Redefine Properties partnered with Propelair again, to trial the innovative OneThreeFive IoT connected toilet in one of their busiest and highest traffic locations, Sammy Marks Square Shopping Mall, located in the heart of Pretoria, South Africa, saving almost 3.4million litres of water in a single year.

In July 2022, Redefine Properties, a leading facilities management group in South Africa, shifted their focus to reducing water consumption across 21 office buildings and retail sites. Over the course of a year, they installed 1,400 Propelair toilets with a 1.5-litre flush capacity, resulting in an annual cost saving of nearly R2.4 million.

Saving another 3.4 million litres & it’s cost

Building on that success they then agreed to install the first nine Propelair OneThreeFive toilets on 9 September 2023 at Sammy Marks Square, a high-traffic area. Each cubicle managed up to 135 flushes daily, averaging 50,000 flushes per toilet annually, with some toilets reaching nearly 99,000 flushes over the year!

With such high flush numbers, Redefine Properties would have used nearly 4 million litres of water—the equivalent of 2 million 2-litre milk jugs. However, thanks to the Propelair OneThreeFive trial, they conserved 3.4 million of that 4 million litres, using only 600,000 litres during the one-year trial.  

Trial proves Propelair reduces maintenance cost

Our trial didn’t end with record water and cost savings for Redefine.  Propelair set out to prove the durability of our product. On 9 September 2024, exactly a year later, the UK Innovation team returned to Sammy Marks Square to retrofit the latest IoT technology and remove the trial units for further testing. The results confirmed that all components withstood the high-demand environment, showing no signs of wear. The motor's airflow and other parts tested perfectly, indicating a strong lifespan and guaranteed reduced maintenance costs.

Tom Bonner, Propelair’s Global New Product Development Lead, stated, "Not a single part failed. Our in-house lab and quality tests were validated, proving the reliability of our product in even the toughest environments."  The IoT upgrade not only subjects a new technology to this challenging environment but also empowers Redefine Properties with real-time monitoring of water usage and detailed statistical data. This data enables them to streamline maintenance by identifying precise problem locations, deploying staff with the right tools, and addressing issues promptly without the need for troubleshooting. Additionally, this aligns with their positive ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals.

The trial of Propelair's OneThreeFive toilets at Sammy Marks Square showcased significant water and maintenance savings and durability in a high-traffic environment. This success positions Propelair for future installations in high-usage facilities, enhancing both environmental impact, efficiency, and cost savings across water and maintenance measures.

• Monthly water podcast features insights from leaders at the top of UK water sector
• Environment Agency’s Helen Wakeham discusses scrutiny of water companies
• National Infrastructure Commission’s Margaret Read explores AMP8 investment

The Environment Agency’s director of water, Helen Wakeham, has discussed plans to increase scrutiny of water companies in England and Wales in a new water sector podcast. 

Targeted recruitment campaigns, more site inspections and enhanced digital systems will drive better performance from the industry, Wakeham told the WiseOnWater Podcast: Conversations in Flow, from media specialist WiseOnWater and technology company Xylem UK & Ireland.

“We’ve an awful lot more investment in water regulation. We consulted earlier this year on increasing our charges for water quality discharges and we’ll use that to increase our scrutiny of water companies,” Wakeham told podcast host Natasha Wiseman. 

Site inspections will increase to more than 10,000, to be supported by new recruits, including “boots on the ground” and data analysts, Wakeham said. “It’s a really exciting time. There are a lot of people around with loads of experience. It’s brilliant for those people to be joined by a new cohort with new ideas. 

“Data can help us. When I started my career in 1990 it really was whack-a-mole. These days we can be a lot cleverer than that. We'll be able to focus our effort on where we know the problems are. We'll be able to visit the places that matter to people.”

Reflecting on the public’s heightened awareness of water quality, Wakeham said: “I think what started off as perhaps quite a narrow debate about storm overflows has brought the value of water to people's attention.  While some of those conversations are hard, it's brilliant to have water very much more in the public consciousness. I think we've realised how central it is for all of us.”

