This is one of five recommendations from the IWC to be fast-tracked by the government – including the creation of a real-time sewage map with automatic data, giving more power to campaigners and environment groups over the clean-up of local rivers, and the creation of regional water boards with powers to clean up rivers and seas locally, and plan essential infrastructure.

In the biggest overhaul of the country’s water sector since privatisation, the new water regulator will take responsibility of water functions across those previously administered by Ofwat (the Water Services Regulation Authority), the Environment Agency, Natural England, and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, bringing the sector’s economic, environmental and drinking water regulation under one body.

The Commission’s proposals will be consulted on this autumn and form the basis of a new Water Reform Bill.

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When we think about the digital transformation of the global water industry, we immediately start to jump to concepts such as digital twins, 3D physical models, and, of course, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. All of these technologies and their adoption into the mainstream are important as we move to a modern water industry. However, underpinning all of these technologies, to a greater or lesser extent, is data.

Data transformation

For me, the fundamental start to any data transformation journey (although this has been an unpopular opinion in the past) is stakeholder engagement. From the CEO of a water operating utility to the frontline operatives and technicians, there is a need for data and situational awareness – an understanding of how everything is operating from the grand scale of the whole utility to the individual scale of a single treatment works or pumping station.

Nowadays, in a water utility environment, all of this data is pushed into a data lake, or whatever data repository you choose (lake, pond, ocean, have all been touted). I believe the distinction is the size of data you have and whether it has been structured or is unstructured. This last point of whether the data is structured or unstructured is the important one here, and was the subject of an IWA project on meta-data that was concluded earlier in 2024.

Meta-data collection

IWA’s Meta-Data Collection and Organization (MetaCO) Task Group, led by Kris Villez, aimed to describe a number of data models – i.e., structured approaches to the management and storage of meta-data – that have been deployed successfully in recent years. In addition, its scientific and technical report included:

• Guidelines aimed at avoiding duplication of efforts and databases
• Current experience with applicable standards, such as open architectures, including Open Geospatial Consortium WaterML
• The potential of recently developed technologies, including block chain and ontology-based tools.

Meta-data collection will be essential to underpin the data lakes that are currently being proposed within the industry or are actively growing in size – giving the data the structure that it needs to be used effectively in a number of different applications.

Streamlining and accessibility

The industry as a whole has been brilliant at collecting data for a single purpose, but when a single piece of data is needed for multiple purposes – and potentially in multiple different databases or models – this is when things historically became unstuck. As the industry’s collection of data is increasing significantly, the lack of meta-data becomes a significantly larger problem as we enter the realms of big data.

UK duration monitoring programme

An example of this is the event duration monitoring programme in the UK and how it ties in with different datasets. Between 2014 and 2022, around 14,000 event duration monitors were installed on combined storm overflows. However, some of these were within the wastewater network and some were on the overflows from storm tanks.

The UK is moving – from a regulatory point of view – to install monitors on overflows to storm tanks, along with monitors on emergency overflows, in addition to flow meters measuring compliance with flow to treatment conditions across the country. This is on top of the water quality monitors that are going to be installed up- and downstream of all overflows to the environment.

From a non-regulatory perspective, the water companies are also using sensing and machine learning to look at wastewater network performance and blockages, with data coming in from tens of thousands of sensors.

What is not available currently is a system to join together all of this data so that it may be operated in a logical way. This, for example, could include sewer network level monitors working with regulatory event duration monitors to give an idea of the situational awareness of network performance – something that is happening with suppliers, however. In addition, current network performance indicators could work with the front end monitoring of wastewater treatment works in a way that is compatible with the water quality monitoring that is going to be installed over the coming decade.

By bringing this data together with models of the wastewater network, treatment works and the riverine environment, we would have a very powerful tool to not only monitor the performance of wastewater systems, but also their impact on riverine environments.

Underpinning the success of this is the availability and quality of the data – a subject that was addressed in the MetaCO scientific and technical report, ‘Digital Water: The value of meta-data for water resource recovery facilities’, which adds to other IWA work undertaken on this subject.

Garbage in, garbage out

We have all heard, or even potentially used, the phrase ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’. It was a phrase that was first used by William Mellin in the 1950s when the majority of instrumentation within the water industry was still mechanical. (Gustaf Olsson’s book, ICA and me, provides an insightful history of the development of instrumentation, control and automation [ICA] in water and wastewater.)

