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News: Northumbrian rated top water company by suppliers. P4 Onsite: Top engineering standards at Jersey's new sludge plant. P8-10 Insight: High frequency monitoring needed to protect UK rivers. P12-13 WET NEWS WATER AND EFFLUENT TREATMENT NEWS Government expects major water infrastructure investment AUGUST 2018 Volume 24 • Issue 8 Murphy to construct North Bristol sewer Call for water to 'go beyond the catalogue' T he Government will push for major new infrastruc- ture to meet the country's water needs when it issues its national policy statement this autumn. Defra deputy director for water services Dr Sebastian Catovsky told the Regulation of the Water Industry inquiry on 11 July that water transfer has a "crucial" role to play in contending with pres- sures on demand. W h i l e t h e re h a s b e e n n o investment in new nationally signiƒ cant supply infrastructure such as major reservoirs since„pri- vatisation in 1989, Dr Catovsky said Defra has "noticed quite a change in the„discussion" since the National Infrastructure Com- mission issued its report in April, which urged the Government to ensure that plans are in place to deliver additional supply and demand reduction of at least 4,000 Ml/day. T h e N I C r e p o r t – w h i c h attracted fresh attention when reissued in July as part of the National Infrastructure Assess- ment – recommended that at least 1,300 Ml/day is provided through a national water network and additional supply infrastructure by the 2030s. Dr Catovsky said the current rate of water transfer – around four per cent – is far too low and "probably needs to double over 10 to 20 years" but said the NIC report "certainly seems to be driving people to think about what more we need to do". Pressed on what measures could be taken to push companies to transfer water, he told the inquiry: "This is exactly what the national policy statement is for. "It is there to speciƒ cally look at the national need for new infra- structure and, once the need has been identiƒ ed, to allow it to move through the planning system in a more streamlined way. "We are developing a national policy statement because we recognise that we cannot just leave some of these infrastructure issues to individual companies. There will be some transfers that are really strategic – big transfers between catchments – so we do need a national view. The Envi- ronment Agency is also keen to develop more of a national view of water resources, and we think that the national policy statement will really help us to do that." Environment minister Dr Thé- rèse Coš ey, appearing alongside Dr Catovsky, said she and Defra would push the Treasury to accept the NIC's recommendations. "There were„no big surprises from„the NIC, and it is helpful W e s s e x W a t e r h a s appointed Murphy as the principal contractor on a £45 million contract to con- struct the new North Bristol Relief Sewer. Murphy will construct approx- imately 5km of tunnel and over 1km of pipework that will pass through the Cribbs Causeway, Filton and Lawrence Weston areas. The route crosses several key transport assets and includes tunnelling under the M5 motor- way and Network Rail's Henbury Loop. The project will create an increase in storage capacity ahead of future developments as well as reducing flooding risk within the existing network. Murphy will connect the new sewer with the existing Frome Valley Relief and Bristol Trunk Sewers, and has created bespoke solutions to connect the Cribbs Causeway and Henbury areas into the new system. Murphy CEO John Murphy said: "We're excited to be working w i t h We s s e x Wa t e r o n a n extremely important project for customers in the Bristol area. We have in-house tunnelling exper- tise within our engineering team which helped us engineer solu- tions that will be key to delivering this scheme. "This project was a key target in our ten-year plan and we feel very passionately about our abil- ity to deliver for Wessex Water customers." W ater companies should be more willing to work with the supply chain on bespoke solutions rather than opting for oš -the-shelf products that may not meet their needs, according to a new report. The 'Going Beyond the Cata- logue' report from ¦ ow control specialists TALIS claims there is 'endemic waste' in the sector caused by incorrect buying deci- s i o n s f o r n o n - s t a n d a r d applications. The report details the ways in which poor decisions are causing costs to rise and highlights a ƒ ve- point plan to create more intel- ligent design, speciƒ cation and procurement processes. In particular, it cites a need for water companies, suppliers and manufacturers to work more closely to share expertise and capabilities. Hervé Dumont, product strat- egy director at Talis, says: "Con- versations that end at price and delivery dates are never going to be enough to meet the complex needs that can arise when dealing with water networks. " W h e n t h e p a r t n e r s h i p between customer and supplier is working perfectly, standard needs should be business as usual, leaving time and focus for non-standard needs to be the areas where customers and sup- pliers can work closely to explore the 'art of the possible', working to co-design solutions that will save time, money and resources." that an organisation like the NIC has done this," she said. "Some of what we are already doing is in line.