24. Future Water, 15 September 2023


I would not normally comment on a product launch, but this was exceptional.  The Future Water Association launched their Future Water Record card – a state of the nation type assessment of eight key aspects relating to pipes and sewers.  At the launch, sector representatives described the work under way to improve the quality of the water network and its management, and the measurement of improvements.

There was commitment to push for universal smart metering of water supply and a determination to understand better the health of the network.  Sewer monitoring and flow measurement need to improve.  There was concern about the future sourcing of professionals for the industry and the need to improve diversity.  Customer side leakage accounts for up to 50% of overall leakage and the challenge is to raise customer awareness and action. Concern was raised over the level of, and lag between, funding, research, innovation and its wide scale adoption.

Overall, I was impressed with the awareness of issues in the sector and the commitment to address them.  My challenge to the sector was to improve communication on the work being undertaken to address the issues.  While acknowledging the improvements in monitoring, especially storm water overflows, I suggested more could be done to communicate monitoring data, especially making it more accessible and putting it into a form that was more usable by the public.

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