Mellin highlighted that if you put poor quality data into a computerised system, you will, of course, get garbage out – the computerised system will not realise what is and what is not useable data. For an industry that is increasingly using machine learning and trying to make sense of huge datasets to garner insights, poor quality data would make it impossible to see the wood for the trees.

While it may be laudable to collect data for the sake of collecting data, in reality there is a cost to gathering data, and if the value of that data is not recognised, then its collection will not be maintained. This point has been highlighted by an IWA Digital Water Programme White Paper on digital transformation and instrumentation, ‘Digital Water: The role of Instrumentation in Digital Transformation’, which proposed the concept of the instrumentation life-cycle.

Instrumentation life-cycle

The first part of the life-cycle asks the user to define the ‘instrumentation need’ – or, taking it up a step, the ‘data need’. If the need for the instrument is understood and the data that it provides has a value higher than its cost, then the data quality should be ensured.

Understanding uncertainty

The next step is to understand the uncertainty associated with the data, which was a subject that was covered in another IWA Digital Water Programme White Paper, ‘Measurement Uncertainty in Digital Transformation’, published in early 2024.

Next steps to digital transformation

As the water industry transforms digitally, ‘digital tools’ are going to help the sector address global challenges and targets – most importantly, the acceleration of the drive to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6, access to safe water and sanitation for all.

To manage water effectively, the industry as a whole needs to adopt the concepts that digital water offers. But we need to get the fundamentals right and ensure that the data collected is accurate and in a format that can be used. For this to be achieved, we need to garner the situational awareness to which I referred, to ensure data quality and understand its limitations through our knowledge of measurement uncertainty, so that we know what the data is for and where it fits into the system as a whole. Only by doing this will the water industry apply meta-data effectively.

More information

Digital Water: The value of meta-data for water resource recovery facilities, iwa-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/IWA_2021_Meta-data_IWA.pdf

Olsson, G., ICA and me – A subjective review. Water Research (2012),46, (6), 1585-1624

See: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135411008487?via%3Dihub

Digital Water: The role of Instrumentation in Digital Transformation,

iwa-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IWA_2020_Instrumentation_WEB.pdf

Measurement Uncertainty in Digital Transformation,

iwa-network.org/publications/digital-water-measurement-uncertainty-in-digital-transformation

The author: Oliver Grievson is an Associate Director at the global engineering consultancy AtkinsRéalis and a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Digital Water at the University of Exeter. He is also Chair of IWA’s Digital Water Programme.

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How does it work?

CityTaps has developed an innovative solution, CTSuite, that bridges the gap between water utilities and the urban poor: it is a prepayment service that comprises the world’s only smart (IoT) and prepaid water meter and a billing software. CTSuite allows residents to prepay for running water in the home–which is cheaper, healthier, and more convenient than any alternative–with any mobile phone, at any time, and for any amount. Prepaid water helps utilities become financially more viable, and gives them the ability to expand at-home water service to even the poorest residents and invest in infrastructure development.

How did the CityTaps project come about?

While working in Kampala, Uganda, I saw first-hand how the lack of piped-water deeply impacts the urban poor in the developing world. Nearly one billion people live without access to water in the home and face a triple tax in health (jerricans contaminate clean water), in money (up to 20 times more than the regulated tariffs), and in time (up to two hours per day). Women and girls disproportionately bear this burden. As a feminist and humanist, I have dedicated my career to trying to address this challenge through the founding of CityTaps in 2015. We have a moral imperative to solve this problem that affects the dignity, economic opportunity, and health of millions. Nobody’s yet cracked this–I believe that we have a major piece of the puzzle.

Is it still at the pilot stage or is it operational in cities?

CTSuite has been under field test since October 2016 in Niamey, Niger, with Veolia, the world’s largest water utility company. Twenty plots comprising 51 households are receiving prepaid water at home and accruing significant social benefits. Based on this success, CTSuite has gathered serious interest from private and public water utility companies throughout Africa, South America, and South Asia. We plan a 1,300 plus unit rollout in winter 2017 in Niger.

What has been the feedback from users?

