Southern Water takes smart route around obstacles

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

Southern Water has begun a £15 million project using artificial intelligence and 22,000 monitors to cut by 40%, the impact of fatbergs and other blockages that cause hundreds of pollution incidents every year.

The vast majority of sewer blockages are caused by “unflushables” like wet wipes and plastics, as well as fat, oil and grease, gathering in pipes. Machine learning software powers Southern’s system and alerts it to risks before they become floods. It lags the normal behaviour of sewers in dry and wet weather, and then automatically flags unusual flows.

The anticipated reduction in incidents by 40% equates to some 500 fewer internal floods between now and 2025, and about 7,000 fewer external floods during the same period.

The roll-out builds on Southern Water’s existing improvement in tackling external sewer flooding, where last year it reported 3,944 incidents against a target of 4,141.

The monitors are being installed in high-risk areas of Southern’s 39,500km sewer network to warn the firm’s technicians about potential blockages forming long before pollution spills from a manhole, or flooding hits homes, schools, businesses or any other property.

Teams can then be dispatched to clean sewers with high-powered water jets, while investigations are launched to track the potential source of problems.