Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/662533
People & Opinion Utility Week community UTILITY WEEK | 8TH - 14TH APRIL 2016 | 7 In this column, invited authors write for Utility Week on the subject of innovation, the headline theme of Utility Week Live. Visit: www.utilityweeklive.co.uk U N World Water Day was on 22 March. While the White House was hosting a US water summit, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) celebrated by featuring dog micro- chipping on its website and tweeting a picture of a pan of British sausages (both of which are very fine things). To me, this represented the final admission of the withdrawal of government from water policy. Earlier this month I bemoaned the lack of water in the Defra strategy, only to be reassured it would be in the detail. But clearly it won't be, and any government pronounce- ments about water will involve only a minister in wellies standing either in floodwater or next to an empty reser- voir, depending on the issue. This is a sad state of affairs because Defra has some very capable officials and fine ministers, but nowadays it's solely about the market. However, there may be a silver lining here. The retreat of government from water, combined with ubiq- uitous computing, sector fragmentation and growing public indignation with the status quo in almost every field, means that there may be an opportunity for the democratisation of water. "Democratisation of water" doesn't trip off the tongue, but what I am talking about is making water more local and more personal, giving consumers a say in the management of their water. The introduction of competition will fragment and localise water. It will mean that customers will have (or will demand) more control over their data, and this will lead to bespoke services. Some of the new entrants could be co-operatives or communities, as is happening in the US energy sector and is slowly emerging here. Or we could see more communities or individuals going off- grid for water, because rainwater and greywater technol- ogy is punching below its weight at the moment. The idea of individual homes being physically off-grid for water yet at the same time connected to the Inter- net of Things for water management is possible now. Incumbent companies will need to develop a strategy to deal with this convergence of consumer independence, ubiquitous computing and sector fragmentation or they will be le as supplier of last resort battling to maintain a huge physical water and wastewater network with dwindling revenues in an increasingly off-grid sector. I would suggest they look first at Singapore's Public Utilities Board, where they share asset management with local communities and have embraced a blue-green infrastructure approach with their ABC programme, simultaneously democratising and re-naturalising water. Jacob Tompkins, managing director, Waterwise The path to democratisation of water Eureka Jacob Tompkins This week we profile Kara Sadler, strategy scientist with Anglian Water and one of the Institute of Water's Rising Stars of 2016. What was your first job? My first job was as a kennel assistant when I was 15 and managed to get a job aer a work experience placement at a local kennel and cattery. My first professional job was as a research scientist at Phosphon- ics, a precious metal recovery laboratory. How did you come to join your company? Aer working as a research scientist at Phosphonics for a number of months, I realised precious metal recovery was not the industry I wanted to build my career in. Aer searching for other scien- tific roles of interest, I found out about a supply scientist assistant role at Anglian Water. In March 2010 I was success- fully appointed to the role and instantly fell in love with the water industry. How long have you been with them? Six years. What has been your biggest achievement since joining? Being sponsored by Anglian Water to study for a masters Rising Stars profile Kara Sadler, strategy scientist, Anglian Water degree at Cranfield Univer- sity in water and wastewater engineering and successfully completing this in 2014. It was hard balancing work and aca- demia but a really invaluable experience where I learnt a vast amount that I have been able to use in my day job. What preconception about your company did you find was most wrong? That treating water to make it safe and clean was a cheap and easy process – how wrong was I! What's your favourite joke? "I would tell you a chemistry joke, but all the best ones, ar…gon." Do you have a message for the industry? The water industry is chang- ing rapidly: retail competition, extreme weather conditions and an ageing workforce, to name but a few drivers. I believe the key to successfully embracing change is to invest in the people of tomorrow by encouraging young people and professionals to join the water industry and give them the opportunity to fulfil their future career within it; all this while retaining the experience and knowledge built from the people of today. Creating suc- cessful collaborations between external organisations as well as across the water sector will be essential to support us all in the new tomorrow. Find out more about the Institute of Water's Rising Stars programme at: www.instituteofwater.org. uk/rising-stars/