We conducted surveys before, during and after our pilot in Niamey. Respondents reported that they:

• Saved money (a 94 percent saving based on median consumption of subscribers paying 16 times the utility tariff)
• Had greater control over their finances (households reported having a water budget increase from 35 percent to 68 percent over the course of the project, proving that prepayments are easier to manage),
• Experienced improved health outcomes (61 percent of respondents reported an improved perception of health), and
• Reaped savings in time otherwise spent procuring water from alternative sources or making time-consuming payments in person at the water utility (women and girls in particular reported benefits from this service as they are primarily responsible for water duties in the household).
• Overwhelming customer satisfaction was reported and 98 percent of respondents would recommend CTSuite to a neighbour. We will be expanding the service with the water utility (SEEN) as they can see the operational and financial benefits that CTSuite brings to them.

How is it financed and how is the user cost calculated?

CityTaps employs a meter-as-a-service model. Our unique customer management system supports the utility’s water monitoring and revenue collection processes. CityTaps is also responsible for collecting mobile payments from end-users via our platform. From these funds, CityTaps shares revenues with the water utility–we get paid when the utility gets paid, which is when people have water at home. As a startup, we are financed by grants, competitions, and some equity investors.

Who do you partner with?

We partner with water utilities to help them improve their cash flows and balance sheets. With CityTaps, utilities can serve all their customers more efficiently, expand coverage, and access new sources of financing for their capital projects. Our system helps utilities become financially independent and able to invest in infrastructure for at-home water service to even the poorest residents.

What is the potential for CityTaps in developing cities around the world, are there any prerequisites?

Scaling our solution requires deployment in the growing urban centre of the developing world. While in dire need of innovation, this industry can be slower than most to adopt new technology. Our main challenge is proving the value to the utilities. The only prerequisite is a utility interested in improving and expanding its service.

Can CityTaps only be achieved due to the technology available to us today, like the cloud, mobile phones and IoT?

CityTaps’ solution, CTSuite, offers the world’s only smart and prepaid water meter system that fully automates a water utility’s metering and payment processes. As such, CTSuite is dependent on technologies available to us today in order to offer a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) at-home water service using mobile money integrated with prepaid smart meters (CTMeter) and a companion software management system (CTCloud). We leverage the power of the IoT, hardware sensors, mobile phones (smartphones not required), and cloud-based software–all adapted for use in the developing world–to create the largest social impact possible. The CTSuite allows the utility to track customer behaviour and gain new insights from big data analysis and visualisation not otherwise available in customer management systems.

Where do you see CityTaps in five years’ time?

Based on the success of our pilot in Niamey, CTSuite has gathered serious interest from private and public water utility companies in sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world. We plan to deploy 2,000 to 3,000 CTSuites over the next 12 months, on our way to 100,000 in four years and 10 million in 10 years. CityTaps’ innovative solution has the potential to dramatically and quantifiably improve the lives and well-being of a billion people who do not have access to water in the home. It is our goal to work together with water utilities, impact investors, municipalities, and international financial institutions to make access to running water in every urban home a reality.

The post How a new prepayment system is connecting piped water to the urban poor appeared first on The Source.

Satellites have a long history, with the American writer, Edward Everett Hale, writing speculative fiction containing the first known depiction of an artificial satellite to measure longitude in The Brick Moon, back in 1869. During the intensity of World War II, the first space-based picture of Earth was taken, demonstrating the potential for space-based cameras to help us monitor our changing world. Soon after, space became the battlefield where the US and the Soviet Union tested their supremacy during the Cold War, giving way to, amongst others, the first commercial communications satellite. Today, from atmospheric satellites that can predict weather conditions to remote sensing satellites that monitor our environment’s resources from afar, there’s little on Earth’s surface that escapes from satellites’ sight. How can we apply satellite information to improve the quality of our waters and optimise decision making in water supply services?

Our freshwater resources are severely affected by climate change, urbanisation, population growth, and competing demands from other uses, such as ecosystem protection, agriculture, energy production and recreation. Water utilities’ treatment operations, costs, and the resulting services to consumers are heavily determined by both the quantity and quality of water upstream in the catchments and reservoirs.

Changes in climate are resulting in increased frequency and intensity of precipitation, topping up reservoirs, which can result in excess water runoff. This may lead to flooding and even destruction of the water stored, compromising water supplies.

Increased urbanisation also aggravates the quality of water bodies. The expansion of paved areas and increased urban runoff are major sources of water pollution in urban areas. Another big threat to water quality comes from diffuse pollution caused by intensive farming and its associated use of pesticides and fertilisers to feed an increasing population worldwide.