The WiseOnWater podcast, which launched on 9 September 2024, is a monthly deep dive into the ever-changing landscape of the UK water sector. 

Joining Wakeham on episode one is Margaret Read, director of policy at the National Infrastructure Commission, who explores the proposed £96 billion 2025-30 AMP8 investment. 

She said: “We've got a lot of different issues to solve in the water sector. The first one which we've looked at in detail is the water supply question. We haven't built any reservoirs in the UK for over 30 years and we're facing a big gap between supply and demand. 

“Secondly, we've got problems, as everybody knows, with water pollution and that requires a big investment to resolve. Then thirdly, we also need to maintain our existing assets. So, it does sound like a big amount of money, but we will need it - we also need to be realistic about what can be delivered over that period.”

Read urged regulators and government to “speak with one voice” and “be really clear with the public that there is a need for this new infrastructure and that they will have to pay for it”. 
 “That takes some political courage,” she added, “but it's really important.”

For project delivery, Read said water companies need to collaborate more closely with each other and the supply chain to “solve these problems once rather than many times”. 

Pollution reduction, nature-based solutions, smart metering, leakage, drought resilience and bill increases were among other conversation topics in the 30-minute podcast episode.
 
Episode two focuses on skills, recruitment and retention with guests Peter Simpson, chief executive of Anglian Water and Sarah McMath, chief executive of MOSL. Future episodes feature Wessex Water chief executive Colin Skellett and the managing director of Xylem UK & Ireland, Ian Thompson.

Wiseman, founder of WiseOnWater and non-profit news platform Make Water Famous, said: “In each episode of the WiseOnWater podcast we'll bring together the brightest minds in water, from industry leaders and policymakers to engineers, communicators and researchers. These are the people tackling the pressing challenges of today and ensuring the future availability of our most precious resource. 

“We are especially excited to be supported by Xylem UK & Ireland, who have a deep understanding of the needs of this sector. It has never been more important for organisations in water to explore new collaborative communications initiatives if we are to ensure a sustainable water future for the UK and beyond.”

Andrew Welsh, water utility sales director at Xylem, said: “At Xylem we believe that meaningful conversations are the cornerstone of progress in the water sector. Partnering with WiseOnWater to launch this podcast allows us to bring critical discussions to the forefront, driving awareness and collaboration on the most pressing water challenges. 

“By connecting industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators, we aim to not only highlight the issues but also inspire actionable solutions that will shape a sustainable future for the UK’s water infrastructure.” 

Episode one of the WiseOnWater podcast is available now on Spotify.

Enhanced wastewater treatment holds the key to reducing sewage overflows to the environment in a sustainable way, says Dominic Hurd, managing director, ACWA Services. 

Public and political pressure on water companies to address the issue of sewage spills into rivers and seas means overflows are no longer solely an issue for operations teams. They top the in-trays of water company chief executives, who are personally invested in finding the best solutions available to address this highly charged challenge. 

The brief from government demands sustainable and ‘nature-based’ solutions to the many water and wastewater challenges on their desks. While the Defra’s attention is understandably drawn to highly desirable habitat-rich wetland schemes for wastewater treatment, as stated in the 2023 Plan for Water, there is a more direct route to managing spills and pollution already being adopted by water companies. 

It is an enhancement to the original nature-based solution – activated sludge (AS), which uses biological organisms concentrated in reactors to produce highly treated effluent. One of many advantages of AS over legacy sewage farms in the early 20th century, was that much greater volumes of wastewater could be treated in a much smaller footprint. With a few tweaks, that is the system still operating at many sites across the UK.

Today’s utilities are facing a challenge no different from the one addressed by engineers Arden and Lockett, who were carrying out research at Davyhulme sewage works in 1913 - they need a higher throughput in the same footprint. They also need to raise the quality of water discharged to the environment to match 21st century public expectations.

Massive Investment

Some £2.5 billion of investment in wastewater treatment works was allocated to halving phosphorus discharges in AMP7 - between 2020 and 2025, but this is dwarfed by the government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, which requires an anticipated £56-billion capital investment over the next 25 years. The size of the investment indicates that solving this multifaceted challenge will not require a single bullet, but a considerable arsenal. 

