The COVID-19 pandemic led to drastically altered working practices. During the UK lockdown, a questionnaire was distributed to water professionals to understand their experiences and perceptions of organisational response. Findings were evaluated on the measures of mitigation, adaptation, coping and learning. Employees' perceived there were adequate procedures to mitigate a threat, partly due to preparations for Brexit. Participants quickly adapted, with eighty-four percent working from home. Coping was experienced at an individual and sector level. IT issues and care responsibilities made it harder for individuals to cope, but good communication and signposting of support helped. Eighty percent felt able to continue their usual role, implying coping mechanisms were effective. At the sector level, coping involved the ability to meet an increased water demand with a remote workforce. Lessons learned highlight the importance of communication and collaboration. Future crisis plans should prepare for prolonged crises of international magnitude and multiple threats.
The unprecedented scale and impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic have required organizations to adapt all facets of their operations. The impact on the UK water sector extends beyond engineering and treatment processes, with social, economic and environmental consequences. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with executives from 10 UK water companies to investigate the organizational response to the pandemic, and how their response impacted operational delivery. The Safe and SuRe framework was used to structure interview questions and analysis. Emergent themes of changes to customer behaviour, changes to operational practices and industry collaboration were mapped onto the framework and a ripple effect map developed. Lessons learnt highlight a failure to adequately prepare for the scale of the threat, the success of sector‐level collaboration and a need to embrace new ways of working.
There is limited information about the current state of intermittent water supply (IWS) systems at the global level. A survey was carried out by the Intermittent Water Supply Specialist Group of the International Water Association (IWA IWS SG) to better understand the current state of these systems and challenges that water companies may have faced under COVID-19 pandemic and to capture successful management strategies applied by water utilities. The survey consisted of three parts: (1) general information about IWS systems, (2) current state of IWS and (3) resilience of IWS under COVID-19 conditions, as well as some questions about potential interventions in order to improve system performance in general and under future uncertain conditions. The survey responses were evaluated based on the Safe & SuRe resilience framework, assessing measures of mitigation, adaptation, coping and learning, and exploring organisational and operational responses of IWS utilities. Infrastructure capacity and water resources availability were identified as the main causes of intermittency in most water distribution systems, while intermittent electricity was considered as the main external cause. Participants indicated that some risk assessment process was in place; however, COVID-19 has surpassed any provisions made to address the risks. Lessons learnt highlighted the importance of financial resources, e-infrastructure for efficient system operation and communication with consumers, and the critical role of international knowledge transfer and the sharing of best practice guidelines for improving resilience and transitioning towards continuous water supply.
The use of Twitter as a platform to share and exchange information between emergency responders, water service providers and the public during an emergency situation is becoming more evident. The sharing of real-time information is invaluable for situational awareness and effective emergency response. To explore this integrated approach, twitter profiles for Local Resilience Forums and Water Service Providers were analysed to demonstrate their connectedness. It was discovered that the connectivity between the Local Resilience Forums and the Water Service Providers was limited and further research is being conducted to establish why these connections do not exist.
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