Meet the contenders: Water Industry Awards 2024

The shortlist for this year’s Water Industry Awards has been unveiled ahead of the ceremony in Birmingham on 4 July.

Water companies across the country and their key suppliers and partners will fight it out across 20 categories.

You can get a front row seat for the announcement of the winners at The Vox, Birmingham on 4 July by booking here.

Utility Week editor an chair of the judges James Wallin said: “Sadly there are few opportunities in the current climate for water companies to celebrate the real achievements being made across the sector. That’s why these awards matter so much and why it was so encouraging to see such strong competition among the entries.

“Individuals and teams across the sector are going above and beyond to keep customers connected, to protect the environment and to futureproof our water infrastructure. I look forward to recognizing this hard work, dedication and innovation on 4 July.”

Full list of the finalists:

Alliance or Partnership Initiative of the Year 

• Affinity Water and Browne – Below Ground Asset Trunk Main Delivery Partnership 
• Anglian Water, Morrison Water Services, Hydrosave and Water Research Centre – Accelerating the Enhanced Pressure Monitoring Programme
• Avove and iNPIPE PRODUCTS – Pioneering partnership brings groundbreaking smart air pigging solutions to the industry
• Murphy and Thames Water – Lot 5 Woodford 50
• Network Plus Envolve – An Intelligent Partnership for Bristol Water
• Southern Water – From Zero to Hero: Lukely Brook Stage Zero restoration project
• Southern Water and the Department for Education – SuDS in Schools 
• United Utilities, Environment Agency and Greater Manchester Combined Authority – Greater Manchester Trilateral Partnership and Integrated Water Management Plan

Asset Management Initiative of the Year 

• Anglian Water and Ovarro – PumpInsight
• Alpheus Environmental – Alternative management approach 
• M Group Services, Scottish Water and Caledonia Water Alliance (Morrison Water Services and AECOM Joint Venture)  – Asset Management integration process
• Severn Trent Water and the Met Office – Climate Resilient Water Networks
• Southern Water – Optimising existing infrastructure to reduce storm overflows
• Uisce Eireann – Chemically Enhanced Primary Treatment Dundalk WwTW
• Yorkshire Water and Samotics – Electrical Signature Analytics
• Xylem and Scottish Water – Blairlinnans SoundPrint Acoustic Fibre Optic System 

Contractor of the Year 

• Adler and Allan
• APEM Group
• Barhale
• Galliford Try
• Lanes Group
• RSE (Ross-shire Engineering)
• Stonbury

Customer Initiative of the Year 

• Anglian Water – Project Connect
• Barhale and Thames Water – Sewer Flooding Resilience Initiative
• Dwr Cymru Welsh Water – Inspiring Water Resilient Communities Project
• Severn Trent Water – Green Recovery Protecting Customer Supply Pipes
• Southern Water – Virtual Inspector – Remote Triage
• South East Water – AquAlerter
• Thames Water and Browne – Raising the Bar of Customer Engagement

Digitalisation Project of the Year  

•  Yorkshire Water & BMA – Whole Systems Adaptive Planning: Going Beyond Traditional Asset Investment Planning with AI-assisted Network Design and Resilience
• Fyld and CLC Utility Services – Digitalisation of Field Operations
• Integrated Maintenance and Repair Water Recycling Alliance for Anglian Water – Risk Tool and RISC
• MWH Treatment – Hampton Advanced Water Treatment Works Stoney Sluice Gates Digitalised Delivery
• Scottish Water & Capgemini – Non-Complex Service Delivery 
• South West Water and AiDash – BNGAI
• Stantec – Reality Insight
• Yorkshire Water with Morrison Water Services and Hydraulic Analysis Group – VariSim Delta

Diversity & Inclusion Initiative of the Year 

•  Integrated Maintenance and Repair Water Recycling Alliance for Anglian Water – Women in Construction and Alliancing Community
• Kier Group & Kier Natural Resources, Nuclear & Networks – Making Ground
• Morrison Water Services – Menopause for Men Initiative
• Northumbrian Water – Together for Inclusion, Diversity & Equity
• Stantec – Better Together: Fostering Inclusivity and Community at Stantec

Drinking Water Initiative of the Year  

• AtkinsRealis – Sizewell C Seawater Desalination Plant 
• Kier Natural Resources, Nuclear & Networks, Stantec and Yorkshire Water – Sladen Water Treatment Works – Magnetic Ion Exchange plant
• Team UAV – Confined Space Drone Surveys at Pumping Stations 
• Thames Water and MWH Treatment – Hampton Water Treatment Works Contact Tank Penstock Replacement and Water Ingress Protection
• Uisce Éireann/Irish Water – THRIVE – Integrated Operations Management
• Water Production Team, Wessex Water – Ivyfields Pesticide Avoidance

Energy in Water Award 

• Anglian Water – Sustainable Energy Reduction Programme
• GallifordTry – Wilmington Q WFD Phosphorous Removal 
• Rioned – eFlow One – Electric Drain and Sewer Jetting Machine
• Royal HaskoningDHV with Anglian Water – Helea 
• SUEZ and Bristol Water – Water Supply Optimisation

Engineering Consultancy of the Year 

• Binnies 
• Buro Happold
• Stantec
• WGM Engineering
• WSP 

Groundbreaker Award 

• Affinity Water – No Dig
• Avove and iNPIPE PRODUCTS – Pioneering partnership brings groundbreaking smart air pigging solutions to the industry
• GHD – Automation Studio
• Northumbrian Water – The Green Machine – Microalgal treatment of sludge liquor
• Mott MacDonald, Anglian Water and EarthSystemData – Water Resources Forecaster
• Southern Water – Sealing private laterals to reduce groundwater infiltration 
• United Utilities – Use of Vertical Aerated Reeds Beds to treat storm sewage discharges
• VorTech Water Solutions and Isle Utilities – Vortex Power Aerator 

