Water and Wastewater Leadership Forum launches

The Forum aims to see how technology can improve WWW management and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of clean and reliable water in an era of growing demand. The event focused on two key areas:

• Cybersecurity – Gary Williams, senior director of technology, took attendees through the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape. The introduction of new industry standards, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are affecting all business operations. Failure to comply could lead to fines of up to 4 per cent of global turnover. Combined with the exponential growth of attack vectors, this makes cybersecurity a top priority for water and wastewater companies.

• Process profitability using automation – Kevin Fitzgerald, director at Schneider Electric explained the role of automation in driving improved business performance. Automation unlocks huge potential in terms of operations, safety, reliability and, crucially, profitability. It also empowers a workforce to make better decisions. Schneider Electric’s Ecostruxure Profit Advisor determines how each action and asset affects real-time operational profitability and potential savings, enabling a 3 per cent improvement in production value and 5 per cent reduction in cost per year.