Beyond efficiency

When it comes to managing water assets, there is a lot to consider. Having worked with water utilities and asset-intensive organisations for years, I’ve seen firsthand how understanding the risks in our asset base is the key to making smart decisions that drive both efficiency and affordability.

At its core, asset risk intelligence is about knowing where the real risks are in your network. For water utilities, this often means weighing the health of ageing treatment plants and distribution networks against limited budgets. It’s not only about identifying which assets are most likely to fail, but also understanding the probability of failure, the consequences of that failure for water supply continuity and how risks might compound when multiple issues occur simultaneously. Without this clarity, decisions lack strategic direction. In capital-constrained environments, particularly for water utilities focused on affordability, this clarity is essential, because over-investing in some areas of the network while neglecting those under significant strain risks undermining both efficiency and affordability.

Asset risk intelligence is not just about preventing operational setbacks or managing emergencies. It helps direct spending money to where it matters most, whether replacing a pipe nearing the end of its service life or investing in new infrastructure to support a growing community. This disciplined approach to capital allocation reduces the likelihood of major failures and helps minimise reputational risk, which can be as damaging as operational disruption. When applied effectively, it helps maintain reliable services, manage costs and deliver water affordably.

One thing I’ve learned is that water utilities are large, complex organisations with many teams and countless moving parts. Aligning everyone on asset risks and investment priorities isn’t always straightforward.

The most effective approach is starting with clear, genuine goals. When everyone understands that the aim is to make the organisation stronger, rather than to monitor each other’s work, people are far more willing to get involved. It’s about building trust, being open and listening to everyone’s perspectives.

I’ve seen the real impact when people from engineering, operations, data and strategy come together. By combining these different perspectives, we can create a much clearer picture of what needs attention and why. This approach not only helps focus resources on the right projects, but it also gives the people on the ground — the ones dealing with day-to-day challenges — a voice in the analysis process and recognition for their insights.

Strong drivers are shaping innovation in the water sector, and for good reason. One of the biggest challenges is the sheer volume of data spread across different systems. It’s like having ten different brains that don’t always communicate.

What excites me most is the potential for technology, particularly AI and data visualisation tools, to bring all this information together. In water utilities, this might mean combining operational data from treatment plants with asset condition insights and network mapping. We’re also seeing greater use of modelling and scenario testing to explore investment strategies before any resources are committed. For example, assessing how upgrading one site compared with another could impact overall supply resilience. This approach provides a clearer ability to identify major risks and to forecast investment scenarios with greater confidence and accuracy over time. Valuable tools like Power BI are already helping to turn raw data into actionable insights, making it easier to spot inefficiencies and target improvements.

Sometimes, it’s just about making better use of what we already have. Visual management and dashboarding can help teams make more informed decisions, even before AI comes into play. By connecting fragmented water system datasets into coherent dashboards, we can transform incomplete and inconsistent data into meaningful intelligence, identifying leaks, asset failures or areas of high demand pressure.

Building new assets is important, but the real challenge begins once an asset enters service. Most water assets are in service for 30, 40 or even 50 years. That’s a long time to keep things running smoothly, and a long time for small inefficiencies to accumulate.

That’s why operational efficiency deserves as much attention as capital projects. Even minor improvements in how we run and maintain our assets can lead to substantial savings over their lifetime. It’s about identifying and addressing the little leaks, sometimes quite literally, that can drain resources over time.

For example, improving the efficiency of a pumping schedule can reduce both energy use and water loss. Predictive maintenance on the right asset in a treatment plant can prevent costly unplanned outages or compliance issues. Given that water industry assets typically operate for decades, even small operational improvements in a treatment plant or a network zone can generate significant long-term savings for the utility, which ultimately benefits the community it serves.

It’s about using data analytics to spot patterns and scenario planning to test different strategies before making big investments. The goal is to keep improving, year on year.

Looking back, some of the most rewarding projects have been those where we managed to bring together people from all corners of the business. When we combined insights from engineering, operations and data teams, we were able to identify not only individual risks, but also how different risks could interact and create bigger challenges.

One project stands out where this approach led to real change. By working collaboratively, we helped the client better understand their assets and the options available to them. This resulted in smarter investment decisions and, ultimately, better outcomes for both the utility and the community. In this project, we even applied compound risk analysis, recognising that while a single water treatment or distribution risk might be manageable on its own, multiple risks occurring together could magnify the impact significantly. This level of analysis gave executives a much clearer view of vulnerabilities in the water system and reinforced the case for proactive investment. The client has since sought to replicate this approach in other parts of their business, which is the best kind of feedback we could get.

When we embed asset risk intelligence into our operations, we gain clarity on where to focus our efforts. We can see which assets are most vulnerable, which carry the greatest operational risk and where targeted investment will have the biggest impact. In water assets, this means identifying where supply reliability, water quality and customer service are most at risk and directing scarce funding to those areas first.

Efficiency plays a critical role. By improving how we run and maintain assets, whether through better data use, scenario planning or simply addressing small issues before they escalate, we reduce waste and extend asset life. This is undoubtedly a challenge in financially constrained environments, but it’s one worth tackling proactively.

Technology is helping us accelerate this shift by turning fragmented data into actionable information. It’s helping us visualise risk, simulate and test investment strategies more rapidly and make informed decisions faster. But it’s not just about the technology, it’s about how we use it. When we combine these tools with strong collaboration, we unlock new ways to deliver value.

Ultimately, affordability is a collaborative effort. At GHD, we continue to ask the right questions, listen to those who know the assets best and continuously seek smarter ways to deliver value for our clients and the communities we serve.