WET News

"Predicting which [failures] are going to fail is really difficult but predicting how many are going to fail is surp- risingly easy" Alec Erskine, MWH. P9, 10 News+ Arup and IWA team up with the aim of advancing the knowledge available to city leaders and urban professionals. P4 Onsite: Water companies are increasingly studying how resilient they might be to stresses and strains, both now and in the future. Is reliability engineering the answer? P9, 10 Insight: Sampling & monitoring The industry has had to rise to the challenge of measuring and removing more exotic and challenging priority substances. As a result, the standardisation shackles have been loosened. P18-19 WET NEWS WATER AND EFFLUENT TREATMENT NEWS • • Civil contractors tell government to take steps to ensure they can recruit the suitably-skilled workers needed to cater for the substantial pipeline of work in the coming years. 'Act urgently' to prevent ll- blown skills crisis post Brexit JULY 2017 Volume 23 • Issue 7 New alliance picks up £100M Severn Trent Water deal "Sustainable and resilient systems will depend on industry leaders who can collaborate and innovate as the water sector attempts to modernise its assets" Cindy Wallis-Lage, Black & Veatch. P4 C ivils contractors have told the new government must act urgently to prevent a full-blown construction skills crisis due to Brexit. A major Construction Ind- ustry Training Board (CITB) research study has found that two in five employment agencies expect: • Staff shortages due to Brexit • Half of London con- struction firms are heavily reliant on migrant workers • Half of firms with migrant labour are expecting to be impacted by potential migrant caps. The CITB study also dem- onstrated that more than a third of employers who employ staff from outside the UK say they do so not because they are seeking cheaper labour, but because there are not enough skilled applicants from Britain. It also found that a majority of non-UK construction workers are skilled, with over two-thirds holding a construction-related qualification. Marie-Claude Hemming, dir- ector of external affairs for the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) said: "CECA calls on the new government to take steps to ensure the con- struction industry is able to recruit suitably-skilled workers to build what is a substantial pipeline of work in the coming years." She said: "A key step towards building industry confidence would be to immediately guarantee the rights of EU construction workers living in the UK, to ensure that those who are helping to build the future health of the UK economy can continue to do so post-Brexit. "The construction sector requires at least 35,740 new workers per year. Currently the industry is reliant on migrant labour alongside UK workers to meet demand, particularly in London." She said that if the government is to head off a construction skills crisis a•er Brexit, it must act to dispel uncertainties over the UK's post-Brexit immigration policy, clarify the status of EU nationals working in the industry, and redouble its efforts to attract new entrants to the sector. Back in the spring, CECA published a manifesto setting out the infrastructure policies it felt the government must pursue to secure economic growth post-Brexit. The association advised that the government must: • Maintain and build upon the existing infrastructure pipeline • Deliver a Government Ind ustrial Strategy with a construction sector deal • Rebalance investment across the UK • Guarantee the rights of EU workers living in the UK as a matter of urgency • Protect the pound via public procurement • Commit to remote onshore wind power. D NM Alliance, a new partnership between Doosan Enpure and NMC, has secured the 'Treated Water' contract on Severn Trent's £300M Birmingham Resilience Project. The partnership will perform the design and construction of a new water treatment plant at Frankley, which treast water that will be supplied to Birmingham from multiple sources under the scheme. The 'Treated Water' contract is worth in excess of £100M. DNM Alliance will work together to deliver the project in a collaborative joint venture; the scheme will commence on site in the third quarter of 2017 and will be delivered over the next three years. NMC is already working on the project as part of the BNM Alliance along with Barhale. The award of the 'Water Treated' contract follows the departure earlier this year of Severn Trent's preferred bidder -- the joint venture between Kier and Interserve parted company with the utility, with reports suggesting there had been disagreement over budget. UU in court over crypto outbreak A s WET News went to press United Utilities (UU) was due to appear in court having received a summons from the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) over the cryptosporidium outbreak that affected around 700,000 people in Lancashire in 2015. A full court case was due to start on June 30. UU said it had taken a "full and open role" with DWI during the investigation and "complied with all requests for information". On August 6, 2015, UU advised customers in Preston, South Ribble, Chorley and the Fylde coast to boil their water for all drinking and eating purposes a•er traces of cryptosporidium were detected during routine tests at Franklaw WTW. UU flushed through 2,500 miles of pipes and storage reservoirs to get rid of the crypto parasite, and deployed portable UV ray equipment to kill off remaining traces. The incident, which lasted 30 days, cost the company about £25M in compensation pay- outs to more than 300,000 customers. "The construc- tion sector re- quires at least 35,740 new workers per year" Marie-Claude Hemming, CECA GRP with value. 10,000L 750,000L potable industry, design & housings. meet your www.precolortankdivision.co.uk enquiries@precolor.co.uk 655545 008 Specialist water & chemical storage www.precolortankdivision.co.uk Email: enquiries@precolor.co.uk Tel: 01630 657281 Fax: 01630 655545 With over 40 year's experience of serving the water industry, our invaluable knowledge has allowed us to design & manufacture an extensive range of standard tanks & housings. We also offer customized solutions tailored to meet your specifi c requirements. 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