Water industry needs common purpose, says Mark Fletcher

The water industry needs to develop “a common agenda that the regulators, water companies and the supply chain can get behind”. That is the view of Dr Mark Fletcher, leader of Arup’s global water business, who shared his thoughts with British Water chief executive Lila Thompson in the trade association’s first Talking on Water video interview of 2022.

Citing Greta Thunberg’s call to end the “blah, blah, blah,” at the COP 26 climate change conference for inspiration, Fletcher urged the sector to take action and deliver positive solutions for nature and the climate.

Leading by example, he shares learnings from Arup’s experiences delivering blue-green infrastructure around the world and says adopting a ‘sponge city’ approach in Shanghai delivered a US$ multi-billion cost-saving over traditional grey infrastructure. Fletcher’s vision for future resilience in cities means “coming up with a nature-positive answer” and implementing hybrid solutions at scale.

Speaking on post-Brexit opportunities for the UK water sector, Dr Fletcher said, “There’s a real opportunity for our government to get more of the supply chain involved to collectively connect globally.”

The full interview can be viewed here.