The WIPAC Monthly publication for November/December 2022 discusses various industry updates, including proactive sewer maintenance, the urgency of digital transformation in the water industry, and advancements in wastewater epidemiology. Key articles highlight the digital water summit in Bilbao, the impact of cyber incidents on customer data at South Staffs Water, and significant improvements in storm overflow discharges reported by Wessex Water. The document also emphasizes the importance of stakeholder engagement in water management through digital solutions.

1. WIPAC MONTHLY
The Monthly Update from Water Industry Process Automation & Control
www.wipac.org.uk Issue 11 & 12/2022- November/December 2022

2. Page 2
In this Issue
WIPAC Monthly is a publication of the Water Industry Process Automation & Control Group. It is produced by the group
manager and WIPAC Monthly Editor, Oliver Grievson. This is a free publication for the benefit of the Water Industry and please feel
free to distribute to any who you may feel benefit. However due to the ongoing costs of WIPAC Monthly a donation website has
been set up to allow readers to contribute to the running of WIPAC & WIPAC Monthly, For those wishing to donate then please visit
https://www.patreon.com/Wipac all donations will be used solely for the benefit and development of WIPAC.
All enquires about WIPAC Monthly, including those who want to publish news or articles within these pages, should be directed
to the publications editor, Oliver Grievson at olivergrievson@hotmail.com
From the editor............................................................................................................. 3
Industry news..............................................................................................................
Highlights of the news of the month from the global water industry centred around the successes of a few
of the companies in the global market.
4 - 11
Limiting SSOs with superior sewer maintenance tools and techniques............................
This article by the USEPA highlights the need for proactive maintenance using advanced sewer cleaning techniques
to ensure that debris within the sewer does not get to the point that it starts causing a problem through sewer
blockages.
12 - 13
Digital Transformation.....the time is now......................................................................
In our lead article for this month we look at the main takeaways from this year's IWA Digital Water Summit and
come to the conclusions that, no matter the barriers are, the time to start delivering Digital Transformation has
already passed and we must start the journey now.
14 - 16
Wastewater analysis for population health surveillance................................................
It is easy to forget, now the Covid pandemic has been and gone what techniques were being used and how they
assisted countries. Now wastewater-based epidemiology is mainstream how can we use it as a technique to firstly
predict the next pandemic and secondly as a general health surveillance tool.
17 - 18
Workshops, conferences & seminars............................................................................
The highlights of the conferences and workshops in the coming months.
19 - 20

3. Page 3
From the Editor
�he highlight of the past couple of months (the pressure of work has caused me to miss the November issue)
was of course the Digital Water Summit in Bilbao and the various issues that came under discussion. I've
highlighted in this issue with an article that I've recently published on LinkedIn - for me the big takeaway from
the summit was that we cannot delay on Digital Transformation - the need is now. There are numerous barriers
that risk us failing in our endeavours but in reality we must power through them. For the rest of this editorial I
want the readers to take a look at what I said immediately after the summit as I think it summed up the industry
somewhat perfectly.
For the past few years there has been a frustration in the water industry about the adoption of Digital Water. There has
been evangelists who have said it is no longer an option its is just something that we must do. In fact I said it myself almost
four years ago in a LinkedIn article I wrote (https://lnkd.in/d4cA3jD) and I've heard the same repeated at conference after
conference this autumn from the World Water Congress in Copenhagen, British Water Data Conference, the BLUE PLANET
Berlin Water Dialogues and now at the International Water Association Digital Water Summit which is taking place in
Bilbao this week.
Much of what was said this week was also said four years ago but there is progress. For me the exciting this week is the investment that the Spanish Govern-
ment is driving in Digital Water with their Perte strategy for the Digitisation of the Water Sector (https://lnkd.in/e9pDysnx). The 3 billion euro programme of
works is just a start but there is a reason that Spain is starting to become a leader in the adoption of Digitisation and there is a reason why the Digital Water
Summit was in Bilbao this year and will be in 2023. The highlights for me is the adoption of Digital Water basins - taking the river basin approach and making
more accessible. There are huge opportunities here for Spain to make a significant breakthrough in environmental management of the hydrological cycle as
monitoring increases. Like everyone else in Europe water quality monitoring of storm overflows is going to happen (as it is know in the draft version of the
revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive) and it is within the Perte Digital Water plan. The opportunity is then to connect all of this together and make
an operational Digital Twin of River Basins. This may sound futuristic, expensive and impossible but we've heard this week about people starting to do it via a
range of differing sensing techniques and off the back of it creating revenue streams in downstream basin management services. The #DigitalWaterSummit
was the only place that I heard it either as its been done using #AI techniques on both local scales as well. It was done by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water a few years
ago now looking at using #AI on reservoirs.
In some ways legislation seems to be catching up with things forcing lofty goals onto the water industry in big national and international objectives such as
the management of water cycles and drives towards #netzero and the national and international water operators are taking up #digitalwater as a tool to help
manage the situation.
The struggle with #digitalwater has been in its uptake the benefits have been unclear and we have failed to tell the stories. The evangelists have known that it
is right thing to do but haven't had the case studies to show it but now we are seeing it happen
The discussion about Digital Transformation will rage on over the next few years and I look forward to 2023 with a wonder of where we will go next. I know
that the IWA Digital Water programme, which I currently chair, are raring to go and produce white papers and I am excited how we are going to frame the
discussions in the new year.
In the meantime have a Happy Festive Season and let's draw a line under 2022 and move forward to solve some of the industries biggest problems,
Oliver

4. The ‘dangers and opportunities’ around digital transformation
The sixth British Water Data Conference, which took place on 3 November 2022, kicked off with a warning from keynote speaker Oliver Grievson on the “dangers
and opportunities” around digital transformation.
The event took place at the Royal College of Pathology in London, but the body of water infrastructure was the one under examination on this occasion, not least,
the health of the instrumentation monitoring some 375,000 combined sewage and storm-water overflows (CSOs) in the UK wastewater network.
“A lot of that data we know is false,” Grievson said, “because of the quality of what we’re doing with instrumentation.” He also reflected on the “sheer volume of
data about the hit the water industry” as new instrumentation comes online in the next few years, and the challenge to the people tasked with making sense of it.
The conference gave delegates the opportunity to hear updates from a number of winners of Ofwat’s innovation competitions first hand. The projects led by
Yorkshire Water, Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water, South West Water and United Utilities are funded by the £200 million Innovation Fund set up by the regulator
to help grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate.
First up was Yorkshire Water’s Blockage Predictor Project set up to identify sites at risk of pollution. With sensors deployed across the utility’s CSO asset base,
Heather Sheffield, the utility’s integrated planning & central control manager (wastewater), said 24% more blockages had been found and 65% were detected
earlier than previously.
Speaking of the value of finding the right partners to collaborate with, in this instance German technology company Siemens, she said, “One of the challenges
we have is that concept, culturally, that we can do everything ourselves – and we just can’t. This partnership has helped accelerate some of this thinking and the
implementation of AI [artificial intelligence] across our asset base to help us manage service risk.”
Next was Anglian Water’s £8 million Safe Smart Systems Project (SSSP), which involves 26 partners, and focuses on the first steps to achieve autonomous control
of UK water systems. Presenter George Schley, consultant business architect/analyst at US engineering company Jacobs, explained that digital solutions need to
be scalable and adoptable by other water utilities.
“Defining the common language” is one of the most important things in the SSSP project, he said, promising that an information management framework (IMF)
was an output of the project that would be “shareable with everyone”.
Schley also spoke of the challenges of getting data from operatives in the field who are sometimes working under the most difficult circumstances, at night and in
bad weather: “People are one of our most important sensors.” he said.
His thoughts on the importance of people were echoed by South West Water data scientist James-Pascal Mercer, who is involved in another Ofwat funded project
examining the effect of tourism on area-level water demand in Devon and Cornwall and how it can be used to make predictions.
After sharing results showing greater correlation of visitor numbers and demand in coastal areas, he said, “The operators already knew intuitively what the data
revealed from their years of experience. We wanted to verify it.”
Gigi Karmous-Edwards, founder and co-chair of the Smart Water Networks Forum (SWAN) work group for digital twins, said that setting best practice on these
advanced digital tools is an important next step. Building on the theme of a shared language, she proposed that everyone adopt a common definition of a
digital twin as: “A dynamic digital representation of real-world entities and their behaviours using models with static and dynamic data that enable insights and
interactions to drive actionable and improved outcomes.”
