Winners Announced for the WIF team challenge 2022

This annual competition brings together young professionals from different organisations across the water sector to identify and pitch an idea around a specific challenge. This year’s theme was, “How to best engage communities around the value of water to society”. The teams first met back in April at the competition briefing, which took place at the London offices of our event supporter, Arup. The ten teams, comprised of young water professionals from throughout the UK, worked together over the following weeks and were then invited back to the present their ideas to the audience and an independent judging panel of senior leaders from the water sector.

The teams had less than 15 minutes to present their ideas and answer questions from the panel, who scored each team according to how well they had understood the task, the practicality of their idea, the quality of their presentation and other key criteria.

Judging Panel: Left to right, Dr Mark Fletcher, Arup; Steve Slessor, Galliford Try; Richard Thompson, Environment Agency, Jo Osborne, Waterwise; Angela MacOscar, Northumbrian Water

Whilst the judges deliberated, we heard from our keynote speaker, Alastair Chisholm, Director of Policy at CIWEM.

Head judge, Dr Mark Fletcher, Global Water Lead at Arup, and Chair of British Water announced the results. Mark was impressed with the standard of the presentations and, along with his fellow judges, felt that the winning team, who presented their idea for "Water Performance Certificates for Homes and Businesses" had met all the objectives of the competition with a clear concept and a well-delivered presentation.

The Judges awarded the following:
Winning Team
TEAM 5: WATER PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATES FOR HOMES AND BUSINESSES

Winning Team: Jack Kingham, Ofwat; Louise Thurgood, Costain; Ruth Scott, Northumbrian Water; Emma Sherburn, Mott MacDonald, pictured receiving their awards from Dr Mark Fletcher, left, and Peter Drake, Executive Director of Water Industry Forum, right.

Highly Commended Team
TEAM 2: VALOW SCHEME – EDUCATING KS3 STUDENTS

Andrew Caldwell, GHD; Nicola Heald, Northumbrian Water; Eamonn Loftus, Galliford Try; Emily Slavin, Drinking Water Inspectorate, receiving their awards.

Commended Team
TEAM 7: VIRTUAL REALITY – YOUR WORLD WITHOUT WATER

Dawood Mear, Mott MacDonald; Lauren Brannon, Ofwat; Micheala Chan, Arcadis.

There was also a special mention for Team 10, who were commended for the broad reach of their idea, “GRoW – GARNERING REDUCTION OF WATER”, which was backed up by solid research.

Team 10: Stephanie Merenbach, Arup; Sabina Mirea, Mott MacDonald; Ozgur Akkaya, Ofwat

Congratulations to everyone who took part and thank you to the judges, our speaker, Alastair Chisholm, and to our event supporter, Arup, for generously hosting and providing their facilities for the challenge.