168. Water under pressure Greenbank Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2 Savoy Place 24 April 2024

I attended this Investor day as a Trustee of the Water Conservation Trust and interested in the headline subject.  It turned out to be far more fascinating than I had expected.  The speakers :

·         Kate Elliot, Head of Ethical, Sustainable and Impact Research, Greenbank

·         Kai Johns, Senior Ethical, Sustainable and Impact Researcher, Greenbank

·         Claire Elsdon, Director of Capital Markets, CDP

·         Jason Shingleton, Group Material Science Director

·         Martin Gisbourne, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Genuit

They were all very interesting, identifying issues globally across water and the need for action as well as where they were specifically involved and supporting local initiatives.

I have reproduced some of their slides, which reflected their messages for me.




We then heard from Professor Wouter Buytaert from Imperial College who gave a great presentation.  He explained that the “Water Crisis” is two crises - the physical scarcity of water and the shortage of safe drinking water.  Household water requirements represent a tiny fraction of global water use, usually less than 10% of the total, but there is a tremendous inequality in access to clean water and sanitation at a household level.  In England we abstract 9,500 billion litres per year and consume 140 litres on average per person per day.  We consume about 30 times as much indirectly, through the production of energy and imported food and textiles.  This is equivalent to 4745 litres per day.

The water industry needs to resist the urge simply to do the minimum required to meet regulations.  This does not mean simply more policing/enforcement but also systems that facilitate policy makers, water managers, and other stakeholders better to understand water systems and what they should deliver.

He said we need to take a leading role in delivering sustainable water and wastewater infrastructure, ensuring a provision that is resilient both to the conditions we face today and to the changes in population and weather patterns we can expect in the future.

It was a stimulating, thought provoking day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

230. Installation Court, Apothecaries’ Hall, 3 July 2024

Image
The Installation Court was held in the magnificent setting of the Apothecaries’ Hall. The focus of the Court meeting was on the growth of the Company and increased activity and income. The Company was very pleased to welcome Liam Hogg, Lee Morton and Gerald O’Shaughnessy as new Liverymen, and Martin Ballard, Avtar Jirh, Tom Morton, Michael Nates, Lina Nieto, Elizabeth Price, Mark Smith, John Ward, Judy West and John Wylie as new Freemen of the Company.
Read more

229. Sunset Cruise and Dinner, River Thames, 2 July 2024

Image
My thank you event for the Court and Company had to involve water, so what better way than a sunset cruise on the Thames!   I wanted a memorable expression of thanks to members of the Court, Past Masters, Fellow Masters, Consorts and friends. I took the advice of the Master Waterman and approached several companies to hire a boat for the evening. The first we declined when we found that the catering was not of the required standard. Everything was going well for the second boat until I advertised it to the Court and had more responses than could fit on the boat. So we got a bigger boat and filled it. The caterer was concerned how they could feed us all but I was confident it would work. On Monday morning I took a call from the boat company to say that the refuelling on Saturday night had resulted in contaminated oil getting to the engine and they offered a fourth boat …. the Wellington ! I politely declined, as I knew the Wellington would not be cruising anywhere. Eventually the...
Read more

79.Lord Mayor's Address to the Livery, Mansion House, 22 November 2023

Image
I have taken so many pictures of the current Lord Mayor standing at a lectern I thought that it was about time for a change so a previous Lord Mayor instead.   One of 625! This was one of the occasions when Masters had to be at the Mansion House to hear the Lord Mayor.   It was an impressive but informal occasion. The Lord Mayor started with thanks to the cadet forces from the Army, Navy and Air Force for their help at the Lord Mayor’s show.   He then outlined his vision and plans for the year ahead.   In particular he emphasised the importance of the Livery and cross-Livery working.   We were given a handout on 12 of the different pan-Livery activities.   Although we have engaged with many of them, I felt that we were active members of relatively few and we needed to revisit our pan-Livery activities. The Lord Mayor then focused on his theme of Connect to Prosper and the various initiatives that were helping to deliver it.   He described the seri...
Read more