- The Catchment Systems Thinking Co-operative, a partnership including Southern Water, the Rivers Trust, 12 water and sewerage companies as well as academia and environmental charities has been named as a winner and will take a share of Ofwat’s £36 million Water Innovation Challenge.
- The Co-operative seeks to provide grant funding for local project designed to protect local water environments and their surrounding communities & is in partnership with The Rivers Trust.
- The Water Breakthrough Challenge tackles the biggest challenges facing water and wastewater services, including net zero, reducing leakage, protecting natural ecosystems, and using open data to deliver value to customers, society, and the environment.
01 October 2021 – The Catchment Systems Thinking Co-operative, a partnership of 12 water and sewerage companies including Southern Water, as well as academia and environmental charities, has been announced as a winner in Ofwat’s first Water Breakthrough Challenge.
The Co-operative aims to transform the way in which essential data about health of the nation’s rivers is gathered and shared and its latest project is focusing on the catchments of the Arun and Rother rivers in West Sussex. The partnership has already contributed towards significant pollutant reduction and flood risk management within the other regions around the country where it has been trialled.
As well driving significant improvements to water quality at a lower cost to customers, it has also enabled natural capital benefits to be incorporated at a catchment-wide scale, for example, through enhanced biodiversity, soil conservation and tree planting.
The Catchment Systems Thinking Co-operative aims to encourage the management of water in a holistic way, through an understanding the impact of water management on the local community, as well as the protection of the environment more broadly.
Claire Neale, Principal Catchment Management Specialist at Southern Water said:
“We are delighted to have been awarded this funding which will enable us to continue to deliver on our commitment to improve water quality within the West Sussex catchment and across our regions. This partnership will go a long way to revolutionising local water management practices, through putting the community and the environment first.”
Entries to the Water Breakthrough Challenge were encouraged from water companies in England and Wales in partnerships with organisations in and outside the water sector, including universities and institutes, retailers, start-ups, or small businesses in sectors such as energy, manufacturing, health, or financial services.
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About Ofwat’s Innovation Fund
Ofwat has established a £200 million Innovation Fund to grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate, enabling it to better meet the evolving needs of customers, society and the environment.
The Water Breakthrough Challenge is run by Ofwat and Nesta Challenges in partnership with Arup and is the second in a series of competitions funded through the Fund following the Innovation in Water Challenge earlier this year.
Entries were encouraged from water companies in England and Wales, alongside partnerships with organisations within and outside the water sector, including universities and institutes, retailers, start-ups, or small businesses in sectors such as energy, manufacturing, health, or financial services.