Health & Safety Initiative of the Year 

• Anglian Water – ‘Get Trucking Fit’
• Barhale – Use of Human Form Recognition & Digital Thumbs Up Technology to Reduce People Plant Interface Risk
• Murphy & Sons – Murphy Visual Standards
• Mott MacDonald Bentley – Llyn Celyn valves and pipe team
• Safety Shield Global and Anglian Water – Safety Shield Ai Collision Avoidance System
• Scottish Water and UDLive – Remote monitoring of the Daer Reservoir
• Team UAV – Confined Space Drone Surveys at Pumping Stations

Leakage Initiative of the Year 

• Asterra, Suez and Anglian Water – Mapping Leakage
• Datatecnics – Leak Response: An AI-powered assistant for leakage teams
• GWF – Blending fundamentals and data science to accelerate water leakage reduction
• Northumbrian Water – No Dig
• Yorkshire Water with Morrison Water Services and Hydraulic Analysis Group – VariSim Delta

Natural Capital Initiative of the Year 

•  United Utilities, Advance Plus (MWH Treatment/J Murphy & Sons) & Stantec – Southwaite WwTW Integrated Constructed Wetland
• AtkinsRéalis, Affinity Water and AiDash – Remote Sensing and Natural Capital Accounting
•  Mott MacDonald and Thames Water – Climate resilient BNG: Strategic BNG planning for a sustainable future
• Portsmouth Water – Havant Thicket Reservoir
• United Utilities and The Rivers Trust – Wyre NFM
• Scottish Water – Growing Natural Capital and Biodiversity
• Stantec – Driving Sustainable Change through Nature-based Solutions
• Southern Water – From Zero to Hero: Lukely Brook Stage Zero restoration project

Net Zero Carbon Initiative of the Year 

• Anglian Water – Triple Carbon Reduction
• AtkinsRéalis – The English National Strategy for Bioresources Management
•  BMA – Whole Systems Adaptive Planning: Supporting the Transition to Net Zero
• Isle Utilities – The Climate Change Trial Reservoir
• Royal HaskoningDHV – Helping achieve net zero through improved digester performance
• Scottish Water and WGMB – Net Zero – the Art of the Possible
• Scottish Water – Reducing Emissions from Construction
• Stantec – Driving Sustainable Change through Nature-based Solution

Pollution Mitigation Initiative of the Year 

• Anglian Water – Smart Catchment Control
• APEM Group
•  Entrade and Arup – Somerset Catchment Market
• Barhale and Thames Water – Sewer Flooding Resilience Initiative
• Fyld & Southern Water – Streamlining Pollution Reporting with AI
• Thames Water and Sand Technologies – Discharge Alert Manager
• Wessex Water – SMART Waste Systems
•  Xylem and Anglian Water – Section 82 smart sonde solution for continuous river health & water quality monitoring

Rising Star of the Year 

• Chloe Bridges, WSP UK
• Adam Cullen, Aqua Consultants
• Tom Garnett, Kier Natural Resources, Nuclear & Networks
• Meg Ginsberg, South West Water
• Sophie Murray, Mott MacDonald Bentley
• Valery Shchukin, MWH Treatment
• Patrick Smith, WSP UK 
• Callum Williams, Arcadis

Smart Water Networks Award 

• Arqiva and Anglian Water – Smart Water Network Programme
• Yorkshire Water with Morrison Water Services and Hydraulic Analysis Group – Smart Water Networks – VariSim Delta
• South West Water – Hydrant Insert flow meter
• Thames Water and Sand Technologies – A.I Driven Notifications
• Wessex Water – SMART Waste Systems
• Yorkshire Water, Technolog & Utilitec – Customer Sewer Alarms
• Yorkshire Water and Stantec – Smart Wastewater Network

Wastewater Innovation Project of the Year 

• Anglian Water – Project Firefly
• Detectronic part of the Adler and Allan Group – Providing end-to-end smart network monitoring for South West Water
• Northumbrian Water  – The Organics Ammonia Recovery project
• Scottish Water Horizons – Innovative Hydro Turbine at Hamilton Waste Water Treatment Works
• Southern Water, Stantec and Natural Wastewater Systems – Lavant Wastewater Treatment Works Aerated Wetland Rushbed
• South West Water and BMA – Digitally enabling PR24 Bioresources Strategy
• United Utilities – Calthwaite Beck Catchment Nutrient Balancing
• Wessex Water – SMART Waste Systems

Water Efficiency Project of the Year 

• Affinity Water – Water Neutrality at NAV sites
• Cambridge Water and Skewb – Can for the Cam behavioural change campaign
• H2oiQ – Water Stewardship & Water Savings Projects
• Northumbrian Water – Home visits – a tailored approach
• Northumbrian Water  – NRV2 Lo Flo Regulator project
• Salinity Solutions and GrowUp Farms – Testing the impact of a new batch RO technology on vertical farming as a step towards Zero Liquid Discharge
• Water Plus – Tapping into the power in water efficiency to reduce running costs at sites and cut carbon emissions
• Welsh Water – Using behavioural science to reduce long-term water consumption in Welsh Households

Water Retailer of the Year 

• Business Stream
• Everflow
• Wave

To find out more and to book your place at the ceremony, click here