The global water sector faces many challenges. Underlying issues of rising operation and maintenance costs, ageing infrastructure, and a lack of funding are being compounded by the macro trends of urbanisation and climate change.
To overcome this ‘perfect storm’ and ensure a sustainable and reliable provision of water services, utilities must innovate – and fast.
Emerging technologies provide an abundance of solutions to help utilities future-proof water supplies. However, it’s not always easy for start-ups and innovators to get a foot in the door, let alone flourish.
To find out more about the barriers to tech adoption in the water industry, and ways forward, we spoke to Isle Utilities’ CEO, Dr. Benjamin Tam.
Tam, formally the UK managing director at Isle, has a background in science and innovation, with a PhD in biochemistry.
Prior to joining Isle in 2016, Tam worked in the water industry fulfilling a variety of scientific and managerial roles, including a wide portfolio of innovation projects at Anglian Water.
He is currently chair of the UK committee of the International Water Association and a director of the Institute of Water.
Q: Can you say a bit more about Isle Utilities and your flagship TAG programme?
Isle was formed just over a decade ago at the height of the cleantech bubble.
We wanted to address three key and connected hurdles: start-ups were struggling to find their feet in the industry, many water utilities were slow to uptake new technologies, and investors were often unsure of where to put their money.
The Technology and Approval Group (TAG) was formed to bridge this gap. TAG connects high-potential emerging tech start-ups with water utilities, while leveraging external venture capital investment.
Globally we work with 250 water utilities across five continents.
Q: What are some of the challenges tech start-ups face when breaking into the industry?
If you’re a budding start-up with no current exposure to the sector it can be quite hard to succeed because there are a limited number of organisations you can work with.
If you are targeting the utilities market exclusively you must be prepared for the long haul especially if you have no previous connections in the sector.
Access to finance is also often a challenge. In the water industry you need quite ‘patient’ capital willing to wait for a return on investment.
Another challenge is that start-ups sometimes develop a solution to a problem that ends up being solved quite quickly – rendering their innovation obsolete.
Q: Then the obvious question is – how to overcome these barriers?
There are a number of global accelerator programmes that have connections to water utilities, and these can help pave a runway for success.
To improve your chances, you should look at diversifying to sectors like industry or agriculture – other client bases where you might have better traction initially.
To develop a solution that will last, being able to run trials with a bigger partner is invaluable and helps narrow down your solution and build trust within the sector.
You’ve also got to be agile, don’t be afraid to adapt your solution as new insights and events unfold.
Don’t try and bite off the entire problem at once but take small steps and make sure you are moving in the right direction.
If you can get leader buy-in that will help enormously to address some of the bigger challenges faced by utilities.
Last but not least, a diverse range of investors makes the big difference because if you don’t have long-term support, once the initial capital runs dry you may be left stranded.
From concept to market success is quite a long path, but it’s worth it if you can really dig in and persevere.
Q: What are some of the disruptive technologies transforming the industry at the moment?
10 years ago, utilities were mainly looking for engineering solutions like new membranes, sensors, and the like, but in the last three years or so everything has a digital element to it.
Rather than ‘disruptive’ I would say these technologies are here to make things better.
Digital twins are offering the ability to trial something more accurately than ever before, improving situational awareness and scenario forecasting.
Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are helping us manage and interpret data, and increasingly, make decisions. Trusting the decision-making of machines will definitely be a big adjustment in the industry, and beyond.
Something else we’re seeing is water quality monitoring devices are getting more and more accurate, and able to detect an increasing number of parameters. This is making us more aware of existing and emerging contaminants like PFAS in our water, driving the industry to address these contaminants and innovative quite rapidly.
On a macro scale, as our situational awareness increases it raises bigger questions about how to prevent things like pollution events.
In the UK, a big public concern that will spur innovation is the problem of combined sewer overflow (CSO). I think the pandemic has also raised our awareness of the issue and the need to clean up our waterways.
As a result, we’re seeing rapid uptake of technologies that help balance flows, monitor leakages, and manage capacity, and I think these solutions will only become more sophisticated.
Q: A lot of the time we think of innovation in tech-terms, but what about innovative new partnerships and cross-sectoral collaboration?
Yes, that’s really crucial.
I’ll use the example of CSO once more. It’s not just water companies that are responsible for pollution events but everyone that interacts with the water cycle.
For instance, removing agricultural pesticides at source before they enter rivers requires working holistically across sectors.
I think within the water sector the pressure is mounting in terms of climate change and urbanisation, and the only way we are going to solve these issues is through collaboration.
Globally we are also more connected than ever which is opening many doors to working together to solve some of these big challenges.
The types of people that join the industry is also really important. Hopefully we will see younger and more diverse water professionals enter the space which is bound to accelerate new ideas and drive innovation.
Q: How do you think climate change will drive innovation in the sector?
Water utilities in the UK have committed to net-zero by 2030 which is a positive step but there is a lot of work to be done before we can get there.
We really need to be getting to the point where we are using all available technologies to reach this goal.
One thing’s for sure – it’s definitely going to get harder before it gets easier. We have a big task on our hands and beyond the industry, we need to our citizens to start really being mindful of water and where it comes from.
Q: What’s your future outlook?
While there is still a long way to go, I believe that the market is now poised for a rapid acceleration of tech and innovation in the water industry.
Venture capital is becoming increasingly available which is helping usher in a new wave of water start-ups.
I feel we have a surge of new ideas coming to market at the moment and with the right support, these technologies and innovations can hopefully bring real change.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity.
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