decisions do not always lead to success. As Angela reminds us, “A positive outlook is essential – every mistake is an opportunity to learn something. It may seem like a huge issue today, but in the long term it may have little, or no impact.”

Shaunna Berendsen, Head of Innovation Engagement at Anglian Water, agreed, reminding us that “No experience is a bad experience if you’ve managed to take learning from it.”

EASTERN AREA CONFERENCE

SUPPORTING

WOMEN

IN WATER

08 MAR 2021 | PETERBOROUGH

For Rachel, work/life balance is different since lockdown. “To me it was always checking in on how I was feeling, and if all the plates I was spinning were still up in the air. However, once lockdown is over I will be taking a more subjective look at how often I am travelling, having the confidence to question if meetings can be conducted remotely to enable me to use my time more effectively.”

Susannah’s final words

Lynn Cooper, CEO of the Institute of Water, spoke about challenges outside work, her running achievements, that have boosted her confidence within work. Lynn said, “Many years ago I held the Scottish women’s marathon record and any time I met someone I felt was trying to dominate, I thought: ‘I wonder how fast you can run a marathon?’ I believe in speaking my mind (with diplomacy, which has taken time to develop) and asking if I don’t know. If you stay silent you could regret it.”

We live in a diverse world, and at Anglian Water we see diversity as a huge asset – in fact, it’s vital to the success of our organisation. We want to welcome everyone who works with us, and attract a wide variety of people to join us. Women bring a different perspective, and that builds a better, more interesting and more successful business for all of us. If you want to hear about any of these women’s careers and advice in more detail, look out for the feature blogs over the next couple of months and ensure you sign up to “Supporting Women in Water” on the website now.

Come and join the Institute of Water's Eastern Area Conference on 'Supporting Women in Water'. This event is an opportunity to hear from some of the Water Industries Key Leaders, as well as numerous opportunities to converse over a variety of speciality topics such as mentoring, marketing your brand, setting your goals and effective communication and relationships. This conference is a fully inclusive conference and open to all men and women attendees working to support women in the Water Industry.

It promises to enable you to leave with tangible next steps on how you can do that.

Members: Free | Non Members: £10 BOOK NOW at www.instituteofwater.org.uk/womeninwater

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WATER AND SANITATION SERVICE PROVIDERS STEP UP TO CHALLENGES OF COVID-19 As countries across the world have been forced into lockdowns and curfews, utility providers have been stepping up to the challenge of ensuring people has access to a reliable supply of clean water in order to stay safe and healthy.

While the world waits and hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine, preventing the spread of infection and strengthening health systems is vital. To maintain the high standards of hygiene advocated by healthcare professionals and governments to prevent the spread of coronavirus, a reliable source of clean water, decent handwashing facilities, and access to safe sanitation are crucial. These services are as lifesaving as a robust healthcare.

However, around the world, one in 10 people don’t have clean water at home – that’s 785 million people. Instead they rely on rivers, ponds and hand-dug holes, which are often far away and polluted by waste. In cities and towns where we work with poor communities, water utilities and municipalities often largely lack both capacity and infrastructure to ensure a continuous, equitable safe water supply under the emergency conditions the pandemic has created.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread to the poorest countries in the world, those living without clean water are particularly vulnerable. We are working with water and sanitation utility partners to share the skills and know-how that will bring lasting change to communities around the world and help make them more resilient to future crises.

Yorkshire Water is working with WaterAid to help improve the provision of water and sanitation to communities across Ethiopia. Following a successful first phase which focused on working with utilities across 20 towns, the second phase will support up to 42 more utilities. Together, we are not just installing taps and toilets, but also connecting up the systems that will ensure sustainability.

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Leyew is manager of the Finote Selam town water utility office in Ethiopia. He understands that investing in water infrastructure is one of the most powerful ways to protect people’s lives. Image credit: WaterAid/ Joey Lawrence Leyew Animut works for a local water utility and has quickly adapted to support his local community to stay safe and healthy at this time. He explains the challenges to the country’s economy that the pandemic itself has presented: “Running water in homes keeps families healthy. It is currently rainy season in Ethiopia so we need to protect our water pipes from the heavy rain. Our work is getting busier; we arew just like health workers.

