Birmingham, Januar 2020

I got invited to give a talk on the WWT-Wastewater 2020 Conference & Exhibition. More than 350 participants and about 30 exhibitors came to Birmingham to discuss the latest issues.

I had a six month internship in 1983 with Welsh Water in Swansea. In that time the water sector started be turned into private companies by Magrit Thatcher. In 1989 this change was over and since than the UK has private companies and a regulator OFWAT.

Fatburgs in sewer systems seems to be a big problem in the UK. Separators after Restaurants are a should not a shall regulation. In Germany it is a shall rule and therefore not a problem. CCTV sewer inspections are well known but not compulsory by the regulator. Wastewater Management Plants for the various regions are in progress and published in the internet recently. Phosphor removal in the wastewater treatment seems to be another big topic in the UK. The regulator wants to reduce the fees and the environmental office wants to increase the regulation – not the same direction.

What I learned is that the two countries do discuss different topic. Regulator and operator are more partner in Germany. We talk about sludge incineration and phosphorus sludge recovery and about the 4. Stage of wastewater treatment plants. We talk about digitalization and rehabilitation in the 50.000 stormwater tanks in Germany. In the UK stormwater tanks are only on sites of the wastewater treatment plant and not in the sewer networks. They face many problems with flooding and spill outs of CSOs (Combined Stormwater Overflows). That is thanks to the many retention tanks in our German networks not a urgent problem.

The UK was always active in the European standard work in CEN TC 165 Working Groups. I hope they will remain. If not than the technical standards will divert more and more. The organization way and the privatization regime seems for me not the best choice to be ready for a fast changing digital water sector of tomorrow.

Rüdiger Heidebrecht

2.2.2020