Delivering sustainable water futures in the UK depends fundamentally on effective public engagement. Recent years have seen great progress in this area with customer engagement initiatives and public consultations now forming major programmes of activities for all water companies. Despite this progress, however, negative headlines about the water industry are omnipresent, and public trust in water companies is at an all-time low. Taken together, this is leading to major delays, cost-overruns and even the abandonment of sustainability initiatives and projects at exactly the time that they’re most urgently needed to make the water system more sustainable. 

To try and address these issues, as part of the Enabling Water Smart Communities project (funded by the Ofwat Innovation Fund), 3S member Tom Hargreaves has been exploring the challenges of engaging publics in developing more sustainable water futures. This has resulted in a brand new 3-part podcast series called ‘Water Conversations’.

In each episode, Tom is joined by an expert guest to explore a different question about public engagement in sustainable water futures.

In Episode 1 – Public Engagement Challenges – we hear from Cat Moncrieff, the Head of Policy and Engagement at CIWEM (the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management) to explore what’s going wrong with public engagement with water today. Listen here: 

In Episode 2 – Improving Public Engagement – Tom is joined by 3S’s very own Helen Pallett to discuss what might be done to develop better systems of public engagement with water in the UK. Listen here: 

In the final episode – Engaging Water Futures – Dr Claire Hoolohan from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester to discuss different visions of sustainable water futures and how the public might be best engaged in their development. Listen here: 

Take a listen and please let us know what you think!