2021 marks the 15th year of the Water Industry Awards – run by Water & Wastewater Treatment - the UK’s leading digital and events brand for water industry professionals.
And there are four new categories – Woman of the Year, Water Retailer of the Year, Water Efficiency Initiative of the Year and Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Improvement.
These join last year’s new categories - Women in Water, Net Zero Carbon and Rising Star - to reflect the changing focus of the sector and highlight the huge scope of water industry achievements; making 20 award categories in total.
The awards will take place on 27 May, when the whole industry will meet to celebrate the outstanding work of UK water companies and their supply chains.
Southern Water is delighted to be finalists in the following:
Alliancing & Partnership Initiative of the Year – At all stages of the supply chain, the industry is pioneering effective partnerships between water companies, contractors and sub-contractors. Working closely through partnerships can produce major improvements in efficiency, customer service and overall performance.
Our submission: East Nitrates Tranche in partnership with CMPD
The East Nitrates Tranche is a series of projects to achieve nitrate reduction in drinking water across the Thanet and Sussex regions to meet Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) requirements.
Southern Water designers and operational experts along with delivery partner CMDP looked at the original national solution of installing multiple new nitrate removal plants, the creation of ‘super works’ and numerous long-distance, cross-country pipelines and instead developed a network blending solution with fewer nitrate removal plants than expected, no ‘super-works’, and significantly fewer, shorter cross-country pipelines – using less carbon and saving millions of pounds.
Drinking Water Initiative of the Year – Safe, clean drinking water is vital to public health and the wellbeing of society. This category rewards the leading technical, process or management innovation designed to solve water quality and treatment challenges.
Our submission: The Site Operating Manuals project
The manuals have been rolled out to all ground water sites since the project began in 2019.
The manuals were developed to document on-site procedures and processes, and provide reliable, accurate data to operators, asset maintenance, contractors and the control centre team.
NEW: Women in Water Initiative of the Year – Nineteen per cent of the water sector’s workforce are women, compared to 47 per cent for all sectors nationally. WWT, working in partnership with British Water’s ‘Women on Water’ campaign, wants to change this by recognising projects across the whole sector that support women.
Our submission: Risk Transformation Programme
Our successful risk transformation programme led by our Programme management office (PMO_ team in partnership with Santec has delivered improvements to the risk management maturity within the Engineering & Construction.
Siobhan Crawford, PMO Risk Team Manager, said: “Being shortlisted for such a prestigious award is an honour and in itself a fantastic recognition of the team’s hard work and achievement.”
Most Innovative Use of Existing Technology – Innovation is crucial if water companies are to succeed, but new ideas do not always mean a reliance on new technologies.
Our submission: CCTV sewer analysis tool
An analysis tool which significantly improves our ability to identify sewer problems, this programme has been developed by our Sewer Rehabilitation Team and our strategic solution partner, Stantec. It automates the eight-month manual process of assessing CCTV surveys of approximately 250km of sewers each year, which means surveys can be reviewed more frequently, defects are understood quicker, and more proactive responses could be put in place – helping to reduce pollution incidents and resulting works.
Of being shortlisted Ian McAulay Southern Water CEO says, “To have Southern Water schemes, projects, partnerships and teams recognised in these awards is a great honour. All four categories highlight important working areas within the industry and we are proud to sit side by side with other great organisations. I would be delighted to walk away with all four awards, but to be recognised in the new Women in Water Initiative of the Year category would hold particular meaning. Southern Water is committed to equality and inclusivity in the workplace and this would shine a spotlight on the women who make up our incredibly strong workforce.”
While face to face contact remains limited, the Water Industry Awards will bring the industry together with a show-stopping virtual ceremony on 27 May.