The meaning of open data given consideration by a number of speakers, with Adam Cartwright, head of IoT applications at Siemens asking, “Data open to who?
Interoperability is more important than openness. The public don’t need to know the efficiency of a pump, they need to know the outcome.”
Thanking delegates at the end of the packed day, Tracy Britton, chair of British Water’s Data & Analytics Focus Group, and smart water solutions director at Jacobs,
came back to the theme of collaboration: “We have to get better at not just talking about collaboration, but enabling it,” she said, highlighting the Ofwat projects
and the need to take them out of silos and “bring everything together”.
Page 4
Industry News

5. Mott MacDonald to digitise Thames Water stakeholder consultation
Mott MacDonald has been appointed by Thames Water to manage stakeholder consultation responses to its new long-term Water Resources Management
Plan (WRMP).
The WRMP, launched on 13 December 2022, will introduce over £4 billion of major water infrastructure strategic resource options (SROs) from Thames Water,
alongside a range of engineering, environmental and social measures.
All water companies in England and Wales must prepare and maintain a WRMP, that sets out how they will ensure a secure supply of water for customers whilst
protecting and enhancing the environment.
Mott MacDonald is using its powerful digital solution, Moata Land Management, to support Thames Water’s engagement activities surrounding the draft
WRMP consultation and the development of the SROs. The solution enables businesses, stakeholders and customers to engage using one system.
Leonie Dubois, head of engagement, land and consents at Thames Water, commented:
“Digitising the consultation process will help us to better engage and listen to our customers, which is paramount for Thames Water. We hope that by taking
this approach we will be leading the way in high quality stakeholder management, improving social outcomes for all who will benefit from the WRMP process.”
By using Moata Land Management, Thames Water can gather valuable feedback and track information in one place, enhancing project outcomes in the
process. Having a robust audit trail recording all stakeholder interactions throughout the consultation will be beneficial when going through planning.
The digital solution will also prove useful when responding to questions, analysing data and reporting results from the consultations.
James Knightbridge, Mott MacDonald environmental and social account lead for the water sector said:
“We’re delighted that our technical expertise and digital solution can support Thames Water in this vital consultation. Our resources, skills and experience
mean we can deliver great outcomes for Thames Water and other industry leaders.”
South Staffs Water – cyber attack led to unauthorised access to some
customers’ personal data
Following an announcement back in August that South Staffordshire PLC, the parent company of South Staffs Water, had been the target of a criminal cyber-
attack, the water company has reported that has led to unauthorised access to some customers’ personal data.
cyber attack 1
Since the incident South Staffs has been working with leading forensic experts to investigate fully what happened. The investigation has now found that the
incident resulted in unauthorised access to some of the personal data the company holds for a subset of its customers.
South Staffs is writing to those customers who have been impacted via letter so that they can take appropriate action. In a Frequently Asked Section page on
its website about the cyberattack, South Staffs Water says:
“We have many measures in place to protect our networks and the data we hold. We recognise that personal information is entrusted into our care and regret
any inconvenience caused by this incident. Since we detected the incident, we have supplemented these existing measures with additional information security
tools.”
The water company has put a full package of support in place for customers who are impacted to ensure they understand fully what has happened and receive
the help they need. This includes a special helpline for those customers: the helpline number is in the notification letter. The helpline is available 8am – 6pm
Monday to Friday. Customers who are affected are also being offered free credit monitoring for a year.
The investigation into the incident is continuing and the water company is still assessing the potential impact on customer data. If it is established that other
customers need to take action South Staffs said it will notify them as soon as possible.
The water company is also working closely with the police and with the relevant government and regulatory authorities and are keeping them updated.
Andy Willicott, Managing Director of South Staffs Water commented:
“Consumers can have complete confidence that the water we supply is safe.
"We understand that customers trust us to keep their data safe and I’d personally like to say sorry to all those customers impacted – we’ll be doing what we
can to support you through this."
Page 5

6. Wessex Water reports significant decrease in storm overflow
discharges
The latest data released by Wessex Water shows that storm overflow discharges in the water company’s region have significantly reduced in the last year.
Discharges during the bathing season near designated bathing water locations have more than halved, with 87 occurring between 15 May and 30 September
2021 and 39 during the same period this year. The water company said exceptionally dry weather was a factor in the latest figures, with less rainwater in the
combined sewer network, while it is spending £3 million per month on schemes to help reduce the frequency of discharges – starting with those that operate
most frequently or have any environmental impact.
Wessex Water has also published the number of overflow operations at designated bathing waters and popular outdoor swimming sites over a 12-month cycle
(October 2021 to September 2022), data which is available all year round and provided to Surfers Against Sewage for the Safer Seas and Rivers Service app. While
river sites such as Warleigh Weir near Bath are not yet designated bathing waters, the majority of beaches in the Wessex Water region are and have good or
excellent water quality according to Environment Agency sampling. Results for 2022 will be published by the Agency later this month.
Wessex Water is leading an initiative at Warleigh where sensor data is augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) in order to provide near real-time water quality
information, based on bacteria levels, to swimmers.
Matt Wheeldon, Director of Asset Strategy, said:
"These figures demonstrate the importance of rainwater separation at source – removing rainwater that enters combined sewers from roofs and roads is tackling
the root cause of storm overflow discharges. Climate change means more intense rainstorms are happening, including during summer months, so we’re investing
in rainwater separation schemes as well as sewage storage and treatment solutions."
According to Wessex Water, removing storm overflows completely would involve digging up almost every local road cost in excess of £10 billion and leave an
enormous carbon footprint, which was why separating rainwater at source so it doesn’t enter sewers was the best solution.
The utility was the first UK water and sewerage company to provide overflow discharge alerts 365 days a year, with complete coverage around the coasts. False
alarms can sometimes be caused by factors such as wildlife triggering a sensor or mobile network failures – these have been excluded from the 2022 analysis,
although the data table includes the total number of email alerts. Wessex Water's Storm Overflows Improvement Plan outlines how £150 million will be invested
between 2022 and 2025 to address intermittent discharges.
Yorkshire Water commits to making future ground investigation data
publicly available
Yorkshire Water has committed to making future ground investigation data publicly available to view via the British Geological Survey’s (BGS) GeoIndex platform.
The utility company has also declassified data from more than 700 historic boreholes as part of a partnership with BGS. This does not include data from boreholes
used as part of drinking water abstraction.
It is hoped the collaboration will expand the data readily available to other organisations and the scientific community, as well as helping companies and geologists
increase their understanding of ground conditions across the region.
Scott Arbuthnott, Yorkshire Water lead project manager, said:
“We’re pleased to be working with BGS on this project and to be able to provide access for the scientific community to the data from over 700 Yorkshire Water
boreholes from around the region.
“We have committed to making our borehole data publicly available and would encourage other utilities, constructions companies and contractors to follow our
lead by donating their ground investigation data and declassification of any existing records.
“Ultimately, increasing the data that is shared and easily accessible can lower the ground risk for the whole construction industry. This will result in projects being
completed faster, at a reduced cost and lowers exposure to health and safety risks by avoiding duplication of investigation work.”
Garry Baker, BGS director of informatics, commented:
"We are especially pleased to have been working with Yorkshire Water on their borehole records, making sure they are stored within the National Geoscience
Data Centre (NGDC) and openly accessible in the BGS web application GeoIndex. This is superb example of opening up sub-surface data, supporting future re-use
by industry and academic user communities."
Page 6

7. Southern Water uses Virtual Reality to respond better to pollution
incidents
Southern Water’s Bluewave and Learning and Development teams
have been working on a new way of using virtual reality (VR) to
improve how it responds to pollution incidents. The water company is
using VR technology to create a virtual environment, enabling teams
to be trained in conditions that mimic the real-life pressure of a live
incident.
According to Southern Water, this means it can refine and improve
how it responds in a real-life setting, helping to reduce the number
of pollution incidents and their impact on the community and the
environment. A live incident can be the first time a first responder
faces the magnitude of a potential pollution risk.
Southern Water needed to enable its operational teams to experience
a pollution incident more realistically and learn how to put classroom
training into practice, without having to wait for a live incident where
the stakes could be much higher. The company had first tested how it might do ‘pollution drills’ as guided conversations, with experts, - however, these had
limitations., Southern Water began to consider VR when it was exploring different ways to bring the experience alive. The VR technology places the user in a
computer-generated environment, where they can move and interact in a completely immersed experience.
