Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/840541
6 | JULY 2017 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk James brockett EDITOR WATER & WASTEWATER TREATMENT as Spencer explains, the important thing when planning over this long time horizon is to understand the range of likely scenarios and then to take steps which will improve resilience to some degree wherever we fall on this range. It is not so much preparing for a rainy day, as preparing for both rainy months and many non-rainy months or years at the same time. It's clear that rising to the resilience challenge requires not only a regional but a national strategy, and so it is heartening to see the water sector thinking big. However, one obstacle to which there are no easy answers is the extent to which resilience goals conflict with other important objectives. There is one example of this in this issue of WWT in our round table feature on pumps and energy optimisation (p10- 11) where participants discussed how installing extra-large pumps to cope with stormwater and prevent flooding can then result in wasteful energy use during dry periods. In this instance, does opting for safety and resilience first and foremost mean that you compromise energy sustainability? Another such potential dilemma comes in the arena of demand management measures to reduce customer water use, and the potential interaction with domestic retail competition. If the wholesale-retail split is taken to its logical conclusion and domestic retail competition becomes a reality, where does this leave demand management measures, which could be expected to be the sole concern of the wholesaler? If we are not careful, the goals of affordability and resilience, both praiseworthy in themselves, may come into conflict. It is a long road to improving the resilience of the water industry in the UK, but rain or shine, it is certainly a road that we will have to take. Preparing for unpredictability A s I write this in the balmy days of mid-June, the weather is hotting up, and one imagines it will not be long before the need for water is on eve- rybody's minds – whether it is to quench our thirst or to douse the arid-looking lawn with a sprinkler. However, it would equally be no surprise if this prediction was wildly inaccurate and you are read- ing this among torrential rain or mild drizzle – that's the beautiful unpredict- ability of the British weather. One of the foremost challenges of the water sector is that the systems and net- works that bring us our drinking water and take away our wastewater need to be able to cope with this unpredictability. On the drinking water side, we need the storage capacity to withstand a lengthy drought, the ability to transfer water around regions of the country if neces- sary, and the ability to keep demand in check during dry periods. Meanwhile, our wastewater networks and drainage needs to be able to withstand the storms and heavy rain that will only become more common in the light of climate change. These days, both of these as- pects are thought about together under the heading of resilience. It's a theme which is looking ever larger for water companies, to the extent that my lead interviewee in this issue of WWT, who is on the board of Anglian Water, has the word resilience in her job title. Jean Spencer, Director of Strategic Growth and Resilience at Anglian (p12-13) has been responsible for leading industry-wide thought on drought resilience in particular, through her work with Water UK. With the east of England being the driest region of the country, it's no wonder that the danger of running out of water is the biggest strategic threat that Anglian and its neighbouring companies must tackle, and the multi-stakeholder group it has initiated - Water Resources East – provides a great example of water companies, large water users and other interested parties working together to address the challenge. If short-term weather forecasting is fraught with difficulty, then it can be easily imagined that predicting what the climate will look like in 20,30 or 50 years' time is a near-impossible task. However, The Talk: opinion brexit and the pump industry E xiting the European Community and dismantling our ties to EU Laws, via the Government's introduction of the Great Repeal Bill, will have far reaching implications. But what does this mean for the UK pump industry? At the moment nobody really knows for sure what Brexit means for the UK, but it is our time to come together to cap- ture the opportunities whilst managing the threats, through unified lobbying of Government. A vast amount of UK legislation contains references to EU Treaties, and the Government will be seeking to stabilize UK law and regulations as fast as possible. These regulations, laws and directives contain material which can directly tip the buoyancy of the UK pump industry. Basic practises like CE marking and declaration of conformity, for example, will need to be reviewed for inclusion into UK legislation. Other legal directives which we all take for granted may also be reviewed with respect to import & export compliance, movement of employed staff, transfer of machinery, cash pooling, trade-barrier taxation, along with hundreds more. How many of us have non-UK EU citizens working in critical roles within our businesses – will they decide to go home, and why? What about the paperwork needed to import a simple gasket from France? Let's not even discuss the implications with exotic alloys and PTFE which have dual use! On the flip-side, there are 'once-in- a-lifetime' opportunities which could outstrip the threats, with examples being a wider global market, boosted domestic manufacturing & production, elevated skills & talent pools, plus the good old British motivation. Much of these will be the product of apprenticeship schemes and easy access to technically-driven education. Hedging the threats and capturing the opportunities however, is heavily dependent upon the eventual deal agreed between our Government's single seated negotiator and a twenty-seven strong seated opposition. At what point will the pumping industry be discussed - before or a¢er the automotive, banking, and military sectors? Will it ever get any specific consideration? Now is the time to find the common shaun hamPson ChAIRMAN, MARkETINg COMMITTEE, BRITISh PUMP MANUfACTURERS AssociAtion (BPMA)