World Water Week 2024: Water for a sustainable future

World Water Week is the leading conference on global water issues and is one of the most influential awareness campaigns on the topic, having been held every year since 1991. The week long conference aims to highlight the key issues relating to water, focused on understanding and tackling global water challenges as they evolve.

Centered around Bridging Borders: Water for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future, we are using this week to recognise regional and global interconnectivity, focusing on the collaborative effort needed to achieve a peaceful and sustainable future.

At Pick Everard, we strive to deliver better together with our team, for our clients, communities and the planet – and our water engineers play a huge role in this when it comes to creating solutions that meet our needs today, and in the future.

Water engineering encompasses a lot of hidden infrastructure that, while not immediately visible, is crucial to how the built environment works, interacts with nature and the way in which we live our lives.

Peter Chappell, Strategic Account Director, leads our water engineering team. He said: “Simply put, our communities and way of life rely on the solutions that we design. Whether it’s flood risk assessments, working on sustainable drainage solutions, or designing water treatment and distribution facilities, our team has an important part to play in keeping taps flowing in homes and buildings around the country.”

As in all that we do, collaboration is key and our water engineers work hand-in-hand with other disciplines, including close work with our civil engineers and sustainability teams. Director for civil engineering Paul Cannaby also has a wealth of experience in water engineering, having worked on large-scale sewer flooding alleviation works, hydraulic modelling and urban drainage infrastructure throughout his career.

Most recently, Paul has worked on a robust long-term solution at Middlesex Filter Beds to get running water back into the beds to create a wetlands area for wildlife to thrive.

Middlesex Filter Beds is a key site in the Lee Valley Regional Park, a 26-mile linear park running through north and east London, Hertfordshire and Essex, which is under the stewardship of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA).

Having identified the filter beds as a lost wetland with the potential to recreate the wetland habitat, LVRPA installed two pumps, powered by a generator, to deliver water from the River Lee. This proved successful until repeated thefts of equipment, and unfortunately, the system fell into disrepair.

Without a supply of water, the key flora and fauna that define a wetlands ecosystem succeeded to a woodland habitat and other surrounding overgrown habitats moved into the space.

In order to reinvigorate the wetlands habitat as quickly as possible, the interim solution includes the installation of a new biofuel generator, with new pumps and control equipment.

Our tailored approach to developing a bespoke solution will restore the wetlands ecosystem, benefiting local wildlife and maintaining the historical integrity of the site and its link to the surrounding water and environment.

Paul said: “So much of the work that water engineering produces is hidden from the public eye, but without it we simply wouldn’t be able to live the way we do. Outside of the industry, it’s often only noticed when it goes wrong – or looks to have gone wrong.

“Campaigns like World Water Week continue to be important as climate change sees us face more challenges relating to water than ever before. It provides a platform for experts like us to highlight the challenges and solutions relating to water – and showcase the innovations that engineers produce to make sure that the general public can continue to live a life with safe, clean and properly managed water supplies and systems.”

If you would like to discuss our water engineering services or a potential project, please get in contact with Peter Chappell here.