According to Southern Water, the technology is advanced and sophisticated but has the additional benefit of being a much more cost-efficient way to train and
prepare operational teams. VR technology has made significant advances over the last decade and its impact is growing rapidly beyond gaming, to sectors like
education, architecture, medicine and wellness.
The utility said the possibility of using VR to replicate high pressure environments in a safe way, offers training experience for operational teams that could not
be achieved in other ways.
The company has now developed a VR proof of concept which it can test rapidly and learn from with operational teams, alongside a local company specialising in
the use of VR for training, who had previous experience working with water companies. The proof of concept allows operational teams to respond to a pollution
incident, and crucially provides a safety net to make mistakes, without there being a significant real-world impact. Users can explore a virtual site – identifying
what might have gone wrong, sample, take photos and get feedback on their experience.
Southern Water now plans to complete testing of the proof of concept, before rolling this out further as part of pollutions training.
Harnessing artificial intelligence for wastewater nutrient control
The pollution of water bodies with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus is a significant concern for many countries worldwide. Excess nutrients can create
algal blooms and ”dead zones” that threaten aquatic ecosystems and drinking water supplies. In response, there’s increasing effort to tackle sources of nutrient
pollution, such as agricultural and storm-water run-off and discharges from water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs).
For the wastewater treatment industry, there’s significant pressure to improve effluent quality. At the same time, wastewater utilities are also under pressure
to reduce the energy consumption and costs of nutrient control systems.
In light of these challenges, the Water Research Foundation has selected a Jacobs-led team to develop and test an artificial intelligence (AI) nutrient control
software tool that will leverage advanced modelling techniques to optimize nutrient management at WRRFs.
The hybrid technology will combine the forecasting and optimization capabilities of machine learning with state-of-the-art mechanistic models in a single
flexible, transparent and efficient nutrient control tool. The aim of the research project is to conclusively demonstrate the benefits of AI-based nutrient control
tools to not only achieve stringent effluent limits, but also operate systems more reliably and cost-effectively.
“Today, the use of machine learning for nutrient management at WRRFs is in its infancy with very limited application in North America,” says The Water
Research Foundation Research Program Manager Stephanie Fevig. “This proposed combination of machine learning and model-based control in a single hybrid
tool holds the potential to greatly increase operational efficiencies and improve effluent quality by automatically handling control similar to the way a process
engineer would, if they could stay focused on data 24/7.”
The software tool will be adaptable to a range of client needs with individualized solutions based on available data resources and optimization goals. Once
developed, the controller will be deployed and tested at four pilot WRRF sites in the U.S. that are either owned by partner agencies or operated by Jacobs.
"Our hybrid approach means that this advanced nutrient controller can handle a wide range of conditions and be rapidly deployed to a variety of facilities,"
says Jacobs Wastewater Technology Senior Fellow Bruce Johnson. "In addition to accomplishing both short-term control needs and long-term forecasting, the
nutrient controller helps operations staff become more proactive."
The work is being supported by contributions from Jacobs and its project partners Maia Analytica, Clean Water Services, Alexandria Renew Enterprises, Pima
County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, New York Department of Environmental
Protection, City of Tacoma, and VCS Denmark.
Page 7

8. Five Advantages Of Digital Sustainability In The Water Sector
Digital sustainability, a key concept in today’s world, stems from the far-reaching digital transformation that companies have to tackle and the need for them
to exploit their data to add value. Understanding this concept and how to be digitally sustainable in the water sector is also essential in terms of flexibility,
operability and cost savings.
Digital sustainability is a must in this day and age. Although we have lived through different industrial revolutions, none of them is comparable to the so-
called Industrial Revolution 4.0, which entails the profound digital transformation of companies. It involves technological changes, as well as shifts in company
culture, in the way we communicate, organizational flexibility and even in the different strategies required. Yet data exploitation is always the driving force
behind all these changes. In the face of these developments, water utilities have to implement changes so that they can offer a better service, making the
most of the characteristics of this new industrial transformation such as 5G, greater operational agility, interconnectivity, more data, and greater access to
information. However, these changes must be preceded by a comprehensive assessment of all the areas that make up a utility, pinpointing the ones which
require improvement.
However, it is important to highlight the difference between sustainable digital transformation and digital sustainability. While it is true that the former refers
to the use of technology in an environmentally friendly way, digital sustainability in the water sector can be defined as the process by which companies access
and exploit their data thanks to intelligent solutions and applications to integrate this data, regardless of the vendors. In this regard, Chema Nebot, Business
Development Director at Idrica, points out that digital sustainability “means the entire company speaks the same language, and is able to create improvement
indicators (KPIs) and dashboards to enable it to make the best decisions”.
Advantages of digital sustainability in the water sector
As the Idrica executive points out, digital sustainability means companies can improve communication, standardizing language and avoiding information silos.
However, there are other advantages that should also be taken into account: scalability, durability, improved operational management, cost reductions, and
interconnectivity
Scalability
In this sense, the digital sustainability of water utilities guarantees the smooth operation of the system regardless of the number of users. In this case, we are
talking about horizontal scalability. There is also vertical scalability in which more resources are added to meet the needs of a larger number of users. In any of
its forms, digital sustainability guarantees that the system responds despite the increase in users and data.
Durability
Digital sustainability guarantees longer system life cycles thanks, in part, to the digital transformation process, which does away with the need to have several
suppliers, or the implementation of solutions such as GoAigua, a tool that offers a holistic overview of operational digital infrastructure components, bringing all
the systems into one, standardizing language and avoiding the need to constantly change parts of the systems to achieve this coordination.
Improved operational management
As previously mentioned, digital sustainability in the water sector means the company speaks the same language. This will lead to improvements in operational
management, greater control over situations, real-time alerts about possible incidents, shorter response times, and improved functions in general, thanks to
automation.
Cost reductions
Companies can reduce costs thanks to greater durability and improved operational management, since there will be no need to replace infrastructures, delay
processes or involve more stakeholders in them.
Interconnectivity
One of the main advantages is, without a doubt, the ability to interconnect systems to bring data together and make recommendations for action based on real-
time information.
This interconnectivity also means that information silos can be broken down.
Digital transformation of utilities
Along these lines, Jorge Helmbrecht, Business Development Manager at Idrica, said at the UPM Water Digital Meeting held at the Polytechnic University of
Madrid at the end of October, that digital transformation “is key to the conservation of water resources, to decision-making and to the improvement of demand
management”. This is why it is essential to understand utilities’ digital transformation processes so as to respond to these challenges and also to comprehend
why digital sustainability is fundamental. Here, there are two distinct processes:
The bottom-up process. In this case, digital transformation is carried out sequentially, as specific problems arise or when there is a need to improve a work
indicator, such as leaks and the detection of anomalies. This process is quick to implement and brings fast results. However, there is a risk of increasing
information silos, thus affecting operability.
The top-down process, in which digital transformation is carried out in a well thought-out manner, following a roadmap. This process involves the entire
company, as it also entails a change in the utility’s mindset. It requires more effort as it is a holistic change, although the medium- and long-term results are
more far-reaching.
In any case, digital transformation is a must for water utilities, which have no choice but to redefine their processes and organizational culture to keep pace with
current circumstances. Digital sustainability must be factored into this process if utilities are to become more efficient in terms of water management, offer a
better service to consumers and reduce their carbon footprint.
Page 8

9. Kando Partners With CAPI To Protect France's Environment
Through Wastewater Intelligence
Kando, a data intelligence solution provider specializing in wastewater analysis, today announced a new partnership with the Communauté d’Agglomération
des Portes de l’Isère (CAPI) in the south-east of France to implement smart wastewater data management in the region and provide vital insights into events
taking place in its wastewater network. CAPI’s network encompasses three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and serves over 100,000 inhabitants.
Kando’s wastewater intelligence solution supports municipalities and governmental authorities by enabling them to detect events in the wastewater network,
track the source of these events, and communicate their impact to all relevant network stakeholders. CAPI has adopted Kando’s solution in order to effectively
generate data-driven insights which can support environmental protection initiatives in the region while ensuring compliance with regulation.
“Kando’s solution has demonstrated its ability to analyse events in full, tracking event details such as content, duration, and frequency,” said Stéphanie
Guillermard, Head of Expertise and Studies, CAPI. “This granular analysis, combined with knowledge of our networks, will enable us to go back to the source
to investigate events and find the most relevant treatment solutions.”
