Key themes from WWT Wastewater Conference & Exhibition 2025: Collaboration, innovation, and a holistic approach
Published: 5 February 2025
With the kick-off to AMP8 just months away, the pressure is on for the water industry to meet ambitious targets. At last week’s WWT Wastewater Conference & Exhibition, held on 28–29 January, three themes dominated discussions:
- Collaboration
- Innovation
- A holistic approach to wastewater management
These key themes will be crucial in ensuring the industry makes meaningful progress in tackling challenges such as stormwater overflows, pollution reduction, and asset optimisation.
Simon Jefferson, our Water Sector Director, took part in a panel discussion on mitigating, monitoring, and reducing stormwater overflows, where some thought-provoking insights emerged.
Looking beyond water companies to take a holistic approach
One key takeaway was the necessity of cross-sector collaboration. While water companies are responsible for monitoring and reducing pollution, they are not the only contributors to the issue and therefore cannot be solely responsible for tackling and improving pollution.
Collaboration and action are also needed in other sectors, such as local authorities, to create meaningful change.
Jo Harrison, Asset Management Director at United Utilities, highlighted a compelling case study from Greater Manchester, where a collaborative partnership between United Utilities, the Environment Agency, and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority is proactively addressing urban drainage challenges. By working together, they are developing long-term, sustainable solutions. This model underscores the urgent need for more cross-sector partnerships across the UK.
Embracing risk to drive innovation
A major barrier to innovation is fear of failure. Yet, if the water sector is to evolve and meet AMP8 targets, organisations must empower their teams to take calculated risks. Without this freedom, true innovation – whether in technology, processes, or infrastructure – will remain out of reach.
Asset optimisation and the visibility challenge
Optimising existing assets will be essential to meeting industry targets. However, one fundamental challenge remains: visibility.
Many parts of the wastewater network lack sufficient data and monitoring, making it difficult to understand and manage assets effectively. Increasing data collection and asset transparency will be crucial in the years ahead to properly understand the causes of issues, so the right solutions can be developed that deliver for the customer.
Monitoring perceptions vs reality
It is often believed that once sensors are installed, they cannot be maintained. That if something goes wrong, it’s game over and you need to replace the whole system. And that’s not very sustainable. But is that really the case?
We believe that ongoing maintenance is not only possible, but essential for ensuring your sensors continue to perform at their best for years to come. Group company Detectronic has the capability to not only design and build these monitors, but install and maintain them as part of an ongoing maintenance contract.
No single organisation can solve this alone
As Nicole McNab, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Southern Water, highlighted, addressing stormwater overflows requires a collective industry effort. If individual companies only focus on their own assets, progress will be limited. True change will come from partnerships, shared investment, and a commitment to working together to tackle challenges at a systemic level.
Looking ahead
As we move closer to AMP8, the need for industry-wide collaboration, bold innovation, and a holistic mindset has never been clearer.
The WWT Wastewater Conference & Exhibition 2025 reinforced that these aren’t just buzzwords; they’re essential principles that will define the sector’s success in the years to come.
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