Hear what our experts had to say ahead of WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference...
We asked our speakers the below questions, find out how they responded...
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021?
I am delighted to be once again chairing this critical conference. We have a stellar line up of very senior industry leaders tackling some of the most challenging issues facing the water sector. I will be bringing a challenge and intellectual rigor to the solutions being brought forward to ensure that we get to the heart of what the problem is, how robust the solutions are and how all this will be supported and paid for.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion?
The water industry is going through the biggest set of interlinked challenges that the sector has ever seen. It is likely that nearly the whole of England is to move into the ‘water stressed’ classification in due course and yet we know that post Covid building back better is the new mantra. But how do we do this whilst reducing water use, developing a large scale new relationship with nature, clean up and reduce abstraction on our precious chalk streams whilst keeping bills affordable for all?
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about?
The conference is going to be hearing about how the new regional water resource initiatives are uniting the industry in cross boundary co-operation to secure water supplies. We are also going to see evidence of a radical expansion in the way natural capital is being accounted for and worked with through new partnerships that show how new measures are being applied. Even more crucially, we want to showcase how the City is investing in these solutions to improve ecosystems but also to strengthen long term resilience.
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting?
I have been working with the team to put together an agenda containing the very latest hot topics that will be of real interest. Crucially however we have set out to ensure that we can enable regulators and water companies the space to announce innovations and solutions at the conference, these will then be followed up to influence company business plans as part of the PR24 price control process.
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021?
The main thrust of my presentation will be about the need for the UK to pay greater attention to everyday maintenance and management of our water level and river systems, and linking that to the subject of providing increased water resource capacity through planned storage and transfer systems.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion?
One of the biggest challenges is that we focus on building new assets and then forget about properly looking after and maintaining them when they are built. We have almost £50bn of FCERM assets and yet see fit to spend only £200m per year in maintaining them.
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about?
I am interested in any innovative technologies which reduce carbon emissions in the water sector as a whole, which is a large consumer of energy and fuel.
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting?
Water security, whether considering supply or flood risk, is the fundamental foundation stone of any society and without that security and management, economic, social and environmental imbalance can occur with significant consequence. Dealing with matters of water security helps maintain that balance.
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021?
Highlighting how urgent water scarcity and water efficiency is, right across the UK - and ways we can build on how good we are at water efficiency, to get much better.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion?
Water scarcity, climate emergency, affordability, perceived legitimacy - water efficiency can help with all of these! Also, diversity - at higher levels most of the sector isn't diverse and doesn't look like the communities it represents.
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about?
Increased use of behavioural science to drive appropriate and effective solutions and relationships - but this isn't yet mainstream. Starting to realise that water efficiency is key not only to adapting to the climate emergency but also to helping meet net zero. New ways of engaging with customers to support them on water efficiency - including a whole new digitally engaged generation, seniors.
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting?
We need to mainstream water scarcity and water efficiency into the big decisions being made on things like economic growth, the climate emergency, poverty, diversity.
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021?
Progress with regional water resource strategies and how these will inform strategic decisions on new supply infrastructure as well as the work regulators are doing to enable this.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion?
Achieving public expectations for the environment (chalk stream, river water quality, resilience) whilst delivering the sectors net zero commitments.
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about?
In the area of water resources its great to see the level of collaboration between the companies, other sectors, regulators and wider stakeholders to address long term resilience challenges together.
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting?
It brings together a diverse mix of industry perspectives and debate on this strategic issue.
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021?
Farmers have a pivotal role to play in the sustainable management of land and water. But they are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of floods and droughts. We need to find ways to improve agricultural productivity whilst protecting and enhancing the environment
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion?
Agriculture faces a number of similar challenges to the water sector – how do we improve the security supply of water to meet our needs in the face of climate change and extreme weather events, how do we get to net zero in our sector? We need to rise to these challenges whilst at the same time ensuring that farmers have the tools they need to feed the nation
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about?
Increasing opportunities to find solutions at the catchment scale, combined with the delivery of multi-sector schemes where farmers, water companies, and others can share the benefits of new and improved built and green infrastructure
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting?
It’s a great opportunity for sharing and exploring ideas about how we can do things better with a diverse and well-informed group of ‘water folk’
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021?
I will be a panelist on the “Stakeholder engagement and environmental funding” panel, and hope to contribute to the discussions, drawing on from my experience at local and national scale, on the levers and barriers around attracting investment into nature-based solutions and ecosystem markets. It’s important to bring into this debate the need for coordinated efforts and governance at local scale, in order to bring together alignment of existing funding opportunities and understand what role debt-acquired green financing can fulfill to support the existing funding, rather than to just create a profit-driven approach for driving environmental net gain. Stakeholder engagement and buy-in, especially from beneficiaries, be those buyers, sellers or communities who are connected to the resilience of the local ecosystems, is also a key enabler for ecosystem markets to flourish and scale up.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion?
I think that population growth and increase for water demand, as well as the rise in natural disasters driven by the observable changes in climate change, to the Covid19 pandemic, to race to net zero and the biodiversity emergency, are already presenting significant risks to the Water Industry, particularly in terms of the dependency of asset resilience on the very resilience of natural ecosystems, which are so interlinked.
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about?
The wider adoption of nature-based solutions and catchment interventions to add to asset resilience as per my answer to Question 2, coupled with technological innovation. Nature can do resilience a lot better than we do, but we are also seeing a significant revolution in technological advancements and digital transformation, especially around machine learning and artificial intelligence. The combination of these two powerful concepts, nature and technology, can bring together exciting innovation to the sector and pave the way for more resilient and better ways of working.
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting?
It’s important because this Water Security is one of the key conversations that we need to be having right now, and this conference offers the opportunity for experts and interested audiences to come together and to keep that debate alive. It’s also a great way to start shaping next steps and influence our thinking, as we prepare the way for PR24 and post-pandemic green recovery.
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021? You can expect to learn more about the non-household water market from our unique position as market operator, including its complexities and the opportunities to improve data and develop greater understanding of business customers’ water usage to help tackle supply/demand challenges.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion? There are number of challenges we are collectively facing as an industry, including the threat of climate change, population growth, supply/demand challenges and more. We need to make sure we use our collective expertise and good quality data to find solutions to these challenges.
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about? I’m really excited about the opportunities with Open Data which will enable our industry to collaborate nationally and learn from other sectors.
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting? Water is essential to life. It is a natural resource that we often take for granted, but it is not unlimited. It requires investment, collaboration, innovation and long-term planning to ensure we protect our water supply and the natural environment for future generations. The WWT Water Security Conference is an important opportunity and reminder that we need to work together and take urgent action to mitigate the immediate risks and longer-term supply/demand challenges that we face as a sector and as a society.
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Water Security in a Changing Environment Conference 2021?
I am pleased to get the chance to raise ideas with conference, the sustainable use of Water is central to my post.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment in your opinion?
Lack of capacity in our urban drains and sewers, this will slow development and the economy but by greening our drainage there are future option, and significant money to be saved.
What innovations in the sector are you particularly excited about?
Catchment scale projects, to both reduce flooding and to deliver improved ecology and water quality.
Why do you think that the WWT Water Security Conference is an important meeting?
The reach of the conference is huge.