Kando’s collaboration with CAPI is its first long-term partnership in France and paves the way for further collaboration with France’s water utilities. The company
has long-term partnerships with numerous municipalities in the US, Europe, and beyond, with an established track record of generating tangible returns for
its partners and customers. Kando’s global expansion serves as a testament to the importance and effectiveness of Kando’s technology and the impact it has
been making around the world.
“We are excited to partner with CAPI and assist in its efforts to foster innovation in its wastewater networks,” said Malorie Dreyfus, Regional Sales Director,
Kando. “We look forward to witnessing the impact of our partnership, as we protect more and more assets and help water utilities bolster their ability to
comply with environment and health regulations.”
Kando provides a wastewater intelligence platform that uses data from wastewater to support public health and the environment. It leverages IoT, original
algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies. By detecting anomalies and public health threats and communicating their impact in real-time, Kando
enables utilities and municipalities to gain insight and control over their wastewater networks. Through using data to keep the world’s sewage systems high-
functioning and efficient, Kando helps save economic and environmental resources while bolstering public health
Schneider Electric And RH DHV Transform Wastewater Treatment
With Next-Generation Automation Platform
Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and industrial automation, has announced the successful integration of
its EcoStruxure Automation Expert (EAE) solution with Royal HaskoningDHV Nereda Process Control Software, for sustainable and cost-effective wastewater
treatment technology. Earlier this year, Royal HaskoningDHV announced Schneider Electric as the preferred global supplier for its Nereda wastewater treatment
solution. As a result of that collaboration, this next-generation technology is designed to improve sustainability, resilience, and process efficiency in treatment
plants through complete lifecycle management, seamless integration with information technology and operational technology services, and enhanced system
diagnostics for automation systems. A cloud-ready, cyber secure, flexible and scalable architecture delivers cost-savings by reducing footprint with simplified but
robust architectures, alongside emissions reduction and is future-proofed with AI and Machine Learning capabilities for continuous improvement.
Based on the IEC61499 standard for interoperability, the integrated solution has been successfully tested and validated through Royal HaskoningDHV’s rigorous
certification process. Developers, operators, and system integrators can improve all aspects of the water treatment process, from design and construction to
operations and maintenance. The benefits are clear:
• Treatment plants can realise up to a 50% improvement in engineering deployment
• 30% optimisation on commissioning
• and 10% savings on optimised, robust architectures.
“By using EcoStruxure Automation Expert, the time spent on integrating and testing control software for Nereda installations will reduce significantly,” said Jelle
Langedijk, Process Engineer at Royal HaskoningDHV. “The standardised application makes it straightforward to troubleshoot and adapt processes to customer-
specific configurations. The easy-to-use Schneider Electric Human-Machine Interface (HMI) is ultimately a robust solution for industrial applications.”
EcoStruxure Automation Expert is enabling Nereda plant operators to leverage IT/OT convergence, expanding their monitoring reach, and ultimately reducing
unplanned downtime with easier and faster troubleshooting.
“For the first time, experts in both the IT and OT domains can see exactly the same cyber-physical system, but from their own distinct viewpoints,” said Harry
Forbes, Industry Analyst at ARC Advisory, in the analyst’s paper The Road to Universal Automation. “This is possible because the production system (in the OT
view) has been mapped onto a set of standardised IT resources. Once this is achieved, the IT and OT disciplines will be able to collaborate at an entirely new and
higher level and the advanced software tools and technologies of IT can be effectively leveraged at all points of the manufacturing process.
“The main benefit to this much higher level of IT/OT convergence should be reduced unplanned downtime, which ARC believes now costs the industry about
$100B annually. Presently, the responsibility for monitoring and diagnosis of the production automation systems falls entirely on the OT staff. In the future, the
work can be shared. IT experts will provision, monitor, and manage the system resources (compute, networking, storage, etc.) while production experts will
manage and optimise the actual production operations.”
Page 9

10. Infotiles Selected To Trial Technology In Switzerland
Digital technology company InfoTiles has won the opportunity to demonstrate its water management platform with a municipality in western Switzerland.
The BlueArk Challenge is a call for projects that aim to solve water management challenges using open innovation ideas and technologies. The InfoTiles software
will be developed and implemented in collaboration with Fully, a municipality in the canton of Valais, and BlueArk Challenge, with the aim of rapidly developing
scalable applications. InfoTiles will provide water managers in Fully with continual monitoring of the wastewater network via sensors located in key locations to
help identify and remediate storm-water inflow and groundwater infiltration (I&I) into sewerage infrastructure.
Technology development
As well as being awarded €10,000 for technology development, BlueArk Challenge will provide InfoTiles with solution monitoring, infrastructure test sites,
validation reporting and on-going support. If successful, the InfoTiles platform will also be marketed in Switzerland through the collaboration. InfoTiles’ digital
technology helps municipalities detect and understand when and where I&I occurs in wastewater networks. Inflow is storm-water that flows into wastewater
pipes through faults such as holes, cracks, joint failures, and broken connections. Infiltration occurs when groundwater enters the wastewater network through
faults in pipes, compounding the flow.
Hydraulic overload
It is widely acknowledged that most I&I is caused by ageing infrastructure that requires maintenance or replacement. When this extra water penetrates the
wastewater network, it can cause hydraulic overload which is a particular risk during periods of heavy rain or storm events and can add considerable cost to
municipalities in pumping, treating, and discharging processes. InfoTiles’ digital software platform uses artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning, to
consolidate and analyse data. It also uses data from existing SCADA control systems and geographic information systems (GIS) to integrate real-time hydrological,
meteorological, and asset data. This enables proactive and intelligent management of water inflow and infiltration into the sewers. Oliver Studer, head of
industrial services for Fully said, “The municipality are looking forward to developing the project with InfoTiles and working on concrete solutions to its water
management problems.”
Resolving challenges
Nine water resource management challenges were proposed by the five Swiss municipalities taking part in the BlueArk Challenge. Four solutions were identified
with InfoTiles, which is based in Stravangar, Norway, the only one from outside Switzerland. Anyssia Bovier, coordinator of the BlueArk Challenge said, "The
proposals received make it possible to help resolve four of the challenges submitted. It is remarkable, and we are very happy with the quality of the proposals.”
Marco Westergren, chief analytics officer at InfoTiles said, “As the only non-Swiss company to win this prestigious challenge, it gives InfoTiles an opportunity to
develop the innovative software and apply it practically to help the municipality of Fully further understand and tackle its I&I challenges.”
BlueArk Challenge is an initiative of BlueArk Entremont, a technological innovation centre with a data laboratory, based in Le Châble, Switzerland. Founded in
2018, the hub specialises in the management of natural resources, with a particular focus on smart management and the digitalisation of water. The winners of
the BlueArk Challenge were announced at Smart Water 2022, a conference held in Le Châble on 1 December 2022. The initiative is also backed by green energy
supplier ALTIS, and The Ark Foundation, which provides support to innovative businesses.
Royal HaskoningDHV Launches New Digital Solutions Brand Twinn
Royal HaskoningDHV this month launched Twinn, a new digital solutions brand, which helps organisations manage opportunities and risks to make better informed
strategic and operational decisions.
Royal HaskoningDHV CEO, Erik Oostwegel, said: “In today’s business environment, organisations need efficient and effective ways of understanding the complex
interplay across their physical and digital worlds. Through its combination of software, data and deep domain expertise, Twinn helps answering questions specific to
industry dynamics. Further, it provides actionable insights for overcoming challenges related to sustainability, resilience and digital transformation.”
Twinn brings together Royal HaskoningDHV’s portfolio of leading software and data solutions including recognized brands like Aquasuite, Smart Mooring, Lanner,
Ambiental, Uptime and Ensis. It will build further on Royal HaskoningDHV’s deep domain expertise to provide solutions across multiple sectors including financial
services, water utilities, industry, energy, maritime and logistics.
As a digital solutions brand, it enables organisations to:
• Understand the reality of their current state of operations and the impact of risks and opportunities
• Predict the future state of processes, assets and resources
• Prevent disruptions by anticipating and preparing for change
• Optimise performance by improving real-time decision-making and automating processes
Royal HaskoningDHV Global Director Digital, David de Graaf, commented: “Twinn has the agility of a tech company while drawing on our 140 years of engineering
expertise and experience across industries. It strengthens our focus on future growth as we find new ways to deliver value to clients and strengthen our competitive
solutions. It’s another step in our mission to enhance societies by improving the decisions clients make today for a more sustainable tomorrow.”
