Reengineering water management for a sustainable future

As the summer fades to autumn, many communities will welcome the end of the record-high temperatures and extreme climatological events. The arrival of autumn will bring temporary relief, but it cannot distract us from the importance of improving the way we manage water.

Most of us take access to clean water for granted. After all, we rely on it for our daily health and hygiene. But beyond our household consumption, effective water management is also crucial to supporting our food systems, and to the conservation of the biodiversity that surrounds us.

Over the summer, I read about the desertification of farming land in Sicily and the need for hotels to procure special water deliveries and the Spanish tourist industry coming under pressure to reduce water consumption by holiday resorts. Unfortunately, these aren’t isolated incidents. There are cases and stories like these appearing with worrying frequency across Europe.

And having spent time in the UK earlier this year, I couldn’t help but notice the number of news headlines devoted to water-related problems … spillages, an excessively high number of discharges, and chemical contamination. It’s a worrying trend, especially when some of the incidents are caused by technology failures. And it’s one that requires urgent action.?

So what is to be done about the current ‘water crisis’ in a country like the UK, where the infrastructure is seemingly in desperate need of a major overhaul? How can we deploy the wealth of technologies we have available to us today and the fast-evolving communication protocols like ‘hybrid 5G ’ or 6G to enable real-time monitoring of rivers and water infrastructure? To anticipate polluting events like spills before they happen and automate systems to reduce reliance on human intervention? How can we make river and water management intelligent?

In my view, we need to start with the following:

Long-term vision that recognizes and considers the needs of a growing population, the likelihood of further climate disruption, the importance of biodiversity, and the needs of future generations. We need to be able to model and anticipate different scenarios and ensure we are prepared for them all.

‘Big picture’ thinking and a holistic approach that blends expertise from across multiple domains (engineering, IT, strategy and innovation, and business processes); an ability to optimally deploy technologies such as AI, IoT, and cloud; a future-focused mindset; and a deep-rooted appreciation for sustainability in all its forms. Water management is a societal, economic, and environmental issue. We need to treat it with the importance it deserves and deploy the best minds from multiple disciplines and domains.

Collaborative ‘consortium’ approach that recognizes the common goals and challenges of water companies and the wider supply chain ecosystem, seeks to address the needs of all, promotes innovation, and strives to create best practices that can be adopted across the industry. Adopting such an approach increases the chances of maximizing the return on investment, enabling cost efficiencies that water companies, regulators and consumers alike will appreciate.

Envisioning an intelligent water platform

At Capgemini, we have developed a vision for an intelligent water platform – one that addresses the key stages of the water management lifecycle – from smart monitoring of rivers and detection of causes of pollution, right through to the predictive maintenance of the infrastructure assets used to deliver water to our homes and to manage waste … all underpinned by a satisfying data-driven customer experience for all stakeholders, including businesses and end customers.

Importantly, this platform would be able to anticipate the future based on historical data or present-day events – whether they be caused by drought or downpour – and how they will impact the network and service in the subsequent minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months. It will do this by using connected devices, IoT, data science, AI, and automation to accurately identify the situational context, conditions, and events that trigger disruption within the water network (e.g. a pollution incident or mechanical pump failure), and – based on conditions at any given time – issue appropriate notifications to key stakeholders, and automate preventative action.

Thanks to the wealth of technology available to us today, and the combined expertise of water companies and their supply chain ecosystem, technology providers, and organizations like Capgemini, we have everything we need to turn this need into reality and implement integrated solutions that enable us to not only manage our physical water management networks more effectively, but do so with greater emphasis on appreciating and managing the precious-yet-increasingly-stressed natural environment they directly impact.?

Smart Monitoring

To monitor the levels and quality of water in rivers and reservoirs in real time, as well as the assets and processes used to manage and cleanse drinking water, and deal with our waste products. This should be possible in real time through connected assets but also in a hybrid manner, leveraging historical data as well as external sources (e.g. weather forecasts) to enable insights, model scenarios, monitor operations, and detect faults.

Smart Accountability

This is about making operations intelligent through digitally enabled control centers that are capable of monitoring entire networks (including drinking water supply and waste water) right down to the individual-asset level across vast areas. This will enable operators to remain in control of their networks and their performance in a variety of different scenarios, including pollution events, situational awareness (e.g. storms and floods, contamination, and others. It should be supported by data science to support the identification of root causes of issues, to enable continuous improvement of performance.?

Smart Fixes

By deploying technologies and solutions like AI, the approach to infrastructure management can shift from reactive to proactive. Predictive maintenance can be used to efficiently manage existing assets, identify and eliminate probability of failure before polluting events take place, and with the right approach to data and information management, it’s possible to inform future investment strategies and improve the value derived from them. And, of course, these investment strategies should continuously consider the opportunities offered by emerging technologies and look to implement them in a way that keeps the infrastructure and technology landscape evolving and fit for purpose.

All of this should be delivered in a way that balances the needs of customers, the environment, and the business. And, importantly, it would lay the foundations for continuous evolution, ensuring that the water management infrastructure remains fit for purpose well into the future. Sounds optimistic? With the capabilities and technologies available to us today, I am convinced that this is possible.

Experience matters

For the management of this precious resource and the protection of natural biodiversity, it is vital to have a partner with proven expertise in delivering value across the water and natural environment management value chain. At Capgemini, we already have a deep understanding and strong relationships with some of the UK’s leading water companies and are helping them with everything from cloud migration and digitalizing core business functions like HR and Service Desk operations , right through to the transformation of field services and waste water treatment .

Our ambition is to combine this intimate knowledge of the industry, our passion for preservation of the natural environment and our appetite for innovation to develop disruptive solutions that challenge traditional ways of working – solutions that manage the complexity of the problems we face, while being good for people, the planet, and business.

Access to clean water and a thriving natural ecosystem is not something we can take for granted. Let’s get intelligent about the way we manage our water.