“The country’s economy is very much affected by the pandemic and everything is expensive right now. When people need our services, we send a professional and provide them our services freely.”

In response to the pandemic, WaterAid is also supporting utilities and municipalities with their emergency response work and backing the global #UtilitiesFightCOVID campaign by the Global Water Operators Alliance to raise awareness of the importance of utilities at this time and share skills and knowledge.

The global focus on the importance of good handwashing as the first line of defence against diseases like coronavirus has drawn

attention to the vital roles of key workers such as those in utilities, including people like Leyew and our founding partners in the UK water industry, who have been working valiantly to meet the increase in demand.

Rob Fuller, Global Water Sector Advisor at WaterAid, said: “It is important that utilities, their regulators and policymakers in the water and sanitation sector consider the fundamental shifts in services delivery that the pandemic has demanded as the new normal to be maintained after COVID-19.

These actions are an urgent need now and crucial to building resilience to future pandemics and crises.

“We will continue to support WASH utilities, in the UK and globally, in their response and strengthening work, standing in solidarity with them and their supporting governments and institutions in fighting the challenges of COVID-19 and building long-term resilience to reach everyone, everywhere by 2030”.

Find out more about our work with WASH utility partners: washmatters.wateraid. org/blog/water-and-sanitation-serviceproviders-and-the-challenges-of-covid-19

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EASTERNAREANEWS

ONLINE EVENT: ENERGISING YOUR TIME - 30 JUNE 2020 Welcome to todays event: Energising your time With John SunderlandWright

With everyone in different work situations due to lockdown now is a great time to think about how you spend your time.

The Eastern Area decided to put on an event focusing on this called Energising Your Time run by John Sunderland-Wright.

It covered discussion on what your key areas of focus are, balancing home and work

Thank you to our sponsors

WEBINAR New pipe inspection technology - Call in the crawlers Liam Hanna of Eddyfi technologies introduced Eddyfi’s robotic crawlers and presented case studies relevant to the water industry. The robotic crawlers have been used globally to perform in-service inspections, blockage clearances and the identification and repair of cracks.

The crawlers can travel up to 2 kilometres inside pipe systems in a single run, using cameras for remote visual inspection (RVI), non-destructive testing (NDT) and grippers to clear blockages.

life, how to use your energy wisely, identify what steals time, and looking at the Getting Things Done principles. It definitely got everyone thinking, using virtual breakout rooms to still have small group discussion.

One of the quotes from the session that summarises why energising your time is important is “In the end it’s not years in your life that count, it’s life in your years.”

Future sessions with John will focus on nutrition and innovation/creative thinking, so watch for the email.

The webinar was well attended (89 attendees) and received very positive feedback.

COMMITTEE MEMBER AWARD I am delighted to have received the Committee Member of the Year Award 2020 for the Eastern Area.

I have been a member of the Institute of Water since 2012, joining initially to meet new people within the industry and to learn new skills to help me develop both personally and professionally.

on offer has really benefited my career and allowed me to build in confidence.

Receiving this letter of recognition from the Institute is a real honour.

Jenny Cooper

I can honestly say that being on the committee and attending the events

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NORTHERN IRELANDAREANEWS

INNOVATION AWARDS

(L-R) Anthony Grant, Shauna Herron and Shaun McShane of Environmental Techniques.

For the first time since 2014, the NI Area Committee held its Innovation Awards which attracted interest from companies across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and beyond.

The format for the competition was to be for applicants to submit a paper based applicwon form before being invited to showcase their innovation in front of a carefully assembled judging panel in a ‘Dragons Den’ style event.

Due to the high interest in the competition, the Committee decided that an initial shortlisting process should be carried out to whittle the number of entries down to go forward to present to the judging panel in person.

