Fungi, Satellites and Hydrogen: How South West Water Plans to Clean Our Rivers

What does turning sewage into graphene have to do with the health of Cornwall’s rivers? More than you might think.

South West Water has signed up to seven new projects aimed at tackling some of the biggest environmental and operational problems facing the water industry. The work has been funded through the Ofwat Innovation Fund’s sixth Water Breakthrough Challenge.

The idea behind all seven is to test how new technology, data and nature itself can be used to improve river health, cut pollution, build resilience and support a lower-carbon future. South West Water will work with partners from across the UK to develop and trial the approaches.

Looking to nature for answers

Carolyn Cadman, Chief Sustainability and Natural Resources Officer at South West Water, said it was “brilliant to be involved in such a wide range of innovation projects, especially those which are looking to nature and natural processes to solve our carbon and water management challenges.”

The projects set out to identify pollution risks earlier and improve understanding of river health, use natural filtration methods to strip out pollutants, monitor rivers and coastal waters using satellite technology, and find new ways to remove harmful chemicals and phosphorus from wastewater and agricultural run-off. They also aim to improve how operational incidents are spotted and managed, develop lower-carbon and less disruptive ways to repair and renew water infrastructure, and turn wastewater by-products into valuable low-carbon materials and energy.

Three projects led from the South West

Lauren Isbister, Mainstreaming Nature Based Solutions Project Manager at South West Water, is leading on three of the projects and said she is excited to get started.

“We’re delighted that seven projects we are partnering on have been awarded funding. Innovation is essential to helping the water sector respond to some of the biggest environmental and operational challenges we face,” Lauren said.

“These projects bring together expertise from across industry, academia and environmental organisations to develop and test new approaches that could improve river health, strengthen resilience and support a more sustainable future for our region and the wider sector.”

The Ofwat Innovation Fund’s Water Breakthrough Challenge supports projects across England and Wales aimed at improving water quality, reducing pollution and speeding up innovation across the sector.

The seven projects

The seven funded projects South West Water is partnering on are:

• Open Catchment Intelligence, Insights and Integration (OCI³) – developing AI-powered tools to identify pollution risks and improve understanding of river catchments
• Mycofiltration – trialling fungi-based filtration systems to remove pollutants from water
• Smart Watch – using satellite technology to detect emerging risks to water quality
• I’m a P-Leaver – exploring new ways to remove phosphorus and PFAS from wastewater and agricultural run-off
• Smart Alarm Management – using AI to improve how operational alarms are managed during incidents
• SI12 Challenge – investigating lower-carbon and less disruptive approaches to renewing water infrastructure
• Splitting Biogas, Multiplying Value – exploring how wastewater biogas can be converted into hydrogen and graphene

More information about the projects is available on the Water Innovation website.