Increased dialogue between industry and government as well as learning from overseas experiences were just a couple of ideas put forward at a recent event on how the UK could take a lead in the 'smart' water sector.

Stakeholders from across the water industry debated the matter during a workshop at the Future Water Conference, held on 25 June 2013, which explored how the water sector could be made more resilient in face of challenges such as climate change and population growth.

The session, led by i2o Water, resulted in several interesting points which could be presented to government and regulators to help the UK develop solutions for a ‘smarter’ water sector.

Tony Conway, Director of Strategic Asset Planning at United Utilities, said there must be a national strategy towards a ‘smart’ water sector and called on increased government support for the issue. This was a recurring theme throughout the session, and it was thought that industry should try to engage with government more in order to establish a framework.

The example of Israel was drawn upon for this matter, where the state-owned national water company works very closely with companies to develop new technologies and solutions for water management. The Middle East state invests heavily in R&D and has a strong culture of incubating fledgling technologies.

Another idea raised was increased government to government support. Because sustainable management of water is a global issue, governments need to cooperate with each other in order to find the best solutions and nurture the concept of ‘smarter’ water.

Adam Kingdon, Chief Executive of i2o Water, discussed his company’s experiences abroad, where i2o’s technology had had a swifter adoption rate than in the UK. He said the fastest adoption of the technology was in countries where water is given an economic value, such as Malaysia and Australia. If water was given an economic value, water company engineers could quickly evaluate new technology to check viability, he argued.

As the water sector is traditionally a risk-averse sector, another point was raised that water utilities are unwilling to adopt technology until it has been demonstrated fully. One participant suggested that because other countries are more willing to trial technology and invest in R&D than the UK currently is, UK companies should go abroad to test their technologies. There was also a call for more pilot schemes in this country.

More investment in universities was also mooted as an idea to help fill the dearth of engineering graduates the UK is producing - universities are often looking overseas for water professionals. However, greater collaboration with countries that have greater water skills and expertise was also widely agreed upon.

An afternoon panel followed the workshop, focusing on international best practice reiterated many of these points. Despite the UK having many innovative SMEs operating in the water sector, more government support was necessary for their development and commercialising technology, the panel said.