Northumbrian Water gets funds from water regulator Ofwat to team up with tech company Cognizant. They’ll use computers to watch how healthy rivers are and find out where pollution comes from.
This fund is part of a big project called the Ofwat Innovation Fund. It’s all about helping water companies in England and Wales.
Northumbrian Water says stopping river pollution is a big deal for them. Earlier this year, they had to pay £50,000 to a green group because a broken pipe made a river dirty.
Their plan is to make drinking water cleaner and help wildlife in rivers. They’ll use smart tech that learns and understands data to see how clean rivers are, where pollution comes from, like farms or roads, and what happens when it rains a lot.
Nigel Watson, the tech boss at Northumbrian Water, says they want to use information gotten to solve the big problem of river pollution. They’re teaming up with Cognizant Ocean to get better at understanding river health, spending money smarter, and working with others to clean up UK rivers.
Stig Martin Fiskå, the head of Cognizant Ocean, says this project is just the start. They want to use their tech skills to make rivers in North East England cleaner, and hope other water companies will learn from their work.