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11. Accenture Invests In KETOS To Advance Water Intelligence Through
Real-Time Monitoring
Accenture has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in KETOS, Inc., a data intelligence innovator that uses a proprietary technology
platform to help organizations monitor and address water efficiency and quality. KETOS is the latest company to join Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight,
an engagement and early investment program that connects emerging technology start-ups with the Global 2000 to enhance the strategic capabilities of
Accenture, its ecosystem partners, and its clients.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221130005081/en/
Accenture has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in KETOS, a data intelligence innovator that helps organizations monitor and address
water efficiency and quality. (Graphic: Business Wire)
As global demand for water continues to rise across agriculture, industrial and municipal processes and applications, over $80 billion is spent on water testing
and compliance annually around the world. That number is expected to increase sixfold to a staggering $475 billion by 2030 as current methods of measuring
water quality remain costly, laborious, and often inefficient.
With nearly $40 million in investor backing, KETOS’ mission is to solve this problem using a combination of robotics, data science and its software as a service
(SaaS) platform to provide cost-effective and real-time water quality data through a 24/7 monitoring system. The company recently expanded its offerings to
develop KETOS SHIELD, which monitors across more than 30 parameters, including a breakthrough with heavy metals like lead, copper and other constituents
like ammonia, nitrates, sulfates and more, that are particularly important to determining the health and safety of drinking water.
“Water is a mission-critical issue that can create environmental crises if its value is undermined, but if managed intelligently and efficiently, it can also aid in
solving for these crises and predicting others before they even occur,” said Tom Lounibos, managing director, Accenture Ventures. “For businesses to ensure they
are using this scarce resource effectively, they need to be able to measure and monitor water quality instantaneously. Companies like KETOS can help manage
the flow of data for our clients and partners as they continue to seek better measurement tools and capabilities to deliver on the promise of sustainability.”
KETOS founder and CEO Meena Sankaran added, “The quest for clean water is no longer a pipe dream. Stakeholders can use KETOS to easily access water
quality data in real-time and turn it into insights-driven decisions that can positively impact efficiency, operations, yield, compliance, treatment and much more.
By working with Accenture, we can increase our operations to drive safe and sustainable water production globally.”
Industries leverage KETOS’ technology in pre-and post-water treatment, for monitoring and reporting, providing a fully automated as-a-service “lab in the field.”
For instance:
The agriculture industry is using KETOS to create safer crops, improve grow quality with better nutrient blends and increase water reuse in open fields with
ground water and controlled environments.
The mining industry can reduce compliance violations by using KETOS SHIELD to remotely monitor water quality while also saving on labour hours and managing
their brand across their communities.
With industry standard lab accuracy, manufacturing plants and municipalities use KETOS to automate water quality testing and ensure they are complying in
real-time, allowing them to be proactive rather than reactive to potential problems without compromising affordability.
“Public and private sectors benefit from real-time water quality monitoring as a critical component of the world’s water stewardship,” said Jennifer Helle, lead
for North America Chemicals and Natural Resources at Accenture. “KETOS’ as-a-service water monitoring capability using real-time analysis can help industrial
organizations reduce the cycle time of their water testing and drive a faster path to our collective sustainability goals.”
KETOS is a participant of Unreasonable CHANGE, a strategic collaboration between Accenture and Unreasonable, which aims to support social entrepreneurs
profitably addressing key environmental issues facing businesses today. KETOS is the latest in Accenture’s Project Spotlight investments focused on sustainability,
which include hyperspectral satellite company Pixxel and pulsESG, Inc. Accenture has also completed five sustainability-focused acquisitions in the last year,
which comes in addition to the company’s significant expansion of its global capabilities through investing in its people and recruiting top talent.
Peter Lacy, Accenture’s global Sustainability Services lead and chief responsibility officer, added: “Our investment in KETOS reflects Accenture’s commitment to
embedding sustainability in everything we do to drive value, impact and competitiveness. Water, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture are critical issues, and
we look forward to working with KETOS to apply their capabilities in areas such as supply chain and digital manufacturing, while also identifying potential new
partnerships with other organizations focused on water quality.”
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12. Article:
Limiting SSOs With Superior Sewer
Maintenance Tools And Techniques
Most municipalities are fully aware that preventing sewer overflows is a national enforcement priority for EPA, yet many struggle to stay compliant. Too often,
when municipalities are short-staffed and must maintain miles of sewer line, they end up simply responding to emergencies. Instead, a growing number of
proactive municipalities are choosing to utilize the most effective tools and techniques, which is helping them to properly maintain the line and stay EPA
compliant.
“EPA’s compliance goal is to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) from municipal collection systems and to ensure that wastewater is being conveyed
to treatment plants in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Water Act. To eliminate SSOs, EPA uses a mix of compliance and enforcement tools,”
according to the agency’s website.
SSOs are overflows or releases from sanitary sewer systems and are illegal under the Clean Water Act. SSOs have a variety of causes, including but not limited to
severe weather, improper system operation and maintenance, as well as vandalism. EPA estimates that there are at least 40,000 SSOs each year. The untreated
sewage from these overflows can contaminate the nation’s waters, causing serious water quality problems. It can also back up into basements, causing property
damage and threatening public health.
“Today, one of the greatest underlying causes of SSOs is sewer pipe blockages due to growing tree roots that enter through line defects or openings, combined
with inappropriate materials sent to sewers. This includes fats, oils, and grease along with products like baby or facial wipes, sanitary pads, and tampons. Non-
degradable wipes are a particular problem when flushed because they get hung up in roots and start catching all the grease and debris. Everything builds until
the line is stopped, which leads to an SSO,” says Dan Story, Operations Manager at KEG Technologies, a manufacturer of sewer and storm line products including
nozzles, chain cutters, and camera nozzle systems. The Spartanburg, SC-based company is a member of NASSCO, the National Association of Sewer Service
Companies.
Proactively preventing blockages and removing those in progress is critical because failing to do so can lead to devastating consequences. “Sewer pipes fill
up from any blockage and can back up into homes or run down the street, so the federal government mandates that a certain amount of sewer line must be
properly maintained annually, or fines are levied,” says Story.
Fortunately for municipalities, using the industry’s most effective tools and techniques can virtually eliminate SSOs, and in some instances, have done so for
decades. This is first achieved by preventing most sewer line blockages with powerful nozzles and efficient cleaning. Next, camera nozzles can quickly identify
developing blockages during routine cleaning without deploying a separate camera crew. When the blockages must be removed, utilizing various cutters
including robust chain cutters can do so quickly and efficiently. Finally, learning the most effective cleaning techniques from experts in the industry can further
facilitate proper sewer line maintenance.
Preventing SSOs
Properly designed, operated, and maintained sanitary sewer systems are meant to collect and transport all the sewage that flows into them to a publicly owned
treatment works (POTW). However, occasional unintentional discharges of raw sewage from municipal sanitary sewers occur in almost every system.
The first line of defence against such SSOs is to use effective tools, specifically powerful nozzles, to sufficiently clean sewer lines and remove any debris so it does
not accumulate to become a blockage. In this effort, using high-performance Tier 3 nozzles instead of lower performing Tier 1 or 2 nozzles can be an important
advantage.
Although rated for water efficiency (Tier 1: about 30 percent efficient; Tier 2: 50 to 60 percent efficient; and Tier 3: 75 to 98 percent efficient), top Tier 3 nozzles
can also more reliably direct the most force with less water, at lower pressure, to remove debris. The most efficient Tier 3 nozzles, such as KEG’s Torpedo and
OMG models, are designed with fluid mechanics engineering on a par with the aerodynamics of race cars. After exiting the jetter hose, water travels into the
body of the nozzle before moving through smooth, curved channels. This design enables the water to maintain its power and speed before entering the nozzle’s
replaceable titanium ceramic inserts, which help to straighten the water stream. The water is further funneled to enable an even tighter water pattern to emerge.
The power and reliability of a superior Tier 3 nozzle can help operators clean more line, more effectively, before the sewer truck crew needs to stop work and
drive to a hydrant to refill the water tank before resuming work. According to Story, a Tier-1, 30-degree drilled nozzle running 72 gallons a minute at 2,200 PSI
will only exert 13 pounds of force to move debris nine feet away from the nozzle. In contrast, a high-efficiency Tier-3 nozzle running 60 gallons a minute at 2,000
PSI will exert 98 pounds of force nine feet away.