The shortlisting process involved the judging panel (made up of five industry experts within the water/wastewater sector of Northern Ireland), remotely judging the paper applications against key criteria; Development, Differentiation & Impact.

Once the scores were assessed, four successful applicants were invited to present to the judges in person.

The final stage of the NI Area Awards was held at NI Water HQ, Belfast with each of the four successful applicants allocated time slots of which to present their innovations

and receive questions / feedback from the local industry experts. The presentations consisted of a colourful array of Powerpoints, products and some lifelike miniature models which highly impressed the judging panel.

Once all presentations and Q & A were complete, the panel sat to discuss and were impressed with the high standard of ideas and presentation techniques from all of the applicants. A scoring process was carried out to determine the winner.

The innovation that impressed the most and therefore named winner was by a company called, ‘Environmental Techniques’ from Lisburn, for their innovation; Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Liner for pipe bridges.

The judges were mostly impressed by the simplicity of the innovation combined with the vast benefits it proposes in terms of reduced site impacts and carbon savings.

Overall, it was a very successful competition with a high standard of innovations which impressed both the judging panel and NI Area Committee. Congratulations to Environmental Techniques on their success

and we look forward to seeing even more innovations in 2021.

If you would like to learn more about the winning project you can catch Environmental Techniques webinar via the IW website.

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SOUTHWESTAREANEWS

WEBINAR PROGRAMME Over the last few months the South West committee have been holding web-meetings monthly and updating our events plans to bring a variety of webinars to members.

Dr Leo Carswell, of WRc, recently held a webinar looking at the ‘WRc Approved’ scheme, and the challenges of keeping an audit and testing business open for business during COVID-19. The webinar covered an interesting story of how the scheme covers fitness-for-purpose testing, sometimes against unique but publicly available test schedules, and importantly includes audits of manufacturing and installation sites. They have overcome a number of access challenges in unique ways that included inviting a film crew to witness testing in lieu of being able to accommodate the required industry visitors to site!

NEW COMMITTEE MEMBER Welcome on board to our new Vice-President Mark Worsfold of South West Water.

We are delighted that Mark, Director of Asset Management, has agreed to join us in this position and we all look forward to working with him.

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Recognising the importance of social media and digital tools to career progression, On the 20th August we hosted a LinkedIn webinar – most of us have a LinkedIn account and profile, but this event offered the chance to really understand how to make the most of the platform. The event was run by invited speaker Nigel Cliffe to “Lift the Lid” off what can be achieved.

Coming up soon we have organised a variety of webinars – from the Internet of Things (IoT) with South West Water, through to a water demand under COVID and hot weather focussed event and look out for ‘The Only Way is Ethics’ coming up later in the autumn, exploring

what the water sector would look like if designed with ethics, the environment and customers at its heart. We are also working to reorganise our ‘Become a weather forecaster’ event, in conjunction with the Met Office, to a virtual event, with a face to face follow up once it is safe and appropriate to do so.

Our Sponsors We’d like to say an enormous thank you to our sponsors for the support they provide to our area which make it possible for us to organise a wide variety of events over the course of the year. We are delighted to retain all five of our Gold sponsors through to December 2021.

CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR RUTH ALLEN We were over the moon recently to ‘virtually’ present our Area President, Professor Ruth Allen, with a certificate of Fellowship to the Institute of Water.

Ruth has guided the South West Area, during her tenure as President, in an exceptional manner –she is an excellent role model for our sector. She has a particular passion for developing people from student through the water sector and personally committed to this by strengthening our Area’s relationship with academic institutions in the area.

Her work does not stop there, having a high profile in the Water Industry through her work and with active involvement with other organisations such as the Pipeline Industries Guild and the Institute of Asset Management.

On behalf of all of the SW committee – Thank you Ruth, and Congratulations on this thoroughly deserved award!

