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UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH OCTOBER 2016 | 7 Interview T hree months ago, meeting Martin Baggs involved drawn-out negotiations with press officers and ended in chaperoned meetings under their watch- ful eye. Now, at a quiet table in the basement cafe of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the shackles are off and he is free from scrutiny. With a smile touching the corners of his mouth, he says: "Of course, civil engineers are the only real engineers." Our correspondence to arrange this meeting had been via email, no press officers involved. The location, his suggestion – close to Westminster, where he has a dinner engagement that evening. However, for all his joviality, Baggs also has the air of a captain without a ship. "From being at Thames Water for seven years to not being there is a big change. To go from a phone that's buzzing all the time – it does change the way you live." Aer 30 years in the water industry, Baggs is in two minds about whether to stay in the sector or branch out. "Part of me is heavily tied to the water industry and all the knowledge I have in it." Another part of him wants do something different. A chief executive role in another industry perhaps, or greater involvement in infrastructure development. "At the moment, I have a very open mind, but my wife will tell you that I'm not retiring – that has been made absolutely clear to me." Baggs le Thames Water last month having achieved everything he set out to at the company. He decided seven years there was long enough. During his tenure, the number of customer com- plaints to Thames halved; the number of health and safety incidents halved; all major targets were achieved; a "game-changing" alliance – eight2O – was created; and the biggest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the UK water industry – the Thames Tideway Tunnel – was launched. The Tunnel, which is about to begin construction, is now in the care of special-purpose vehicle Tideway, but it was the brainchild of Thames Water along with the Envi- ronment Agency, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Greater London Authority. In the early 2000s, Thames Water conducted the Thames Tideway Strategic Study and published a final report in 2005. Four potential strategies were discussed, but only one, it concluded, would be enough to reduce sewage pollution in the tidal Thames and protect its ecology – the screening, storage or treatment at the point of discharge. Thus, the Thames Tideway Tunnel was born. Thames says the Tunnel will bring a host of benefits: it will collect nearly all the 18 million tonnes of sewage that pollute the Thames each year and will "ensure a healthy river environment for current and future generations". Baggs insists the Tunnel is needed. However, he says it is not the only answer. Other solutions, such as sus- tainable drainage and catchment management, must also be considered. "When people say there are alterna- tive solutions, I've got a lot of sympathy for that, but for something to take the total place of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, the scale would be massive."