Identifying Obstructions
The EPA can hold municipalities accountable for preventing SSOs in hundreds or thousands of miles of sewer line annually. In addition, proper cleaning and
maintenance must be accomplished. For these reasons, waiting for a separate crew with a CCTV truck to access pipe conditions can be insufficient. Out of sight,
obstructions will develop into blockages that trigger SSOs when the camera crew cannot assess all line on a regular basis.
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13. To enable timely sewer line inspection when a CCTV truck crew is unavailable, some manufacturers in the industry have developed camera nozzles that capture
video while cleaning. As an example, KEG’s KleenSight camera-nozzle system provides operators with the ability to clean sewer and storm lines while recording
upright high-definition video. The device has a self-levelling camera head and provides its own illumination. Only a jetter hose connection is required – no cables
or wires. The camera captures the video in memory and the files are automatically date- and time-stamped for later downloading by Wi-Fi to mobile devices or
PCs for viewing.
Using a nozzle-camera during routine cleaning can capture video that shows if there are roots in a pipe that should be removed before they become a problem.
Removing Obstructions
When a serious blockage occurs, it usually results in an SSO, and a chain cutter is used to resolve the situation. Most are hydraulically powered. Although this
reduces the overall cost of the unit, many hydraulic cutters supply insufficient power or torque to cut through the heavy roots, hard mineral deposits, grease or
wipes that can be at the core of a blockage. In some cases, the chain cutter can stall or seize up.
“Chain cutter nozzles that utilize water pressure are more efficient and can deliver the required torque to cut through thick masses,” advises Story. “The high-
pressure water enters the chain cutter nozzle chamber and is directed to spin the cutting chains at high velocity.
As an example, he points to a powerful chain cutter that has a high-speed, high-torque, water-driven design. The chain cutter can eliminate heavy root blockages
as well as scale, rust, mineral deposits, hardened grease, and accumulated debris.
“When you remove the roots and debris from the lines, it becomes easy for future debris to pass through on its own. This eliminates the problem of backing up
and sanitary sewer overflow,” says Story.
Proactive, Not Reactive
When SSOs occur and municipalities are out of EPA compliance, it can be difficult to do more than react. However, proactively maintaining sewer line with
the most effective tools and tactics is vital to prevent SSOs and quickly resolve them if they occur. For this reason, KEG offers customized training programs to
municipalities that specifically target the challenge of SSOs.
With the goal of eliminating SSOs, the training program corrects common cleaning errors, such as excessive operator speed going up the sewer line, which ends
up wasting water, labour, and time when multiple passes are required. Proper line assessment and cleaning speed are taught, which allow operators to adjust
to circumstances as needed while minimizing water use.
When operators complete the training, most will understand how to “chop up the debris and let the flow of water work like a conveyor belt, carrying the debris
out.” They will be trained to “go from manhole to manhole and clean in a single pass.” It takes a fraction of the time and resources to make one pass versus
making several passes to remove the same material.
The results of being proactive with equipment and training to minimize SSOs have been more successful than might be expected.
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14. Feature Article:
Digital Water – the need is now
About 3 ½ years ago, following a series of conferences, I wrote an article – “The Smart Water Industry is no longer a need ….it’s a must (https://www.linkedin.
com/pulse/smart-water-industry-longer-choiceits-must-oliver-grievson/) what I have heard over the past few months at various conferences is that we no
longer have a choice…it is a matter of just getting on with it. More and more we have a need for Digital Water/Smart Water to address the challenges that the
water industry is facing every day.
In those last few years, we have had a pandemic that has seen the rise to prominence of visualisation techniques with special reference to wastewater-based
epidemiology and we have seen pollution scandals (at least in the UK) that has seen more and more demand for real time data and monitoring and for data to
open and available in the light of day. More recently we have seen in the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive a European-Wide monitoring of water
quality upstream and downstream of wastewater discharges to the environment that is literally going to see tens if not hundreds of billions of Euros spent on
water quality monitoring, installation and maintenance.
But there is caution to all of this – we are seeing the emergence of Digital Water but, as said at the recent Digital Water Summit, and something that we all
know, whatever we do has to have use and has to have value. Otherwise we might as well make a nice bonfire of all of the money that is going to be invested
over the coming decade or so.
What is Digital Water?
It is a term that some will laud as marketing gibberish, and it is a term that even in the past three years has changed and will probably change again in another
three years. Some will call it Water 4.0 or Smart Water and the current term is Digital Water but what does it actually mean. Well, if you ask 100 different people
you will get 100 different answers.
First we have to differentiate between Digitization , Digitalisation and Digital Transformation.
Digitization – The process of making information available and accessible in a digital format
Digitalisation – The act of making processes more automated through the use of digital
Digital Transformation – The process of devising new business applications that integrate all the digitised data and
digitalised applications.
Now, I’ve borrowed these terms of the internet and so, to me, they don’t quite fit what I think of Digital Water initially but at least for the moment they will do.
So, to get onto Digital Water what do I think Digital Water actually means?
For me, at least, Digital Water is making the use of the data that the water industry collects and turning it (a) into information and (b) eventually insight for the
various users in the water industry and water environment to enable them to make decisions about how they are going to operate. This can be within a water
operating company taking a stakeholder engagement approach to identify the informational needs of the person be it the CEO of the company or the operator
on the front-line. Both of those stakeholders are going to have different informational needs at different granularity but the data sources are likely to be the
same. Outside of the water operating company it can take the form of digital services.
A great example of the Digital Services is from the PrimeWater project (http://emvis.gr/index.php/primewater) which took a number of years to develop the
services under a Horizon 2020 Project and it aim was to deliver enhanced EO-based water quality products for inland waters, through advanced physics-based
algorithms that integrate multi- and hyper-spectral imagery from satellite, airborne and in-situ optical sensors. PrimeWater is generate added-value products
(e.g. turbidity, total suspended matter, chlorophyll-a) that improve freshwater monitoring and increase the situational intelligence of water managers and
downstream water services.
With these services they have increased the situational awareness and enabled enhanced predictive and early water capabilities enabling adaptive management
of water resources and of course this is only the start of water Digital Water can achieve.
Breaking the barriers
Anyone who has heard me speak will have heard me talk about Data Quality and I know that I sound like a broken record. I often quote the various famous
William Melling phrase of the 1950s that if we put “Garbage In” then we will of course get “Garbage Out.” It was fantastic to see that the data scientists that I
met at the British Water Data Conference agreed wholeheartedly on this one. For those of you who haven’t read the IWA White Paper on Instrumentation in
Digital Transformation then please do and if you haven’t read it then you might as well read the book (for free) which is available here (https://iwaponline.com/
ebooks/book/860/A-Strategic-Digital-Transformation-for-the-Water)
We of course have to measure to manage (another old adage) but we have to measure correctly and this means having some sort of analytical quality control
and having maintenance procedures and having the skills either embedded in our organisations or the ability to contract them in. Poor data, especially when
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15. the quality of that data isn’t known is probably one of the biggest threats to the concept of Digital Water as quite frankly instrumentation if not installed and if
not maintained can and will lie. In the advent of open data when the data from instrumentation is going to have to be provided to the public in such a short time
that no quality control is possible then the importance of data quality becomes even more paramount.
This places even more emphasis on the second barrier to Digital Water and that is the skill base of the industry or the potential lack of it. In the UK at least the
plans that are currently being made for instrumentation in the water industry quite literally outweigh the skilled personnel that is available in the country to (a)
deliver the installation schemes and (b) maintain the equipment long-term. This inevitably leads to the phenomenon of “The Resistance to the effective use of
instrumentation” where an unmaintained instrument is either not installed correctly or deteriorates in quality due to lack of maintenance and of course is not
trusted, this inevitably leads to the lack of trust in data as a whole and the whole Digital Water concept fails. The second area where the industry lacks skill is in
two technical areas – firstly that of data science and analysis and secondly the skill to relate the data science to the specific situations within the water industry.
A data scientist can develop all sorts of relationships but if you don’t have the technical subject matter expertise to understand what that relationship is telling
you then things don’t quite work.
