Northumbrian Water insight into resource challenges

Northumbrian Water has launched a new website to provide North East customers with an insight into how it might tackle challenges between now and 2040.

The Future Horizons site includes predictions about potential environmental changes and imagines case studies of a cross section of future society, and also sets out how the company could function with artificial intelligence advisors and smart systems.

It also envisages sewers being constantly monitored electronically to provide alerts of problems such as high flow levels, blockages or equipment breakdown that could lead to flooding or pollution.

Robotic devices could also be used to inspect, clean and repair sewers from inside the pipes, avoiding traffic disruption and inconvenience caused by digging up roads.

By 2040, the population of the North East is expected to increase by 7%. This, in part, is due to longer life expectancy - a child born today is 30 times more likely to live to 100 than someone born in 1912.

The number of people aged 65 or over will represent more than a quarter of the population as a whole - more than the younger generation aged up to 14 - while the number of people living alone is also expected to increase further.

Heidi Mottram, Northumbrian Water’s chief executive, said: “Add in predicted climate change involving hotter summers and warmer, wetter winters and ever evolving technology, and it is easy to see why we have to plan well ahead to deliver the level of service our customers rightly expect and demand.

“Technology will continue to change rapidly and we can only imagine what the future might bring. However, we are committed to having the right skills and resources available for the benefit of our customers and the environment.”

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