The combination of increased nutrient loading in water bodies and changes in temperature can result in algal blooms which can impact the storage load of reservoirs. Recurrent bloom episodes have significant socio-economic and environmental impacts. Algal blooms are a problem because they can produce toxins which can contaminate sources waters (e.g. cyanobacteria produces a group of harmful algal toxins known as microcystins), as well as the drinking water treatment facilities that the source waters supply. In the European Union, for example, fish mortality or diseases provoked by the consumption of such toxins are but a few of the economic impacts. Water treatment plants face a difficult task of not only removing the toxins, but doing so in a safe and cost-effective way.

Satellite remote sensing techniques to assess changes in water quality

These increasing pressures pose additional challenges to water utilities, many of which already struggle to secure a reliable supply of safe and clean water. Having access to real-time and forecasted information about the conditions of water quality and quantity is essential to proactively manage upstream risks, improve responses to water incidents, or improve their operational efficiency and quality of their services.

SPACE-O integrates Earth Observations and in-situ monitoring with advanced hydrological, water quality models and ICT tools, into a powerful decision support system that will generate up-to-the-minute data, as well as forecasting of water flows and water quality data in reservoirs. This knowledge about the conditions in the ground, now and in the near future, will help optimise water treatment plant operations, and increase the responsiveness of water managers against incidences, such as algal blooms, droughts and floods.

“High resolution pictures from earth observation could assist our water company in knowing when it’s the best time to take water from the river when the water stored during winter isn’t enough to supply for the summer months, highly reducing our maintenance costs,” said Ingrid Keupers, Technical Director of De Watergroep, during one of the first project consultation meetings with water utility operators.

Ensuring uptake of the resulting products is indeed crucial to the philosophy of SPACE-O. The products are centered around a decision support system (DSS) which aims to make use of satellite date and other technical tools to help water operators make informed decisions around issues such as water quality in reservoirs. From the start, a series of consultations with utility operators has been undertaken to cater the products to users’ needs. This creates ownership and interest in application of the relevant tools to their operations. Utilities that are interested to learn more can contact info@space-o.eu, and follow all the latest developments on the project’s website and social media channels.

The post Water quality from space: ‘A giant leap’ for public and environmental health appeared first on The Source.

The Guma Valley Water Company of Sierra Leone has become the first water company on the African continent to get an AquaRating certificate, setting an example for other water companies in Africa. It is the second in the world after the water company of Quito in Ecuador.

Water supply in Sierra Leone faces many challenges, characterised by limited access to safe drinking water. Despite ongoing efforts made by the government and numerous non-governmental organisations, things have not improved much since 2002, when the civil war that devastated Sierra Leone ended. Currently, it is stagnating at about 50 percent coverage and even declining in rural areas.

Since 2004, through the Local Government Act and a new decentralisation policy, the responsibility for water supply in areas outside the capital was passed from the central government to local councils. However, in Freetown, the capital and largest city with 1 million inhabitants, the Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC) remains in charge of water supply and plays a key role in the water sector.

Like many cities in Africa, Freetown faces both a growing population and growing demand for water from domestic use, industry and agriculture. Responding to these challenges and the expectations of its customers, Guma Valley Water Company used AquaRating to establish a baseline of their performance, to inform action plans for improvement, and to enable improvements to be measured over time.

It was always expected that AquaRating would highlight areas that needed significant improvement. In particular, the technical, financial and commercial aspects of Guma Valley Water Company’s operations were not satisfactory. More positively though, it is among the few water operators engaged in a balanced and innovative approach to utility management, based on corporate governance that is financially self-sustaining.

While these findings indicate a long road to improvement, what GWVC has done is remarkable, given that Sierra Leone is a country emerging from a period of great difficulty. The West African country had regained stability after a decade long civil war from 1991 to 2002, but in 2014 the Ebola outbreak created a humanitarian crisis that strained the country’s resources to breaking point. A weak healthcare infrastructure meant there were more deaths from medical neglect than Ebola itself.

Since the AquaRating project in GVWC started in March 2016, there have been many milestones. The additional effort required from the utility staff was itself a challenge in a setting where human resources were already scarce, but throughout the year-long project there has been a strong determination to ensure its success.