Thirdly is the barrier of expectation. With Digital Water a lot of people are pushing for real time data and up to the minute information of the here and now and
the ability to analyse things in minute detail all the time. The evidence of this is the recent drive towards 2-minute monitoring in the UK which will multiply the
amount of data by 7.5 times per monitor. This doesn’t sound a lot but when you put it into the context of the regulatory monitoring at a wastewater treatment
works for even the most simplest of works (serving greater than 250 people) is going to go from 35,040 pieces of data to 525,600 pieces of data and then you
multiply it by the approximately 3,500 sites you get 1.8 billion pieces of data per year and then add on the 5.5 billion pieces of data that is going to be collected
in the wastewater network as a minimum all of this to be delivered within one hour. Then there are going to have to be some very large IT systems to be able
to make sense from the data and see the wood from the trees. In reality you have to question whether or not this level of data is actually needed and in the
majority of situations the answer to the question is of course it isn’t.
What we can’t think of is Digital Water as more and more data. What Digital Water actually should achieve is value from the data sources to inform a situation
either for the public good be that through the direct use of information, though something like an alert system that informs people whether a bathing water is
safe or something that is longer term and helps the operational efficiency of the water operator helping to reduce the environmental impact.
What did surprise me in the industry musings at the most recent of the conferences is the determination of the water industry to not let the barriers get in
the way. Data quality can (and must) be managed, skills must be developed and the expectation on Digital Water be realised where possible and expectations
managed where the current state of the technology cannot or should not deliver where there is no need or no value.
None of the barriers are insurmountable and in real terms the solutions take time to develop. The PrimeWater project took five years, the Digital Twin that has
been developed on the water distribution network in Valencia by Idrica took ten years both of these due to the iterative nature of the solutions that means
something has to be developed, and its function observed and then developed again. Once part of the solution is developed more and more becomes visible
and so Digital Water, at least in some ways, can be seen as organic.
Enormous potential
We have to remember that Digital Water is in fact a series of tools that are designed to give us all a situational awareness of what is happening be this in a water
operators system be it treating water for drinking or returning water back to the environment and assuring public safety or be it in helping to determine and
effectively control the next pandemic that is on the horizon. The water industry faces challenges that it has never faced before and is having to manage these.
Digital tools are amongst the tools that can and will help us to both measure and manage the situation.
What we have to figure out is where the tools can help to make the most impact. This isn’t a factor of just using technology for technologies sake, we have to
remember that technology is not at the centre of Digital Water but alongside the technological developments is both the need to help and involve people and
also at the centre is the needs of businesses too as at the end of the day the use of Digital Water has to have value.
Addressing climate change and the race to Net Zero
There is a virtual global promise, especially in the water industry, for everyone to achieve “Net Zero” or in short to limit are environmental impact towards
climate neutrality. The water industry is a huge consumer of carbon and in fact the wastewater treatment side of the industry can also produce greenhouse
gases such as Nitrous Oxide which is particularly damaging to the environment.
However, there are a range of technologies that have helped the industry to control treatment systems to maximise the treatment for the energy consumed
using combinations of Real Time Control Systems, Multi-variate process control and analysers which will control treatment systems to limit the environmental
impact from nitrous oxide by measuring and control to limit the production.
On top of these the control systems that are available for biosolids treatment can maximise the energy production to ensure that wastewater treatment plants
can, in some cases not only achieve energy neutrality but in some rare case (that are hopefully increasing) can actually be energy positive by producing more
electricity than they actually consume whilst producing an excellent quality of effluent.
Put this together with a product or factory approach for the wastewater treatment system and the outcome that can be achieved from a wastewater treatment
plant is actually of a benefit to society by considering it a resource factory.
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16. The wastewater treatment plant isn’t alone in limiting the energy that is used a similar approach can be taken limiting pumping in potable water networks
by ensuring that there is sufficient water to satisfy the public’s needs limiting pumping operations to outside of peak periods of electricity and balancing the
stresses on the electrical distribution grids as well as controlling the pressure in water distribution mains to limit leakage and thus saving precious resources.
The Digital Twin approach has been used in this regard.
Addressing Pollution
In the UK at least the pollution scandal and, at least part of the blame, being put onto the water industry has resulted from the increased monitoring of the
wastewater systems through the use of event duration monitoring. Taking the issue of data quality to one side it is clear that the river environment isn’t in the
state that it should be in and there are some issues to resolve within the aquatic environment. Add to this level of monitoring the current monitoring that is
being added then there are a range of wastewater network services that are starting to be developed. My own thoughts of 4 years ago having a wastewater
network that can balance flows across a 24-hour period (as long as the storage capacity is available) and calming the wastewater network so that the flows are
passed to wastewater treatment works in a balanced way are becoming a reality.
Alert systems tied to hyperlocal forecasting ensure protection of the environment by (a) acting as blockage prediction and (b) having the potential to control
the network to save both the aquatic environment as well as the environment more generally by reducing the impact of the system as a whole and limiting the
energy that is consumed.
Digital Services
More and more the potential of Digital Service to not just the water industry but more holistically to the aquatic environment are starting to develop. The
PrimeWater project using Earth Observation is a classic example of this and then are opportunities to do a lot more. The PERTE for Water Industry investment
programme in Spain is starting to talk about Digital River Basins and along with the overflow monitoring (which hopefully will be river water quality monitoring)
has the potential to be revolutionary and realise some of the aims that the water industry has had for decades in terms of dynamic permitting and dynamic
abstraction of river waters for potable water treatment depending upon both water resources and source water quality creating a methodology for simpler
water treatment and limiting the environmental impact of water treatment works ensuring that the environmental outcome is realised for the supply of
potable water. This is only one potential thought for river basin management which a Digital Service can bring. Let alone the various technologies that exist for
leak detection using Earth Observation as another starter for 10.
A Digital Future
It is very clear that Digital Water has become a must that the water industry must deliver now, at least in some areas. There have been uses that are becoming
more and more mainstream. The use of Digital Water tools for leakage reduction is becoming a normality. Some area are not quite at Business as Usual but
are being adopted rapidly, such as Real-Time Control, to limit the environmental impact that the water industry quite naturally has and some technologies are
only starting to be developed now and the mainstream services that will fall out of these developments are not being realised as yet but have the potential in
the short to medium term future. What is clear is that the Digital Water tools, if developed correctly and the warning signs heeded, has a great opportunity to
improve not only the aquatic environment but more generally the environment as a whole.
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17. Article:
Wastewater analysis for population
health surveillance
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is experiencing a renaissance; it is the use of wastewater for the determination of health attributes of the sampled
population, often in a semi-quantitative manner. Similar concepts have been employed for over 150 years in the detection of typhoid and cholera, with Dr John
Snow’s track-and-trace efforts confirming contaminated water from the Broad Street water pump as the source of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London, England
being among the more well-documented examples. For nearly 40 years, wastewater samples have been collected across the globe to monitor the progress of the
World Health Organization’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This is because those infected with poliovirus will shed the virus in their stool, which invariably
enters the wastewater system. Hence, recovery of poliovirus from wastewater is a ‘red flag’ that there is a risk of poliovirus transmission. Homology of the
recovered poliovirus RNA to the vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in London, for example, would suggest that vaccination is the source of poliovirus, which was
imported from abroad (where that vaccine is still used), and not evidence of human-to-human transmission. However, the transmission risk is assessed based
on the number of mutations or degree to which recombinations had occurred in the sewage-derived poliovirus. The more divergent the recovered poliovirus is
from the vaccine strain, the more concern it raises for public health officials. This played out most recently in London in early 2022 under the polio surveillance
programme conducted by the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control; similar poliovirus RNA was observed in wastewater from Israel and the
United States later this year.
Concurrent with COVID-19 and poliovirus detection in wastewater, a new threat was identified and similarly monitored in wastewater, monkeypox. Several
programmes are ongoing for monkeypox surveillance, generating highly informative data on the spread of the virus and its penetration into nearly all watersheds
of the world, in which such surveillance is active.
How did wastewater surveillance transition from a tool to observe the eradication of poliovirus to a global pathogen surveillance tool?
WBE had been a topic of research by a small subset of the academic community for decades – maintained by the need to monitor poliovirus, but with aspirations
to explore what else could be done with it to inform public health officials and governments on population health and disease prevalence. Researchers were
focused on developing methods for environmental monitoring for antimicrobial resistance (AMR), often from wastewater, such as skills and methods for
wastewater sampling, RNA and DNA extraction, quantification (usually by qPCR), and most recently, sequencing. Although all of these tools and methods were
widely known in 2009, WBE was not employed to track the progress of the swine flu pandemic. The most likely reason for it not being used during the influenza
pandemic was because doctrine stated that influenza is a respiratory virus and, as such, should not be present in the stool.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic happened.