Given the scale, extent and site constraints of existing AS installations, a focus on technologies and equipment that can advance site efficiency and increase process volumes will be a pragmatic way to go in many instances. There are proven alternatives, readily available, that can be rapidly retrofitted to upgrade existing sites. 

One such is ACWA-Nuvoda’s MOB – Mobile Organic Biofilm, which uses a unique organic mobile carrier media, derived from the core of the kenaf plant, to achieve a rapid and significant increase in treatment capacity. Retrofitting existing wastewater treatment plants with MOB ensures discharge consents are met by reducing nutrient levels in effluent discharges, while delivering energy, carbon and chemical savings.

According to Ofwat, activated sludge plants (ASPs) in England and Wales may be reaching flow-to-full-treatment (FFT) level, a requirement of their environmental permits, more frequently, and on occasion breaching their permits. This is due to factors including increasing intensive rainfall events, poor maintenance and incorrect operation of equipment. 

Where high flow enters the works, as well as the risk of spills to the environment, the plant can experience washout of the microorganisms essential to the biological processes. These exit the works due to the high hydraulic load and the recovery time for processes can be days and even weeks.

With ACWA-Nuvoda MOB, those organisms are retained as thick biofilm growth on the plant-based biomedia, and regenerated within the system, delivering increased treatment capacity and shortening recovery time to hours. 

The kenaf plant is a multi-purpose regenerative fibre that has historically been used in the production of rope, building materials and animal feed. It has been selected and specifically machined as the biomedia for MOB because of its absorptivity, high surface area, unique cellular structure and longevity in secondary treatment conditions. 

The biomedia is retained within the system using a rotary drum screen installed on the surplus activated sludge line. Screened media is simply returned to the bioreactor, making the process nearly 100% efficient, with very little top-up required.

Reduced costs

Along with nutrient removal, MOB ensures improved settling and optimised process stability, even during fluctuating weather conditions. It reduces the need for polymers, coagulants and phosphorus precipitation technologies, reducing overall capital and chemical cost. It also improves sludge dewatering, significantly reducing tankering requirements.

For the many existing ASP treatment works with little room for expansion, MOB offers a solution. Mobile Organic Biofilm is a ‘no-build’ solution that can be introduced into existing systems, offering significant capital savings and no extra land-take. 

Spill Mitigation

MOB offers facilities an opportunity for spill mitigation by increasing the available hydraulic capacity of an existing treatment works.   Thereby allowing more flow to a treatment works rather than diversion to rivers and streams during high flow rain events.

Headquartered in Yorkshire, ACWA Services has been delivering specialist wastewater treatment services in the UK and globally for nearly 40 years. The company is the exclusive agent of Nuvoda’s MOB patented technology in the UK and Ireland, which is already installed in numerous full-scale municipal and industrial installations across Europe and North America. 

The scale and potential cost of investment required to meet the latest UK targets on environmental discharges means enhanced treatment has a significant role to play. This requires an interrogation of what ‘nature-based’ means, and which solutions can be delivered rapidly and reliably. 

Where site footprint is tight, pollution risk is high and public pressure is on, readily available technologies like MOB are already delivering highly efficient, sustainable treatment; with some of the UK’s most progressive utilities already on board.

A Northumbrian Water wastewater treatment plant has kept its biological treatment online and within environmental consent during an equipment upgrade with the installation of two temporary T300 WCSEE Hybrid™ submerged moving-bed, fixed-film reactors from wastewater equipment specialist WCS Environmental Engineering (WCSEE).

Managers at Mickleton wastewater treatment plant (WwTP) in northern England, with a 300-population equivalent, are in the process of repairing an existing rotating biological contractor (RBC) to keep the plant within consents of 60mg/l of suspended solids and 40mg/l biological oxygen demand.