Few utilities in the world have had the courage to be as transparent as GVWC, and many utilities that have applied AquaRating have been reluctant to share their results. Despite far from outstanding results, GVWC maintained its commitment to transparency, without which improvements and progress become far less likely. The utility now has a clear picture of where it stands today and, most importantly, where it wants to be in the future and how it can get there. The company is now more fitted to play its key role in improving access to safe drinking water in Sierra Leone.

This will not be possible, however, without political support. At a recent event to recognise the completion of the Aquarating process the Minister for Water Resources, Momodu Maligie, presented the AquaRating Certificate to Bankole Masaray, Managing Director of GVWC. “It is of utmost importance to use the results of the AquaRating to restart on new bases”, stressed the Minister. “It is a picture of the real situation of the company, without which there is no visibility or opportunity to improve performances in a sector that is vital to the country, and where changes are urgent and indispensable”.

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This first implementation of AquaRating in an African utility is something of a test case for the assessment itself. Its success at providing a pathway to improvement will see the rating used to inform work being undertaken in the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Threshold Project, focused on technical assistance and institutional strengthening in Sierra Leone; and, with interest from utilities in several other countries, AquaRating can help empower African utilities to meet the challenges they face in coming decades.

There is a huge challenge ahead for GWVC, but by daring to go through the AquaRating process it has demonstrated that business as usual is no longer working for African water utilities.

Important lessons were gained from the AquaRating process in Sierra Leone, key amongst which were:

• The importance of documentation and record keeping;
• Utilities cannot assess and rate themselves unless they have it documented;
• Justification and compliance of procedures need to be documented;
• Money is not always a barrier, often it is a matter of attitude;
• Transparency and accountability are critical to get stakeholder buy-in;
• To improve, you need to understand where you are;
• AquaRating provides a first step in the right direction;
• Commitment from utility stakeholders is key;
• Utilities need to apply best practices in all areas of their operations;
• Practical action plans are necessary.

The post How Sierra Leone water utility is setting an example in Africa appeared first on The Source.

Energy costs for water utilities are large, and growing

Energy is a significant cost for many water utilities, and costs are growing as more energy-intensive forms of water supply, including desalination, are being used. Energy is typically the second-largest utility budget item in developed countries, after labour. In many developing countries, energy can account for 70 percent or even more, of annual costs. But water and wastewater utilities can generate and export energy–in multiple forms.

Water utilities can generate significant flows of energy

There are many examples of water and wastewater utilities successfully implementing Distributed Energy Resources (DER) projects, to offset costs, improve reliability or meet other targets such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Biogas (digester gas), co-digestion of food waste, heat generation (incineration of sludges), wind- and hydro- turbines, solar photovoltaic, tidal and geothermal, algal systems and fuel cells are all practical examples that have been proven to work.

However, current generation of renewable energy by water and wastewater utilities is a fraction of its long-term potential. In the United States, municipal water supply consumed 40 billion kWh electricity, and wastewater treatment 30 billion kWh in 2012: collectively 2 percent of total national electricity use. Yet the thermal, chemical and hydraulic energy content of raw wastewater alone in the United States is ~150 billion kWh, with 80 percent of this as waste heat, and 20 percent as chemical energy.

Globally, a number of wastewater treatment plants, including Morgental in Switzerland, are capitalising on all these forms of energy, and expect to generate more than five times than the plant itself consumes.

Water utilities are well placed to connect to electricity, gas and heat grids

Water and wastewater utilities are often good candidates for Distributed Energy Generation, and integration with electricity, gas and heat grids. They often own large amounts of contiguous land, have high (and movable) energy demand, and have the ability to provide other services to the energy grid. However, this integration is slow. Of the approximately 837 biogas generating facilities in the US in 2013, only 35 percent generate electricity from the gas and only 9 percent sell electricity back to the grid.

Integrating with–not just connecting to–the electricity grid is key

Successful integration of DER systems into the electric power grid can be problematic when the grid is not designed to accommodate high penetration of DER. To realise fully the value of DER and to serve consumers reliably, integrated planning–and an Integrated Grid–is needed.

Lack of co-ordination, is creating a wide set of barriers to integration and a raft of additional challenges exist including policy instability, guarantees, reliability, and maintenance responsibility. Identifying best options, and navigating regulatory requirements, tariffs and other barriers is a significant–and exciting–challenge for water and wastewater utilities.

