Southern Water is working with some of the biggest and most iconic data partners in the world - Google and Solidatus - to help transform its data for wider use.

At present the water company collates and shares data about drinking water quality and wastewater spillages with regulators Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

Using world-leading methods, Southern is now gaining new insights and shaking-up how it both works with data and share it.

Multiple data points (or units of information) lie behind each of the figures the utility releases.

Under an innovative new scheme the water company will be sharing all of the information with regulators, the wider water industry and other interested parties - giving greater transparency and insight into water and wastewater in the UK.

Southern Water has already started working with six universities and two colleges, to aid research projects. Other water and wastewater companies have also signed up to the new system, called The DataWell.

Taking leakage as an example - using the new approach additional data such as the age of a property, the people who live there and the condition of an asset will be taken into account before a validated figure for leakage is produced.

The aim is to produce a standardised data framework to calculate leakage and other issues, which other water companies can also use.

Peter Jackson, Chief Data Officer at Southern Water commented:

“We have taken inspiration from projects all over the world, including a similar collaboration in California, which saw a coalition of 20 water companies come together to share tools, and research in order to guide decisions on water management.

“Crucially, this will give customers and regulators a consistent and robust set of data across the water industry.

“By having data integrated across water companies, we can work more efficiently - giving us more time to focus on helping our customers, the environment and wider society.”