The big questions arising in the UK water industry today are principally centred around:
Industry experts say that the scale, complexity and uncertainty of these combined challenges need a new response.
Innovation is the buzz word and the cure of many ills it would seem. But how do you get innovative in an industry that by the nature of its product must be risk averse?
Innovation is the product of trying something untried and untested, of taking risks, learning from failures. These are not traits that you would typically associate or maybe even want to associate with the people who are supplying your water.
But without inventiveness and a taste for what’s new, the industry finds itself faced with few solutions to tackle the big questions. Dr Paul Leinster and others chastise the water industry for the scariness of its current technologies developed decades ago.
“While we still pee in drinking quality water, we cannot accept we have a sustainable water supply and treatment approach”. Dr Leinster Chief Executive The Envrionment Agency
All the signs are there that a new course of action must be adopted but where do you begin?
How do you break down these big challenges into chunks that can meaningfully be handled?
How do you scale a response that does enough to make an impact whilst managing any detrimental outcomes?
How do you move the debate on from discussion to action?
In the public sector large initiatives and wholesale solutions have in many cases proven costly and not always effective. The public sector is now responding through the use of small scale projects that can be tried and tested before roll out. The risks are lower, innovation is more adventurous and they have more chance of delivering.
And it’s not just the size of the project that is important. It is also clear that the real alchemy is achieved when the creativity of an entrepreneurial mindset is coupled with industy expertise. Typically the talent that these projects need won’t be found in large corporations.
At Web Project People we believe that our team can help water industry experts to define and deliver medium to large scale projects. We’re a bunch of entrepreneurs with plenty of experience of using creativity, web technologies and project management to try something new. We would love to work with your team to find some of the answers to these very important questions.