Answering the Big Questions

Rapid change is taking place across the water sector. We used to spend the majority of our time talking about asset plans, engineering schemes, regulatory outputs and serving the ‘average customer’. Those things remain important, but the big conversations have changed and we’re now talking more about resilience, catchments, segmenting customers, behaviour change, public interest and value, collaboration and innovation.

Ofwat’s emerging strategy has these themes running through it and clearly sets out the aspiration for change across the sector – some of which has already been picked up through the industry’s Public Interest Commitment.

What remains critical is the need for research and innovation to provide the solutions that will drive transformation in the right direction.

UKWIR – UK Water Industry Research – has played a key role in bringing the industry together to tackle common challenges and help it move forward over the last 25 years. Its research has contributed to much change across the sector.

This ranges from helping to reduce leakage by around 40% since 1997 through a host of projects that have led to changes in the pipes used, how they are installed, new detection methods and advancements in repair techniques; to helping the industry monitor, measure and report its carbon emissions so we can understand and reduce our collective impact on the climate.

Research has provided the foundations on which much progress has been made.

But these changing times and the unprecedented challenges that are facing the sector have required a change in our approach. In order to support the transformation of the sector, UKWIR too is transforming.

1. How do we halve freshwater abstractions in a sustainable way by 2050?

2. How will we achieve zero leakage in a sustainable way by 2050?

3. How do we achieve zero interruptions to water supplies by 2050?

4.       How do we achieve 100% compliance with drinking water standards by 2050?

5.       How will we deliver an environmentally sustainable wastewater service that meets customer and regulator expectations by 2050?

6.       How do we achieve zero uncontrolled discharges from sewers by 2050?

7.       How do we achieve zero customers in water poverty by 2030?

8.       What is the true cost of maintaining assets & how do we get this better reflected in the regulatory decision-making process?

9.       How do we ensure that the regulatory framework incentivises efficient delivery of the right outcomes for customers & the environment?

10.       How do we remove more carbon than we emit by 2050?

11.       How do we maximise recovery of useful resources and achieve zero waste by 2050?

12.       How do we achieve zero harm from plastics via our operations and activities by 2050?

There are a number of projects already up and running across the Big Question landscape.

Work has started on a project to accurately define water poverty and evaluate existing information and approaches to reducing it. It will provide an important baseline by which we can measure change and identify areas where more progress can be made.

A number of projects are also underway as part of the leakage Big Question, including research to help us better understand how pipe deterioration turns to leakage and looking at how pipework can be kept leak-free – including the idea of self-healing pipes.

We’re looking into surface water drainage options for new developments to help our engagement and collaboration with housing developers and local planning authorities so new homes can be built without causing flooding problems elsewhere.

And we have recently concluded one of the most robust studies of its kind into microplastics and their occurrence in drinking water and treated wastewater – significantly increasing our knowledge of this highly topical and important issue.

As more route maps are developed over the coming months activity will step-up considerably and, by the end of 2019, we hope to have several hundred projects underway helping to answer the Big Questions. They also align closely with water companies' Public Interest Commitment and will help the industry make progress in delivering its ambitious goals.

As well as helping us to think more broadly about the big industry challenges and how we answer them, the Big Questions provide us with a platform for much greater collaboration across the sector and beyond.

The Big Questions and associated route maps are already strengthening the collaboration between water companies, helping to bring focus to the common challenges and identifying experts from across the sector who can best contribute to the wider programme of work.

They are enabling us to better engage with government and regulators. Rather than seeking input on a project by project basis, regulators are working with us to develop the route maps that will drive the research and, crucially, helping us identify and address future changes to policy and regulation as part of our programme. So, we are getting ahead of change, not just reacting when it occurs.

We are building links with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a national body that works with universities, research organisations, charities and government to help research and innovation to flourish. Our Big Questions connect with the work of its Water Interest Group and this important collaboration will help us access new partnerships with some of the best research institutions in the country and a wider range of stakeholders, as well as potentially providing new funding for some key projects.

Likewise, we are increasing our reach internationally through the Global Water Research Coalition. This connects us with similar organisations across the world and means we can hear about research, innovation and advancements and apply them to our work on home ground.

The Big Questions are an opportunity to drive a step-change in innovation across the sector.

The research carried out will not only fill the gaps in knowledge and provide evidence for change, it will identify the areas ripe for innovation and those which will deliver the greatest benefits to the sector.

It is essential that the right balance is struck – one between allowing innovation to happen organically using open innovation approaches; and ensuring there is a controlling mind that is facilitating progress, avoiding duplication, resourcing and funding the major advancements and seeing innovation through from end to end. That way the sector can adopt new tools, techniques and technologies more quickly and at greater scale.

This is an area Ofwat has identified has to change in order to deliver the transformation needed across the sector. The idea of a central fund for high priority innovation for the sector is one that has considerable merit and the use of competition and rewards to incentivise progress is being explored.

This creates an opportunity for us to develop a sector-wide innovation strategy that will bring together the front-end research, identify the innovation needed, prioritise those that will have the biggest industry-wide impact and drive rapid progress at the coal face so to speak, avoiding unnecessary duplication. What is critical is that this approach doesn’t result in companies retreating to their ivory towers to come up with projects in isolation. But instead collaborating to identify those that would benefit most from support via a central innovation fund.

UKWIR, through its well-established links across the companies and beyond is well-placed to facilitate this using the Big Question programme. By supporting greater collaboration, developing a sector-wide strategy and promoting quick adoption of new ways of doing things we can transform the sector for the benefit of customers, the environment and society. 

Over the coming months we’ll advance our work looking at the Big Questions - creating the route maps that will drive the research programmes for each and delivering the high-quality research identified. Ongoing collaboration and engagement as we do this is critical for success, so we’ll continue to engage the sector, its regulators and stakeholders and our fellow research institutions and partners as we do this.

We’ll be making our activity and progress against the Big Questions more transparent and accessible with regular updates on our website and through social media channels, and through the development of a prospectus and subsequent annual reviews. We’ll also be holding a conference next year to bring people together to consider the art of the possible when it comes to research and innovation through collaboration.

We are also ready and willing to work with Ofwat as it develops its strategy and in particular its thinking on facilitating innovation across the sector – something UKWIR is well placed to help deliver.