MIDLANDSAREANEWS

WEBINAR - MANAGING YOUR CAREER On Wednesday 25 August Bob Windmill, MD of Windmill Insight Solutions and midlands area committee member, presented a webinar on Managing Your Career. With over 70 attendees the event received favourable comments from attendies, both directly and via LinkedIn.

Bob took the audience through his 40+ year career in the water industry, detailing how he learned, often the hard way, how to manage and develop a career when you don’t know what the future will look like next week, never mind in 20 years’ time.

Highlights included his introduction to management (don’t ask) and how things he learned in the past, like IT skills, helped him take advantage of opportunities that would otherwise not have been open to him.

He also described how he went from being blasé about qualifications to collecting them en-masse and noted their value in opening doors. Alongside this he showed a model of skills development, TEE-Shaped learning, that he admits he fell into rather than thought up, and described this as “the gift that keeps giving” because of the way it has helped him with his career over the last 40 years.

The midlands area is looking to follow up this webinar with further webinars or online workshops on topics such as “How to be a go-to person” and “Why your boss will thank you for saying no”.

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SCOTTISHAREANEWS

OBAN FISHING TRIP

The Scottish Area got on board the Creagallan to Lock Etive in August.

101 fish landed between 10 of us. Spur Dog, Whiting, Lesser Spotted Dog, Thornback Ray, Gurnard, Mackerel and Green Crab.

AN OVERDUE SHOUT OUT TO OUR EXPERIENCED MEMBERS! Since its inception, the Institute has put discussion and networking at its heart.

In line with our President’s vision for 2020, the Scottish Area Committee really want to reinvigorate that spirit with the focus on our technical members to improve how we network in a virtual world.

We have seen a number of really great events transformed into virtual meeting places from Areas across Britain, with the Environment Conference in November shaping up to be a stellar example of how engaging and informative these sessions can be.

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However, one group of people we feel may be missing out most on the face to face networking that has been the mainstay their Institute experience is the retired community. Many of us have stories of how a well-timed suggestion in their early part of their career led to a lifetime of community interaction.

Equally, one the Scottish Area’s mainstay events also on this page attracts members for whom being in Oban during a weekend in August is their main point of contact.

So, we want to reach out to any member who has felt that the digital world has disengaged them to get in touch with us, either by post or a phone call to HQ and tell us how they are doing and how we can best help.

Being valued as people that have carried the ethos of the Institute’s founding principles is a subject very close to all of our hearts. Be well and we look forward to hearing from you.

SOUTHEASTAREANEWS

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD We had the pleasure of informing Martin that he had been awarded the prestigious honour of “Outstanding Contribution” to the Institute of Water.

Martin has devoted much personal time, effort and support to the Institute of Water over last few years. Martin was National President of the Institute of Water whilst CEO of Thames Water; championing career development at a time of regulatory change and challenge for the Industry. Additionally, his commitment to being ‘Judge Baggsy’ for World Environment Day and a much respected ‘Dragon’ for our Weekend School have epitomised the support he has given the South East Area over the last few years; as well as the fun and fervour he brought with it too.

Martin is the first recipient of this new award and on receiving the award said this: “I am absolutely delighted, honoured and feel extremely flattered to hear news of the award... I have always been a huge

supporter of the Institute of Water because to me it is all about the people. Throughout my career I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with some brilliant people who have been hugely supportive and have always taken the time to give others help and advice along the way and in turn I am always more than happy to do the same.

To me the people are at the heart of this industry and that is why I always thoroughly enjoy getting involved in the events such as the World Environment Day and the Weekend Schools – yes they are a little bit off the wall at times but always superb fun – every time I walk away from the weekend school it is so rewarding to see how people can grow and develop in such a short space of time and they are all brilliant! I am really looking forward to the next one.”

IWATER ARMS PUB QUIZ AND MEET THE COMMITTEE Pub Landlord, and SE Area Chair, Paul Holton welcomed members and non-members from across the country to the virtual ‘IWater Arms’ for a joyful night of quizzing and drinks whilst being introduced to the SE Area Committee.

