Lack of diversity in the UK & Irish water industry workforce means that we are missing out on the talent from multiple groups who are under-represented. UK & Irish water industry workforce currently does not reflect the wider society that we serve. As companies who serve the communities around is it is vital that we have representation from within of all the various groups that we serve. This will enable us to understand the challenges and issues that our customers face, as well as reasons why they might not be receptive to our messaging (e.g. reducing water use)

OFWAT expect all of the UK Water companies to be delviering on this; a quote taken from the OFWAT 'Time to Act Together' strategy says "We want to see water companies transform their ability to serve customers and respond to the full diversity of customer needs, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances." We can only do this if we have an embedded understanding of what those customers' needs are, and the best way to achieve that is through having a diverse workforce with a wide variety of lived experiences.

Limited diversity in thought means that we are missing out on innovation opportunities. There is plenty of research available that proves that a diverse workforce brings many business benefits, and is in the interests of all. Statistics gathered by McKinsey confirm that companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform on profitability, and companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability. Companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability. Further details can be found in the 2018 McKinsey report "Delivery through Diversity" which is available free of charge.

One of the pillars of the UK Water 2050 Strategy is 'Enabling Diverse Future-Ready People and Partnership Working' explained as "We need to ensure we have the culture, skills and partnerships to innovate to prepare for future change."

One of the specific short-term goals towards 2025 is "Training, upskilling, resource sharing, and employment development programmes support the creation of a diverse, representative and future ready workforce, which reflects are open to innovation and able to adapt to future challenges.

For example:
• through development programmes to ensure that diversity of thought, innovation skills and wider supporting skills, such as collaboration, digital, product develop and customer research, are key water sector skill-sets

The sector has a shared understanding of where future skills gaps could emerge and sector wide plans and training programmes to address any gaps identified"

The release of the film 'Dark Waters' has only served to highlight a wider concern than the known issue of widespread non-compliance with the EQS for PFOS. There is emerging concern regarding the wider family of PFAS and their toxicity both to humans and in the environment. The EA is currently taking a pragmatic view and effectively relaxing the EQS for PFOS in the light of monitoring data (aqueous and biota) but this leaves unanswered issues of what to regulate and why - and then how the industry should respond, and if compliance is cost-effective.

UKWIR has developed a unique Database of Sewer and Water Mains Failures (NFD) covering a significant cohort of the United Kingdom’s past and present stock.  The Database enabled subscribers to compare and analyse sewer failure and water mains failure data with anonymised data from other participating companies.

The NFD remains a valuable resource for the UK and Ireland water industry, as it contains up to 30 years of asset failure data. At its peak, data from almost two thirds of UK water companies was uploaded to the NFD each year. However, there has been deterioration in data uploads and usage in more recent years due to the age of the IT system and difficulty is in accessing the system by water company members.

Before UKWIR considers where to go next with a similar or new data platform, there is a great opportunity to take stock of the existing dataset and mine it for relevant insights that may inform current and future asset strategies, as well as the evolution of the NFD.  

A number of companies experienced a rise in the rate of bursts on larger diameter mains in 2022, a number of these occurred at or close to sizeable road junctions. There is a hypothesis that the

condition of the road and the volume of traffic at these road junctions and has contributed to failure of these mains. When a vehicle hits a pothole, and a shock is felt within the vehicle, however that shock wave will travel down through the road towards the water mains, but does this increase the risk of failure and how can that risk then be monitored to allow risk mitigation measures to be taken.

Over the years we have had a number of major bursts at large road junctions. There are many reasons why we have burst, transients being a common factor, but does significant vibration/shock due to vehicles also result in premature/catastrophic failure or significant risk to major water distribution infrastructure. Should we consider the volume of traffic and the condition of road surfaces as significant risk to major water distribution infrastructure and how would we mange that risk.