WET News

2 WET NEWS JULY 2017 COMMENT "...I can see why the digital age 'toys' are creating a wave of excitement" JULY 130K Lanes has developed an app that promises to improve the way water abstraction from mains is carried out by wastewater companies. The app pinpoints 130,000 abstraction points across the Thames Water region and neighbouring areas. "I look forward to working with the engineering and technical delivery teams to develop our capabilities further..." Liz Chapman, the new UK design director appointed at MWH, now part of Stantec. Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water has will invest an extra £34M arising from its strong ‰ nancial results. The £34M reinvestment announced for 2016-17 is a rise on the £32M which was reinvested following the 2015-16 ‰ nancial year. The utility consulted with more than 12,000 of customers, which showed strong support for community projects, and investment to secure high-quality services. £34M £32M £5.5M South West Water (SWW) has spent £5.5M to upgrade Tamar Lakes WTW to install extra manganese removal ‰ lters, granular activated carbon ‰ lters and a UV disinfection system. 60K The estimated number of underground cable strikes that occur in the UK every year. "...this acquisition will present significant, ongoing growth and diversification opportunities for our business" Simon Best, Morrison Data Services MD, on buying Meter-U from the EnServe Group for an undisclosed sum. "China is a huge market. It faces the same chall- enges as other parts of the world in water supply and distribution but is unique in the rate of growth of its population..." i2O boss Joel Hagan announcing an agreement with GDH Water in China. £8M Tesco Stores was ordered to pay £8M-plus in ‰ nes and costs after pleading guilty to a sewer pollution incident in July 2014 that sparked a huge multi- agency operation including the EA, United Utilities, and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service. The digital age, a breath of fresh air for the engineering world T ell me if I'm wrong, but I think the arrival of the digital age – bringing with it technologies such as drones, the Internet of Things, virtual reality – has brought with it an air of excitement to the world of engineering. Take Balfour Beatty, for instance. The infrastructure engineering giant is talking of human-free construction sites by 2050 with the help of robotics. Great for tackling health and safety issues as well as the skills shortage, but not so great for human construction workers. Then there's Morrison Utility Services (MUS), which has introduced Robotics Process Automation (RPA) technology to deliver new safety, quality assurance and eŠ ciency levels to its utility plan ('safe dig pack') preparation processes. This solution deploys soŒ ware robots that mimic deŽ ned human actions to retrieve asset location information and handle high volume repeatable tasks. I'm not an engineer but I love Sci-Fi and I can deŽ nitely see why the digital age 'toys' are creating a wave of excitement in the water and construction sectors. At the very least it is capturing the imagination, opening up people's minds to what could become a reality, and not just something that we've seen in Sci-Fi land. Hackathon to tackle water leakage In a couple of days or so Northumbrian Water will bring together experts from global giant MicrosoŒ to lead the search for answers on the problem of water leakage, as part of its Innovation Festival. The three-day hackathon will see expert data crunchers from across the country join a MicrosoŒ team to focus on tackling the subject of water leakage. In a rare move, the hackathon will run alongside a special week-long "sprint", where a second team of industry experts, academics, students and members of the public will work together to develop ideas to reduce water leakage. The hackathon will feature around 30 analysts working on data relating to leaks, soil types, water pressure, pipe materials and many other elements that may feasibly impact upon the likelihood and location of leaks. This is gathered from a wide range of places, including Northumbrian Water's own data, the Met OŠ ce, and social demographic information sources. This hackathon is a brilliant idea, especially in bringing a wide-ranging group of people together to Ž nd a viable solution to this nationwide, even global, problem can be found. IN A NUTSHELL T hames Water is targeting greater eŠ ciencies in repairing or returning a road surface back to a compliant state following excavations to repair, maintain or install its assets. As a result the company recently tendered a rein- statement works contract which is worth £258M, and is initially for three years with potential to extend to eight years. In the tender document, Thames Water described reinstatement work as "being a major challenge for us and our alliance partners" with around 150,000 reinstatements com- pleted annually at a cost of £30M a year, including avoidable streetworks Ž nes and penalties. Reinstatement work oš ers great opportunities to deliver operational eŠ ciencies, best value for money, and provide an excellent customer exper- ience, it said. The scope of the tender process includesd • Reinstatement work carried out by Thames Water and its alliances across all geographies › Reinstatement work costs utility £30M a year, including avoidable streetworks ‰ nes and penalties. Thames Water targets e ciencies in road repairs and contract types: • Internal processes in- cluding work allocation, standards and report- ing, governance and systems • Engagement models for reinstatement contractors • Quality assurance and reporting. Reinstatement is repairing or returning a road surface back to a compliant state aŒ er an excavation to repair, maintain or put in place a Thames Water asset. Thames Water's reinstatements are carried out by its alliances, the IA (developer services and repair and maintenance), eight2O (capital delivery projects) and through the WNS contract for the waste network. The company said more than half (56%) of reinstatements are in response to clean water repair and maintenance works, 13% related to metering, 12% customer side leakage, 8% to developer services and 2% to capital delivery projects (which is expected to increase due to a mains replacement programme). Approximately 9% of reinstatements are attributed to the waste network. The contract will be split into three regions – Thames Valley, and North and South London. One of the keys to maximising the benets of anaerobic digestion is the process of in-tank mixing. Rotamix from System Mix is the proven and highly eective mixing system which is helping AD operators to achieve excellent results at numerous municipal and commercial installations across the UK. Take a closer look at the benets of Rotamix from System Mix ... ...secure the ADVANTAGE for your AD Biogas Process. Take a closer look at the benets of Rotamix from System Mix ... AB17-1030 System Mix Ltd. 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