Proceedings

A summary by the Chair,  Carmen Snowden, WRc of statements made by attendees of the Aqua Enviro Water and Resource Efficiency Conference 17^th July 2014.

• Need to work with customers so that they think about water use. Currently they don’t really have a clue how much they use.
• Data opportunity in the non-domestic sector – getting customers to understand how they are using water.
• Need to keep focussing on removing the need to think – take out the human factor and see how far technology can take us.
• Increased government involvement in education.
• Imagine a different way of treating water.
• Improve the way regulators work together.
• Engagement of consumers – how do we make them think about water and the business model for it making sense to them.
• Recognition that today’s forecast of demand is out of data tomorrow due to inherent uncertainties.
• Public incentives.
• If only water companies knew as much about their customers as supermarkets know about theirs. Need to have a relationship with customers – at the moment we don’t even know who they are.
• Helping people understand how much water they use.
• Awareness of water use and the value of it.
• New approaches for customer engagement, and use these as a starting point for collecting data.
• Look at the infrastructure, and building regulations – move forward not backwards.
• Look at water in water in food value chains, and the context of water dynamics.
• Understand and make best use of alternative sources of water.
• Understand customers and demonstrate success.
• Understand the standard inputs to demand forecasting.
• Tackle leakage.
• Tackle the economics of water – it is too cheap.
• Smart meters and variable pricing.
• Getting the balance of equipment versus behaviour.
• Keep track of technology.
• Get a grip on the big practical things to make greatest difference.
• Energy usage – need to deal with loss of heat and energy used in treatment.
• Understand water use.
• Focus on societal acceptance of water efficiency.