Stonbury were delighted to welcome over 120 delegates to the annual Water Industry Asset and Quality Conference in Burton upon Trent. Now in its sixth consecutive year, the annual conference was well attended by representatives from over 14 Water Companies across the UK and several leading Water Industry consultants.
Service reservoirs and similar clean water assets play a key and crucial role in the storage and supply of drinking water. Suitably this year’s conference took a focused approach, concentrating on matters relative to service reservoirs, including methods for improving bacteriological compliance and DWI Regulation 31.
The conference welcomed excellent speakers from across the industry. Amber Telford, Global Practice Leader for Water Retaining Structures (Mott MacDonald) presented an overview to the New UKWIR Publication on Treated Water Storage Assets, followed by the findings of a collaborative research project by the WRc for Innovative Modelling of Bacteriological Non-Compliance at Service Reservoirs.
The introduction of a digital Q&A session, allowed the conference to be both interactive and engaging. Using smart phone software, guests were able to ask the speaker questions either named or anonymously, which saw audience engagement significantly increased. All questions raised were answered at the end of the presentations, often provoking discussion around the topic area.
James Stonor, Managing Director of Stonbury, addressed Regulation 31, through a presentation, ‘Lessons Learnt from a SR Water Quality Incident’. Opening with a background to the incident, delegates were encouraged to promote an open environment to share and learn from WQ incidents. The presentation was followed with a ‘Water Company Perspective’ by John McGovern, Head of Asset Investment for Northumbrian Water, emphasising the importance of working collaboratively to prevent and overcome such incidents.
In recent years, the conference has developed a platform for industry innovators to showcase their latest products or services. This year saw for the first time, Geocurve – UAV Specialists, demonstrate their capabilities for asset inspection, including inspection and surveying facilities for water towers and roof tops. Other members of the ‘Innovation Lounge’ included; Mason Clark, Polygon, Sensor UK, Gurney Environmental, and BASF.
The water companies concluded the conference, providing an insight into their procedures and innovations surrounding service reservoirs. Dr Clair Dunn, Water Quality and Optimisation Manager of Anglian Water shared an overview for using a risk based approach to improve bacteriological compliance in SRs. Finishing with an update on the progress of the Welsh Water ‘Bacti Predictor’, first introduced over two years ago by Kevin Parry, Principle Statistician, at the previous ‘Bacti Conference’.
The 6th annual Water Industry Asset and Quality Conference has proven a great opportunity for networking and meeting other like-minded individuals, who face similar challenges from across the country.
Martin Vickers – Head of Capital Investment Delivery, South Staffs Water
“Another excellent, well organised, conference attended by a wide spectrum of professionals from across the water industry and country. The presentations were excellent with some very thought-provoking content, which will enable the whole industry to take forward some best practice common themes. To get so many industry professionals in the same room, many with the same issues and problems to address, is a fantastic achievement and testimony to the year on year growth and improvement of this event. It serves to promote and demonstrate continual development of strategies for innovation and everything that’s great about this area of solution delivery.”
As always, guests were invited to finish the conference at an evening dinner, with many opportunities for networking in a less formal environment.
For information or to keep up to date with details of the Water Industry Asset & Quality Conference 2018 please contact laura@stonbury.co.uk
