Searching the globe to cut leaks
Water companies across the world are pooling resources to tackle water challenges, with Severn Trent Water and United Utilities founder members from the UK
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Water companies across the world are pooling resources to tackle water challenges
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Severn Trent Water and United Utilities founder members from the UK
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Members also drawn from USA, Australia and Brazil
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Research will be ‘open source’ to allow others to benefit around the globe
Severn Trent Water and United Utilities Water have joined forces with water companies around the world to launch the ‘The World Water Innovation Fund’ to tackle water challenges and cut leaks.
The fund is a collaboration designed to share leading edge ideas, trials and research. It brings together like-minded water companies to share knowledge and find new ways to better serve customers.
Water companies from the UK, USA, Australia and Brazil that have signed up to the scheme will work together to innovate, develop and trial new technology and conduct research, in a bid drive greater water efficiency across their networks.
Crucially, each water company will publish their research, including associated results and findings on the World Water Innovation Fund website. This means every single water company around the world will be able to benefit from the findings.
Speaking about the launch of the fund, Ofwat senior director John Russell said:
“The challenges facing the water sector are profound, long-term and global. Innovation is vital to meeting the challenge of significant leakage reduction. That is why it is so important to see companies across the world pooling resources and ideas.
“With the right culture innovation can thrive. This is a step towards embracing that collaboration culture to foster a global response which is creative, ambitious, and able to solve problems and create new possibilities. It is a really exciting initiative and we’ll follow it with real interest.”
Speaking about United Utilities involvement in the fund, Kieran Brocklebank, Head of Innovation at United Utilities said:
“The fund is very exciting. Through all of our innovation work at United Utilities over the last few years we’ve worked with innovators from all around the world. [There’s] only so much we can do on our own. Working with others gives us a fighting chance to really reach out and help more people”.
Watch: Kieran Brocklebank, Head of Innovation at United Utilities speaking about the World Water Innovation Fund.
Speaking about why the fund was making its work public, Bob Stear, Severn Trent Water’s Chief Engineer and head of innovation said:
“The challenges that we’re just talking about here: about water resources, about leakage, around energy – the circular economy – are global challenges that we’re just playing a small part in. So I think it feels like the right thing to do to start a process– and committing some cash ourselves to that process. Simply put, there is a global challenge. So we want some global solutions. And I think the more we can talk and share, the quicker we’ll get to the best answers.”