„ That allows us to push the Treasury to try to make that happen." D r C o f f e y a l s o s a i d s h e expected Thames Water to make headway on its longstanding eš orts to build a reservoir near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. "I cannot break conƒ dences but very strong messages have been given and recognised by Thames„about the importance of getting that done" she added. "I am hopeful – 'hopeful' is actually too mild, I am conƒ dent„– that„we will be seeing indications of investment." Ofwat chief executive Rachel "We should consider steel construction as an alternative to concrete for tanks." Rob Cuthbertson, Galliford Try, P16 "For an industry used to cutting corners, BIM is about doing things properly." Gary Ross, NM Group, P6 § National Infrastructure Commission recommendations backed as Ofwat CEO urges more focus on water "We cannot just leave some of these infrastructure issues to individual companies" Dr Sebastian Catovsky, Defra I maginative solutions were on display at Northumbrian Water Group's second Innovation Festival, held between July 9 and 13 at Newcastle Racecourse. The event attracted thousands of attendees and involvement from 510 businesses, as participants worked together to tackle 13 major s o c i a l a n d e n v i r o n m e n t a l challenges. Data hacks and design sprints examined not only water-related questions such as tackling leakage Hot ideas on show at Innovation Festival One of the sprints, with the title 'Going Deeper Underground' and sponsored by Ordnance Sur- vey, worked on the possibility of creating an underground map of the UK showing all the water, sewerage, power and telecoms assets. The sprint team managed to produce an initial version of the underground map and a plan for how it might be further devel- oped. With Northern Gas Net- works, Northern Powergrid and BT Openreach all involved in the Fletcher, meanwhile, told the inquiry that water transfer levels are "very low" and that she wants companies to do more. The regulator had criticised companies' draª water resources management plans for a lack of ambition earlier this year and said the proposed Severn-Thames transfer, which would involve moving water from the North- West to the South-East of England using a combination of existing river systems and new infrastruc- ture, warrants greater engage- ment from United Utilities, Severn Trent and Thames Water. "We actually have water-rich and water-scarce companies side by side," Fletcher told the inquiry. "It begs the question of why transfers are not happening to improve resilience." She added: "Where there are trades between companies, there are commercial arrangements in place that govern the terms of those trades,„both in terms of the volume and the price, including what happens„ when„ there is water-resource pressure.„ " W h a t i s r e a l l y i m p o r - tant,„though, is that„when you have an emergency situation, companies are not thinking about this as a commercial transaction but are co-operating so customers get the best possible service." companies that we could all name, such as Google or Microsoft, believe that the best innovation happens when you are open, and put your work and your challenges out there for other people to come and add something to. "We've invited all the water companies here, but also many other innovative companies and people from other sectors, and many people have come who are new to us. It's produced a great richness and diversity of ideas." and sewer ¦ ooding, using smart technology in the network and reducing water consumption, but also environmental challenges such as phasing out single-use plastics and green transport, and societal issues such as providing better customer service to visually impaired people. "At the heart of this event is the idea of open innovation," Northumbrian Water CEO Heidi Mottram told WET News. "The really successful, innovative festival, the event was the ideal springboard for such pan-utility collaboration. Last year's Innovation Festival resulted in 34 individual projects being taken up by the firm; of these, 27 are still going, and sev- eral are already yielding or promis- i n g t o p r o d u c e b u s i n e s s beneƒ ts.

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