Pub Manager, and Area Forum Rep, Abbie Johnson cheerfully managed proceedings for the evening; making sure good etiquette and fairness were upheld throughout; as well as sorting out the unruly.

Each round of the quiz was brilliantly hosted by different members of the SE Committee; allowing pub patrons to find out about committee members before answering questions from them on topics ranging from Water to Waterloo.

Much fun was had during each round of the quiz, but the Northern Area Committee Team won and took home the much coveted prize of £30 going to WaterAid. Feedback following the event suggests it was a great success and we are pleased that the IWater Arms now has 5 out of 5 on TripAdvisor :).

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WELSHAREANEWS

THE SCIENCE BEHIND WASTEWATER TREATMENT In June the Welsh Area hosted several webinars, the first being The Science Behind Wastewater Treatment presented by Joshua Williams, a process scientist from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

Over 300 people listened in on the presentation which gave a brief history of wastewater treatment, the various treatment technologies available and finished by explaining the important role that bacteria and microbiology play in ensuring wastewater is treated effectively before being returned to the environment.

Josh had this to say about the webinar: “It was a great opportunity to present for the first time to the Institute of Water on my role and the science behind the treatment process. The feedback from the event has been really positive and we will be thinking up ways to host webinars on similar topics in the future”.

BLACK VOICES IN THE WATER INDUSTRY In August we heard the views and experiences of 5 black women from around the water industry: Christina Kio-Bennett, Nkechi Allen Dawson, Anne Adeniji, Omolara Cordle and Shanice Burke.

INSECTS’ ROLE IN A CIRCULAR ECONOMY Vyvyan Evans gave a presentation on the use of Insect Bioconversion (IBC) in the water sector, to respond to many of the water industry’s pressing challenges.

These challenges range from the increasing presence of hazardous substances in effluent, tightening BAS compliance and increasing cost and supply chain instability of chemicals dosed for flocculation. Welsh Water are hoping to advance an IBC Unit in Q4 of this year.

The presentation focused on the Circular Economy application of bioconversion as a low risk waste remediation and waste valorisation technique. 114 people

registered for the event, with just under 90 dialling in throughout. Due to the number of people on the call, questions were limited to short comments on the text bar, but several emails and follow up phone calls on industry collaboration and sharing lessons learnt have already started coming in. Once the pilot project is up and running and results are able to be shared, there will be a follow up presentation, so keep a look out for more!

LIVE LUNCHTIME COOKALONG! Having been confined to our houses for several months during lockdown, it’s easy to feel a little uninspired when it comes to the kitchen.

Cooking from scratch is not only a way to keep our bodies healthy, but our minds and overall wellbeing too. Working from home provides the perfect opportunity to treat yourself to hot homemade lunches and a little bit of ‘me time’.

Charlotte Rhodes, Welsh Area Secretary, used her quick cooking skills and passion for healthy eating to whip us up a treat in a live lunchtime cookalong!

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We asked you to vote for which recipe you wanted and ‘beany burrito bowls’ was the clear favourite, broadcast via Facebook Live as well as GoToMeeting. Despite some technical issues on the day, positive feedback was received from those who attended live. For more recipe inspiration, you can check out Charlie’s Instagram page @charlieschapter and if you’d like to catch up on the video, head to the Institute of Water Facebook page!

Following the recorded, heart-breaking murder of George Floyd and many others this year, a global outcry was seen through the Black Lives Matter movement calling for reform and change; Bevita Mattu, Welsh Area YPN Rep, decided to host this event so that this momentum was not lost and the anti-racism work continues.

The session was hugely popular, with 192 attendees overall, and provided a safe place to discuss experiences both good and bad, raising awareness of how racism still unfortunately impacts individuals working in the industry and providing an inclusive space to begin to learn from this. It was described by attendees as “extremely powerful and moving”; we would like to say a huge thank you to our host and speakers for their bravery and openness. Hopefully this was the first of many conversations, both within the Institute of Water and beyond. To watch the recording or access the helpful resources handout, please contact Megan Williams.

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