The COVID-19 pandemic created a WBE renaissance. In early 2020, many in the field of environmental microbial surveillance with ready access to wastewater
examined the feasibility of recovering from sewage the RNA of the virus that causes COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
To most of us, it was surprising how easy it was to find the coronavirus in wastewater considering the fact that SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory pathogen and was not
expected to be in the stool or urine, let alone in significant enough quantities to allow for detection once diluted in thousands of toilet flushes. The doctrine states
that DNA can survive reasonably well in the environment, but RNA is highly labile. Yet, it was clear, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was readily recoverable from wastewater –
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18. the most hostile environment imaginable for a pathogen that is not designed to transmit through a faecal oral route and certainly an incomprehensibly hostile
environment for labile RNA. The apparent paradox of recovering SARS-CoV-2 RNA from wastewater, it is argued, might be possible through the protective effects
of the matrix in which the virus is nested – poo! The fact that nearly all of the virus is excreted within the stool, it follows that as the stool is broken down into
smaller and smaller fragments, the RNA is increasingly more likely to be exposed, yet, much of it (or should I say ‘enough’) appears to remain protected in what
might be sub-micron-sized poo particles. These particles, in theory, become the RNA signal used by those conducting WBE.
The feasibility of employing WBE for the determination of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in a region was documented by a Dutch team of scientists by the end
of March 2020, leading to the rapid expansion of such programmes at local and national scales across the globe. Early successes were found on university
campuses, where validation of the method was often more achievable because of obligatory mass testing regimes. Hence, when a surveillance team recovered
SARS-CoV-2 RNA from the wastewater outside of a hall of residence, the campus authorities were able to mass-test all the residents. As COVID-19 can manifest
asymptomatically – and so the carrier does not necessarily know they are infected – passive surveillance systems, such as WBE, played a crucial role in establishing
a non-invasive, low-cost tool for population surveillance, uniquely capable of detecting symptomatic, asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic COVID-19 cases.
How is WBE data used to inform on population health?
During the pandemic we explored many different use cases for WBE. Sampling at a sewage treatment plant would be indicative of the widest possible population
in a region or city. Other use cases included primary and secondary schools, universities, prisons, care homes, airports, aeroplanes, ferries, truck stops, city
manholes, and large businesses.
The genome copies (gc) of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was the unit of measure, which was invariably normalized to the volume of liquid from which it was extracted,
i.e. 1000gc/L. But many WBE practitioners also explored ways to normalize genome copies to the flow of sewage from which it was recovered, which could be
represented as a load of virus per day. Determination of viral loads were often infeasible due to the lack of suitable tools for measuring flow in the majority
of locations from which samples were acquired. Alternative methods for determining load were to normalize to other chemical or biological markers that are
reliably present in (nearly) all toilet flushes. There is an ongoing debate about which normalization procedures are best for estimating prevalence of SARS-CoV-2
in wastewater. Despite some markers being highly useful for some groups in some sewage catchments, many other teams had little success with normalization
and proceeded to simply collect reasonably comparable samples from the same location to generate a longitudinal dataset that focused on the slope of the
3-day rolling average – a positive slope means virus numbers are increasing, with a negative slope indicating declining numbers.
The benefit of a longitudinal dataset is that the lack of precision associated with any one sample is compensated for by redundant samples, i.e. if you sample 7
times per week and one of the samples yields erroneous results, the trend should still be apparent. Hence, most use cases for WBE focused on the direction of
any trends over time, i.e. the number of COVID-19 cases in a region appears to be going up and the rate of increase is steeper than was witnessed back in time
period X, Y or Z.
What other applications for WBE are emerging?
As the WBE methodology for SARS-CoV-2 became more routine and confidence grew in the data and the trends it revealed, many teams began to explore how
the extracted RNA could be used to reveal trends about other RNA viral targets, such as: respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza A and B, human norovirus,
and hepatitis A virus (HAV). The value in determining the presence and prevalence of additional pathogens in the same sample used for SARS-CoV-2 detection
was to generate greater value from the same effort. Considerable effort is now being placed in developing methods that can leverage the pipelines developed
for sample preparation during the pandemic for not only RNA targets, but also DNA targets: bacteria and fungal pathogens, as well as specific genes, such as
antimicrobial resistance.
What is one of the greatest barriers to wider uptake of WBE?
The majority of the cost of conducting WBE is associated with a person or people visiting a site to collect a wastewater sample and couriering it back to a
laboratory for analysis. Due to this cost, it is impractical to scale WBE for national pathogen surveillance for any great length of time. Considerable interest
is being focused on how these costs can be reduced to enable wastewater surveillance at scale. A national surveillance network that relied on an automated
end-to-end solution for generating a rich dataset of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes would offer significant value to public health monitoring, at a
fraction of the cost of traditional mass testing, and in near real time. In fact, there is no comparable dataset to one that could be collected through wastewater.
Such data would empower public health decisions to be made rapidly, and result in government actions leading to the termination of epidemics and pandemics
before they ever really get started. There is equal potential to include chemical sensors in such automated end-to-end wastewater sampling solutions, further
expanding the range of questions that could be asked about the health and behaviours of the population. Increasing target breadth brings greater value from
the same investment – making it easier for those with limited capital to justify a WBE programme.
The future of WBE is exciting and could include automated sequencing pipelines identifying previously uncharacterised microbial threats. The implementation of
a such a surveillance tool at airports and other ports of entry across the globe can be the basis of a truly integrated and networked global pathogen surveillance
network of the future.
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19. Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring Conference & Exhibition
Birmingham, UK
9th - 10th October 2024
WWEM is moving to the Birmingham NEC in 2024. Planning is still underway but the firm favourites like the Flow Forum,
Instrumentation Apprentice Competition and the Learning Zone will be returning as well as some surprises. Watch this space for
updates but what is sure that in its new home in Birmingham the WWEM Conference and Exhibition will be bigger than ever.
Sensor for Water Interest Group Workshops
The Sensors for Water Interest Group has moved their workshops for the foreseeable future to an online webinar format. The next
workshops are
25th January 2023 - Sensors for AMP8 and PR24 - Coventry
IWA Digital Water Summit
Bilbao, Spain
14th -16th November 2023
The highly successful IWA Digital Water Summit returns to Bilbao in November 2023 for its 2nd edition. These dates are provisional
at the moment. The 1st summit highlighted the potential and the 2nd summit will build on the first in November 2023
Sensing in Water 2023
Nottingham, UK
27th -28th September 2023
After its break due to the Covid Pandemic the Sensors in Water Group 2-day conference returns to the Nottingham Belfry to talk
about all things sensing. What this space for more updates
SWAN Forum Conference
Glasgow, Scotland
9th -11th May 2023
This year the SWAN Conference returns to the UK and specifically Glasgow with the aim this year to ask attendees to answer the
question of how to make Smart Water mainstream.
WEX Global 2023
Seville, Spain
27th -29th March 2023
Water & Energy Exchange Global is one of my favourite conferences in the calendar. This year moving from Valencia to Seville in
Southern Spain the B2B conference is bound to concentrate on what we can do to use Smart Circular Solutions to build a better
world,
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Conferences, Events,
Seminars & Studies
Conferences, Seminars & Events
2022 Conference Calendar

20. Water, Energy &
Climate Change
Smart Circular Solutions to
build a better world
Join us at WEX Global 2023
27th – 29th March, Seville Spain
Co-Host: Global Business Development Partner:
Welcoming Utility:
FIND OUT MORE & TO BOOK YOUR PLACE VISIT www.wex-global.com
Meet-4-Business at WEX Global
The relaxed but business focused atmosphere
at WEX Global offers the perfect environment
to grow your international network. A busy
timetable of both formal and informal
networking events will present you with an
array of opportunities to meet everyone that
is important to you.
WEX Global occupies a unique place in the water
conference calendar. Business discussions and
connections lie at the heart of WEX, along with
the principle of ‘exchange’; the exchange of
ideas, philosophies, business opportunities and
methodologies to build the strong networks that
will meet the challenges of the circular economy in
mitigating climate change, achieving net zero and
turbo-charging digital transformation.
“being part of the WEX Global
network is not an expense,
it’s an investment”
Mohsen Mortada,
President Cole Engineering
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