Nominations for the Public Sector Risk Manager of the Year for the European Risk Management Awards 2020. George Ong is the Chief Risk Officer for Northern Ireland Water (NIW), a Government Owned Company (GoCo). George joined the business in 2006 with a clear remit of implementing a risk and insurance management system given that the ‘Government Protection’ was to be removed from 1st April 2007. Since then George has worked to adapt, enhance and embed risk management arrangements within NIW, developed partnerships with businesses, communities and institutions to improve resilience for the Company and the community. #euroriskawards

1. Northern Ireland Water’s approach to Risk and Resilience
1
Agile resilience in a world of uncertainties

2. 2

3. People
Water
Customer
Nature
Economy
Strategic
priorities
Examples of Internal Drivers
Accounting
controls
Maintenance
Programme
Training
Budgeting
Recruitment
Communication
Strategy
Contract
Management
Security
Asset
management
Drinking water safety
plans
Staff
Retention
IT and OT
Infrastructure
Examples of External Drivers
Weather
Event
Supply Chain
Customer
Expectations
Supply Interruptions
e.g. power, internet
Brexit
Customer
complaint
s
Misuse of
Information
Malicious
attack
Climate Change
Uncertainty of
funding

4. Integrated Risk and Resilience (IRR) Model
4

5. Definition of Corporate Risk
5
The uncertainty of outcome (both
current and emerging), whether
positive opportunity or negative
threat, that could have a significant
impact on achieving our corporate
objectives to add value. It is the
assessment of its impact and
likelihood, and a combination of
internal and external risk factors,
that we managed through effective
controls, actions and resilience
plans towards our risk appetite
level.
Threat
Opportunity
Risk

6. 6
Incident
Management
6 R’s of Resilience - WEF
Preventative
Measures
Redundancy:
The Service in question can
be continued through other
systems due to available
capacity or through other
systems, this reducing the
impact.
Resourcefulness:
Measures in place to
strengthen a system’s ability
to function when a risk
occurs, reducing the
vulnerability.
Robustness:
Protection in place to reduce
the likelihood of the risk
materialising.
Recovery:
A plan to recover the system
to full functionality, reducing
downtime and losses.
Response:
A plan to respond to the
incident.
Reassess:
?

7. 6th R to Resilience – ‘Reassess’
1. Repurpose – consider impact on short and long-term Strategic Priorities. Do we still
need all the office space? Opportunities to advance on resolving Carbon Emergency;
2. Responsibility – Values, Culture and Behaviours – Leadership to drive change at all
levels to improve Customer Experience, Human Factor risks, Health and Wellbeing;
3. Reinvent – Innovate with Stakeholders/Business Partners and use ‘4IR’ to transform
how we deliver our services. Zero-based thinking (ZBT) to redesign our delivery to
become more effective, efficient and add value;
4. Reputation – Communication needs to be Transparent and Engaging, building trust
before an event, engaging stakeholders to develop shared solutions; and
5. Review our resilience – Consider changes required to ‘Preventative Measures’ and
revision to ‘Response’ and ‘Recovery’ in Emergency Plans, ITDR, Facilities and BCPs to
manage emerging uncertainties that could impact on our business continuity.

8. NI Water Re-Greening Programme

9. Our Roadmap to planting 1
million trees
Set up a
Programme
Team
Build
partnerships
and
communication
Identify suitable
land
Find funding
Tree planting
Carbon off-
setting

10. Key Partnerships Communication and Engagement
> Building on a 10 year partnership
> They will evaluate our land for areas which could be
planted
> We would lease our land to them to plant on
> They apply for funding on our behalf
> They would complete the planting
> Garner support from them at senior level
> Align with their ‘Forests For Our Future’ Programme
> Negotiate the release of land they lease from us in
order to plant
> Avail of their funding streams e.g. Forest Expansion
Scheme
Our Communication’s team have developed a detailed
comms plan to:
• Garner support
• Mitigate negative backlash
• Encourage involvement in planting
• Communicate positive messages through the media
We will be engaging with a number of stakeholders
including…
Set up a
Programme
Team
Build
partnerships and
communication
Identify suitable
land
Find funding
Tree planting
Carbon off-
setting

11. Our Programme
Team have begun
identifying
suitable land for
planting.
Phase 1 of Planting
(November 2020 – March 2021)
Phase 2 of Planting
(November 2021 – March 2022)
Site No. of Trees
Dunore FES Application submitted
to plant c. 20,000 trees
Fofanny FES Application submitted
to plant c. 12,000 trees
Annalong Land negotiated from the
Forest Service. Funding
route to be confirmed to
plant c. 140,000 trees
Total no. Trees c. 172,000
Site No. of Trees
Fofanny Aiming to apply to FES for
further 16,000 trees
Ballykelly Aiming to apply to FES for
c. 56,000 trees.
Spencestown Aiming to apply to FES; no.
of trees to be confirmed.
Spelga North Aiming to apply to FES for
further 16,000 trees
Total no. Trees c. 88,000
Set up a
Programme
Team
Build
partnerships and
communication
Identify suitable
land
Find funding
Tree planting
Carbon off-
setting

12. At Glenedra:
• 21,000 trees planted in phases
since 2015/16
• Plans to do next phase of
planting in winter 2020/21
Riparian Tree Planting along the banks of Glenedra River
• Native broadleaf trees supplied by the Woodland Trust & Conservation Volunteers
• Tree guards and the land to be planted was provided by NI Water
• The trees were planted by The Loughs Agency
Also extensive planting along the
Faughan and Burntollet Rivers.
Set up a
Programme
Team
Build
partnerships and
communication
Identify suitable
land
Find funding
Tree planting
Carbon off-
setting

13. Multiple Benefits of Glenedra River Tree Planting
• Pooled Resources with stakeholders – Every £1 of spend resulted in £3 of benefit for NIW
• Water treatment costs reduced for sludge and chemicals at Caugh Hill WTWFinancial
•Reduced sediment loss & cattle encroachment, Improved WFD compliance
•Improved final water complianceCompliance
•Improved aquatic environment, new upstream fish spawning habitats
•Trees provide shelter and habitats for animals and nesting birdsBiodiversity
•Help to offset some of our carbon emissions
•Help achieve tree planting targets (Woodland Trust and NIW objective)
•Help with flood mitigation
Climate Change
•Enhance the natural environment, bringing wildlife back to sensitive areas
•Improve our landholdings for Recreation and Access, walking , enjoying nature, etc
•Improve our brand reputation
Public Perception
Set up a
Programme
Team
Build
partnerships and
communication
Identify suitable
land
Find funding
Tree planting
Carbon off-
setting

14. One of the benefits which we wish to track through the Re-Greening Programme is carbon off-
setting. Work is ongoing across the business to develop a standard approach to natural capital
reporting and decision making and our programme of work will need to feed into this.
Ongoing work by the F&R
team to estimate the carbon
removed and stored in our
water catchments
The re-greening programme
will be required to register
planting projects with the
Woodland Carbon Code
Once registered we can
offset our emissions through
the Carbon Accounting
Workbook
Set up a
Programme
Team
Build
partnerships and
communication
Identify suitable
land
Find funding
Tree planting
Carbon off-
setting

15. 15
After a year where we’ve all been coping with the uncertainties and changes thrust upon us by COVID-19, the NI
Water Choir has come up with their own unique tribute to thank friends and colleagues across the organisation.
NI Water’s Choir delivers a clean, fresh, potable
version of ABBA’s 1970’s hit …
Thank You For The Water
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=h18qg4wGSXY&feature=youtu.b
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https://youtu.be/h18qg4wGSXY