Northumbrian Water needed to carry out essential works to improve the treatment process and help ensure that the site always remained fully operational. The works involved repair and refurbishment works to the WwTP from spring 2024, taking up to five weeks to complete.

Before the works commenced, it needed to carry out vegetation clearance in preparation for the construction work, as well as setting up temporary treatment units and pumps to allow the work to be undertaken.

WCSEE was contacted by Northumbrian Water contract delivery partner Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) in November 2023 with the challenge of delivering the WCSEE Hybrid™ units to facilitate the refurbishment of the legacy unit which would fit inside the tight access leading to the WwTP and ensure the treatment of 2.4 l/sec.

WCSEE utility manager, Andrew Haywood said, “When WCSEE was contacted by MMB with the hire needs of Northumbrian Water, we knew we could deliver. WCSEE is a supplier capable of delivering WCSEE Hybrid™ in a 30% smaller site footprint in comparison to other Hybrid-SAF units whilst meeting environmental compliance.

“The units were delivered to site in November 2023 and were in use until April 2024.”

WCSEE Hybrid™ process cells offer the benefit that they can easily retrofit into any onsite existing vessel, regardless of shape or size. This saves on infrastructure costs, minimises disruptions, reduces waste and optimises site footprint.

The units can achieve <0.4mg/l ammonia discharge and remove phosphorus with additional equipment. They can also be configured to provide anoxic conditions for total nitrates and meet high treatment standards for biological oxygen demand, ammonia, and soluble chemical oxygen demand. Units can be installed rapidly and put into operation immediately with fully automatic and continuous pre-set and programmed parameters.

Haywood said, “It was important for Northumbrian Water to be able to bring a unit into operation as soon as possible and WCSEE were able to meet the small site footprint and the peak flow demands. WCSEE have been a dedicated partner and its hire services have provided the flexibility and adaptability needed.”

Tightening environmental standards for sewage and industrial trade effluent means it has never been more necessary for WwTPs to have robust and reliable treatment readily available. Hiring specialist equipment for emergencies or planned refurbishment and decommissioning means water utilities have the capacity to plan permanent fixes and carry out major site works and remediation in a timely way.

WCSEE supports customers throughout the hire process to keep sites in compliance and achieve full environmental protection whatever the challenge.

The National Infrastructure Commission has today published its latest report: Developing Resilience Standards in UK Infrastructure. 
 
Resilient infrastructure can continue to provide the services business and communities rely on, despite any short-term shocks. But this requires significant investment. In the second National Infrastructure Assessment the Commission recommended that the government publish resilience standards for the digital and telecoms, energy, transport and water sectors by 2025. In doing so infrastructure service providers would be more likely to make the necessary investment and ensure the UK’s infrastructure services are more resistant to shocks. 
 
This report explores the standards which already exist and identifies potential gaps the government may wish to fill in its first round of standard setting. For the four sectors the Commission look at, it proposes that:

• Digital and telecoms: Government should consider whether private telecoms networks serving critical national infrastructure require specific resilience standards. Ofcom should also review the accuracy and accessibility of consumer information on the reliability of public telecoms networks.  
• Energy: Government should understand how future changes to the energy system will affect the ability of the system to meet demand, setting a baseline expectation of a level of demand the system should be able to meet. The sector should also set a standard for the future health of physical assets which make up the energy transmission and distribution systems which factors in future threats, including climate change.  
• Transport: Government should set out the levels of resilience expected of key routes and nodes in the transport system. It should also introduce a forward looking standard for the health of the physical assets which make up the transport system which factors in future threats, including climate change.  
• Water: Government should set out targets for the peak short term water supply demand that systems are expected to be able to meet, for the maximum number of households whose supply is at risk from the failure of a single asset, and for reducing the number of customers at risk of sewer flooding in a severe storm. Government should also introduce a forward looking standard for the health of physical assets within water and wastewater systems which factors in future threats, including climate change. 

The report also highlights the importance of considering interdependency risks between sectors, such as between water supply and energy generation. These interdependencies should be identified so that efficient resilience solutions can be developed on a cross-sector basis. 
 
The report is available to read on the Commission website.