I had a very exciting few days in and around World Water Tech Innovation Summit in London last week.
My week started with hosting a workshop on Water Resilience at British Expertise International. Simon Ayley at WRc and Doogie Black at Climate Sense led off the discussion with other BEI members and colleagues from DBT. We spoke about how policymakers and utilities can build adaptation into the decision-making process in order to ensure future sustainability in the face of climate shocks and other stresses on the water system. We also discussed some of the benefits of integrated catchment management and explored how collaborative efforts between government agencies, research institutions and technology companies can ensure that technological innovations are implemented to best effect.
On Monday afternoon, it was great to join DBT’s International Markets Workshop, with visiting delegates presenting a host of rich market opportunity information from India, Denmark, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, the US, Panama, Brazil and Egypt. With extreme climate events becoming the norm, the water authorities and utilities in all of these countries are looking to innovate in order to secure water supplies for their citizens as well as for agriculture and industrial sectors.
On Monday evening the networking reception organised by British Water with support from WRc was a brilliant opportunity to discuss the upcoming Summit programme with many BEI members and partners and meet a range of interesting new organisations.
The World Water Tech Innovation Summit itself brought together water enterprises, regulatory bodies, engineering firms, technology giants, investors, and visionaries to address the decade’s most pressing challenges. Discussions focused on proactive asset management and circular solutions as the industry strives to increase its resilience to climate events.
The Summit programme was rich with content and inspiring speakers. It was especially great to hear practical insights from a number of British Expertise International members.
Martin Shouler from Arup participated in the opening panel, discussing the importance of systems thinking, looking at water as a system of systems in the nexus of society, agriculture, industry and nature. The systems view allows us to see synergies – with governance, data and aligned values playing the role of enablers.
Andrew McLeod from AtkinsRéalis hosted a discussion on the Highs and Lows of Hydrogen, with speakers discussing the feasibility and efficiency of hydrogen generation and its potential use cases, while touching on the future potential for innovative biofuels and eFuels.
Thomas Sagris from Arup led a fascinating discussion on Nature-based Solutions for Effective Catchment Management. This was one of my favourite sessions, with brilliant examples of urban NbS from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Regulation keeping pace with innovation is a common challenge, but there is great potential in using existing models such as PPP.
A particular highlight was the keynote speech by Helen Wakeham, Director of Water Transformation at the Environment Agency – and it was great to see UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology’s data illustrating some of her points.
I chaired one of the Summit panels, with brilliant speakers – Kumi Premathilake, Aclara, Sascha Kuflik, SebaKMT, Karl Cilia, Malta Water Services Corporation and Bryan Stubbs, Cleveland Water Alliance – discussing how the implementation of smart water infrastructure can contribute to more efficient water resource management, and strategies for integrating smart infrastructure to address climate-related challenges.
The week was an outstanding opportunity to engage with pioneers in the field. Perhaps the biggest theme that came up time and again was the importance of collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach to protect natural water sources, support innovation and foster new partnerships, if we are to achieve water security in a changing climate. We at BEI will of course continue to work with members and stakeholders to help promote promising solutions to the big challenges.