The lack of integration is broader than DER, with limited “integrated planning” across the water and energy sectors more generally. This is partly due to significant inter-sectoral differences, and a lack of a common language also hinders solutions–who in the water industry talks of drop function or voltage harmonic distortion? Another limiting factor is the global paucity of integrated training across the water-energy divide.

Help us improve integration of distributed energy systems

The Water Research Foundation and Water and Environment Reuse Foundation, are undertaking a study to understand and improve integration of distributed energy into water and wastewater utilities. The research is led by The University of Queensland, Australia and the survey will be open until 23 May 2017.

Take the survey now: https://remsurvey.rem.sfu.ca/DER4625/

For more information:

• Take the DER survey https://remsurvey.rem.sfu.ca/DER4625/
• Consider masters-level water-energy training https://www.uq.edu.au/study/program.html?acad_prog=5410offered through http://www.watercentre.org/
• Read about integrated water-electric utility planning http://www.waterrf.org/Pages/Projects.aspx?PID=4469
• Read about the DER project http://www.waterrf.org/Pages/Projects.aspx?PID=4625
• Contact Steven Kenway kenway@uq.edu.au

The post How big is the distributed energy opportunity for water and wastewater utilities? appeared first on The Source.

Predicting the future is a risky business. From technological innovation to climate change, and everything in between, the world around us seems to be less predictable, more uncertain and changing at an unprecedented rate. This is as true in the water sector as in any other, except, that is, when it comes to water loss management.

The concepts and equipment developed during the last 20 years can solve the world’s non-revenue water problem. So much progress has been made, that today there are basically no significant advances left, no big news to announce, and no completely new methods that would change the situation drastically.

Yes, there are always new and exotic ideas and equipment, some may even work, but many of these “toys” are simply too expensive for the average water utility, and most are not required to reduce water losses.

The real question is why, when we have the answers, are leakage levels still so high in much of the world? Why do the vast majority of the world’s cities still have losses that exceed economic levels? Should this not be considered “irresponsible” in an era of climate change?

In many places, physical losses are so high that only half the population can be supplied with piped water. I have seen this in many countries, but none that reach the seriousness of the situation found in India, home to over 1.2 billion people.

India is the world’s largest urban water supply disaster. Distribution networks are in such bad condition that physical losses mean Indians are forced to live with intermittent supply in 99.9 percent of all cities. Sometimes this means only a couple of hours every few days. Nearly all cities in India could have continuous supply without needing additional water resources, but only if physical losses are reduced to acceptable levels.

That is the now, but what about 2050? The answer lies in applying one of Henry Ford’s maxims to water utilities: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.”

Those utilities that think, “we can”, not only understand the benefits of tackling water losses, they have a strategy with incentives to continually improve. They have trained staff, sufficient budget, and are prepared to outsource some or all of their activities. Those that think, “we can’t”, seem content with the status quo where up to 50 percent of water is lost.

In 2050, the world’s population will rise to 9.7 billion, 70 percent will live in urban areas, and 80 percent will live in low- and middle-income countries. This will be a huge challenge for water utilities. Take Tanzania as an example. Five years ago it had a population of 46 million, similar to Spain. In 2050, its population will be 138 million. Too many “we can’t” water utilities are in countries facing the same pressures as Tanzania. This needs to change, and urgently.

If new technologies only provide some of the answers, what will be the biggest driver of change? I was struggling to find an answer until a chance discussion with my daughter–who is currently doing a Masters in urban water supply–led me to the answer. Our greatest hope for water loss management will be the next generation of water professionals.

When I studied in the 1980s, water loss management, leak detection, network rehabilitation, a water balance, the economic level of leakage and pressure management were never discussed. All we learned was how to design a new distribution network. Water loss management was done by trial and error, with no standardised concepts. Attend a large water conference, and you’d be lucky if there was a single paper on water loss.

That has been reversed, but the water industry remains conservative, risk-averse and slow moving. We don’t sit in grand isolation from the powerful forces shaping the world around us though, and change is coming. The next generation of water professionals will also work at government agencies, regulators, consultancies, NGOs and in the media. The pressure on utilities to become more efficient will grow–and so will their ability to respond positively.

Providing more people with safe water and reducing water losses are just different sides of the same coin. With the right political support, younger professionals with a “we can” attitude to water loss management, working in an industry that already has a wealth of excellent solutions, can mean there’s no need to wait until 2050. The change we need can happen now.

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