Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1119298
Water industry must 'win hearts and minds' in asset management The Talk: Events T he UK water industry must think beyond physical assets in its asset management and build societal capi- tal by showing its value to the community, delegates heard at the WWT Asset Manage- ment conference. Eliane Algaard, water director at North- umbrian Water, told the conference that while the sector has rightly been focusing on building resilience into its assets and networks, it is also just as important to 'win the hearts and minds' of its stakeholders and customers. This involves thinking about the societal and environmental effects of its work, and building these considerations into decision-making at every stage. She called for the industry to pursue a common approach to what is known as the 'six capitals' and said that AMP7 pro- vided new opportunities for collaboration, particularly in the sphere of resilience. She highlighted Northumbrian's multi-stake- holder work, such as its Pesti-wise initiative which worked with farmers on catch- ment management and the elimination of pesticides, and its sustainable drainage projects which have worked alongside local communities on reducing flooding. "There have been predictions that the next five years are going to be hard, but I believe they are going to be fun. We've got great people and we need to all pull together to make it happen," said Algaard. Earlier, the conference heard from Nevil Muncaster, director of asset manage- ment at Yorkshire Water, and Joe Roebuck, global water director at SEAMS, about how Yorkshire Water's programme for AMP7 had built calculations about the six capitals Asset management in the water industry needs to emphasise the six capitals, conference hears James Brockett reports from Birmingham SPONSORED BY into its decisions using analytical soŽware. Roebuck cited calculations that showed that for every £1 spent on Yorkshire Water's water projects there was £4.66 in benefits to the wider community, while the figure for wastewater is £3.20. Non-asset projects oŽen have the biggest paybacks, which is why the industry should not always rush to "spade in the ground" solutions. Muncaster gave the example of Hull – where the utility is working with multiple stakeholders to reduce flood risk following devastating floods in 2007 – to demonstrate how the water company's work was vital for communities, irrespective of whether that includes building assets. "We're an anchor organisation – we have an impact on 5 million people every day in their daily lives, and that gives us responsi- bilities," said Muncaster. In a poll conducted among participants at the conference, 38 per cent thought that in order to become more resilient the indus- try should focus its investment in technol- ogy and innovation; this compared to 18 per cent who thought the focus should be on improving assets, and only 2 per cent who thought the key was new assets. "The best form of asset management is when we don't build anything," said Neil Wilson, director of risk and investment at Wessex Water. "It might make people uncomfortable, but if we want to leave our environment in a better position than how we found it, we've got to stop thinking the answer is to build things." The WWT Asset Management conference was held in Birmingham on 2 May and sponsored by SEAMS, Howden and Kier 12 | JUNE 2019 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk THE SPEAKERS "There have been predictions that the next five years are going to be hard, but I believe they are going to be fun. We've got great people and we need to all pull together to make it happen." Eliane Algaard, water director, Northumbrian Water "We're an anchor organisation – we have an impact on 5 million people every day in their daily lives, and that gives us responsibilities in the communities we serve." Nevil Muncaster, director of asset management, Yorkshire Water