Innovation is the key to solving the UK’s water challenges

by Andrew Welsh, Sales Director – Water Utilities at Xylem UK

In recent years, the UK water industry has been facing escalating problems including ageing infrastructure, a lack of investment and increasing demands related to climate change. 

At times during 2023, it has seemed as though this crisis has been coming to a head with sewage spills hitting the national press, concerns over corporate governance and high-profile campaigners bringing these issues to the public attention. 

The significant investment to modernise the UK’s sewers and waterways, announced by Water UK in May 2023, was therefore both welcome and critical. But investment on its own will not solve the issues. 

Innovation, technological advances and effective collaboration are the key to progress and bringing the water sector in the UK up to a standard that meets our modern-day societal and environmental requirements.

It starts with identifying the priority areas for investment. Technologies are available to help water companies get a better picture of their assets and identify problem hotspots, ensuring investment is made where it will make a real difference. Until now, water utilities have had to balance focus on proactive planning and reactive firefighting. With the whole industry taking a proactive stance and pledging proper investment, we are set to take steps towards sustainable solutions for the future. 

But innovation is the key to securing the UK’s water future. Thanks to the work of companies such as Xylem, which works with all UK water utilities, there are solutions available today to ensure the sector is fit for the future. 

Digital solutions

It’s no surprise that digitisation comes hand in hand with modernising the UK’s water system. The vast majority of the UK’s water infrastructure was designed and built for a different era, but there are proactive, digital steps that water utilities can take to better utilise their assets.

With the abundance of data produced by the sensors that are monitoring our waterways, water utilities can improve their ability to identify leaks and rising main failures with innovative analytics platforms. These systems help to eliminate data silos to improve operational visibility, enabling the identification of issues before they have caused significant damage, leakage, and financial loss. Access to real-time data would mitigate these across the entire system, enabling immediate, proactive action. 

These platforms provide real-time decision support at network, plant, and asset levels that can be customised to the needs of both water utility operators and enterprise managers. This not only enables water utilities to set up specific alerts and prioritise certain areas within their systems but also predict and prepare for contingencies (such as floods) that may arise based on the readings.

Additionally, the use of real-time data enables water utilities to identify and mitigate non-revenue water losses by quickly identifying leaks and implementing timely repairs.

Smart water metering

Forward-thinking utilities, such as Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water and Thames Water have also begun to adopt smart water metering. Commonplace in the electricity and gas markets, there has been some reluctance to follow suit in water, but with water becoming more scarce, the industry is set for change.

Smart water metering provides essential insights into consumption patterns via near real-time data, enabling customers to make informed decisions and contribute to sustainable practices, while also enabling the early detection of leaks both within the network and at the consumer end.

Xylem has already supplied nearly 1.5 million smart water meters to UK utility networks and this continued roll out will support the promotion of sustainable consumption behaviour and accurate billing for consumers. 

Good data

With the protection of UK waterways firmly in public view, environmental monitoring has become a key focus for water utilities. Furthermore, new legislation, such as the Environment Act 2021 requires water utilities to continuously monitor water quality of all storm overflow and sewage disposal works, which discharge into a water course.

To do this, utilities need flexible sondes to provide the quality of data required for long-term water quality monitoring to comply with and deal with evolving water challenges in the UK. 

Advanced inspection

Most rising mains failures are preventable. And today, inspecting them is easier, more cost-effective, and less disruptive than ever, thanks to the development of advanced inspection technology such as Xylem’s SmartBall.

The free-swimming platform is equipped with acoustic sensing technology and can be used while the rising main remains in operation, can cover long distances in a single deployment, and is material agnostic so it is able to detect leaks and gas pockets in both metallic and non-metallic mains.

By detecting leaks and gas pockets, the SmartBall® platform allows utilities to understand the condition of pipelines with a low level of effort. This helps to address problem areas before they result in larger failures and reduces non-revenue water.

The UK water industry has a long way to go, but it is equipped with innovative solutions to deal with its challenges. With the support of technology companies such as Xylem there is a way forward for the industry and its customers.