Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/741165
4 | NOVEMBER 2016 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Industry news November The Scottish government has "no intention" of relaxing European environmental standards aer Brexit, the Scottish environment secretary has insisted. Speaking at WWT's Water Scotland conference in Glasgow, Roseanna Cunningham said: "I want to clarify our position as regards compliance with European Union directives and the issue of Brexit. "This government has no intention of relaxing standards. Anybody out there that thinks that, from the perspective of that kind of compliance, that leaving the EU will mean a relaxation is dead wrong. "We do not believe that is the right way to go. Those standards are in Scotland's best interest, providing safe, clean drinking water and protecting the environment, all of which we see as essential to Scotland 'will not relax environmental standards' post-Brexit, says minister Contract Tracker Atkins in Thames deal Atkins is to provide engineering, commercial and environmental consultancy services to Thames Water under a new long-term professional services framework which is expected to run until 2030. The consultancy will provide technical expertise including modelling and identification of water and wastewater service improvements, and the development of asset and operational solutions. FLI wins Thames work FLI Water has been awarded a contract from Thames Water for the supply of filtration equipment and maintenance. The contract is potentially worth around £2.5M over a five-year period and will see the company work closely with all the members of Thames's eight2O alliance. SWW signs Hitachi for analytics Hitachi Consulting, a leading provider of IoT analytics, consulting and managed services, has announced a new strategic supplier relationship with South West Water (SWW). Over the next three years Hitachi will help bring the power of near real-time analytics to SWW and use IoT solutions to make company processes more agile. Scotland's prosperity." She added that climate change will present challenges to the resilience of Scottish Water's infrastructure, and pointed out that the floods in early 2016 were "a perfect example". "We need to understand the likely impacts and plan accordingly," she said, adding that Scottish Water "can't plan or deliver improvements on its own". The company will need the help of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, land managers and local authorities and local community groups, she said. She also told delegates that, although customer engagement has improved "markedly" over the years, they must "work even harder" to explain the water industry to customers, particularly given the challenges, such as climate INTAKE OF TALENT: Severn Trent has welcomed its new intake of 45 graduates, a record number for the company and up from 27 last year. The Midlands-based utility offers four graduate programmes: business leadership, finance leadership, technical leadership, technical leadership (engineering), and technical leadership (information systems). change, that it faces. "To put it another way, the days of the silent service need to come to an end," she said. "I know that Scottish Water is working with customers and has had considerable success from its advertising campaign – Keep the Cycle Working Smoothly. A 10 per cent reduction in sewer blockages, as a consequence of this campaign, is a pretty good result. "However, I do want to encourage you all to continue to work in partnership with Scottish Water to engage with customers on a range of issues, such as improvements at bathing waters and environmental compliance, for example," said the minister. WWT's Water Scotland conference was held at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow on Wednesday 5 October 2016.