In the latest episode of our United by Water podcast, host Jo Taranto sits down with Judy Arasanilai (Water Quality Systems Officer at MidCoast Council) to discuss Water Quality in MidCoast Drinking Water Catchments - Impacts of Drought, Bushfires, Rain & Recovery. The MidCoast area suffered a three-pronged climate attack with droughts, severe rainfall and bushfire affecting the local communities and impacting water sources including catchment and groundwater. Judy Arasanilai completed research on local catchments to better improve water conditions while abiding by the Australian Drinking ..read more

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Join host Jo Taranto as she sits down with Aislinn Prendergast (Area Lead of the Quality and Process Improvement team and Former Process Engineer at Melbourne Water) on the topic of 'Supercharging Granular Media Filtration'. This podcast was recorded during Ozwater in May 2023. At the Winneke Water Treatment plant, one of the three largest water treatment plants in Melbourne, Aislinn investigated issues surrounding the filters during their yearly inspections. "We found that the filters were starting to show signs of poor conditions like mud balling, cracking. It also showed our backwashing was ..read more

Join host Dr Michael Storey (Managing Director, Isle Utilities Pty Ltd - Asia-Pacific and Deputy Chair of IWAA) and Professor Tony Wong for this exclusive podcast interview on Leading Global Practices for Smart Resilient Cities. Tony and Michael discuss innovative solutions to building more resilient cities and systems across many social-technical contexts - from cities in advanced economies to developing cities, from large cities to small island states.   IWA Australia (IWAA) is a branch committee of AWA and aims to connect the Australian water industry with the activities of the In ..read more

When Stantec was first approached to help a small community deal with overflows from the sewer network during major rain events, the solution seemed simple on paper. Canary Creek is nestled in the northern suburbs of Brisbane with a mixture of residential and light industrial sitting in a flat area. Tony Bamford, Practice Leader Network Planning at Stantec, says the region historically has seen plenty of overflows from the sewer network during big wet weather events causing property damage. Tony says while tried and true methods of containment would solve many issues for the area, they needed ..read more

After graduating high school, Maritsa Kacopieros and Rebecca Argento knew right away they wanted a career in engineering. Maritsa, who is now the Team Leader of Water in Canberra at GHD, and Rebecca, a Process Engineer also at GHD, were both inspired at an early age to take on engineering careers. Rebecca says this isn’t the case for most young women in Australia who rarely give engineering a second look. “I think I've said before to some people: we don't have a cool, sexy show like ‘Grays’ or ‘Suits’,” Rebecca says. “No one knows what we do and so when we talk jargon no one understands what w ..read more

When South East Water launched their customer water usage app back in 2016 they learnt a lot of hard lessons. Alana Jones, Customer R&D Project Manager at South East Water, says the app was designed to help customers save water by monitoring water usage of toilets, showers and washing machines. Many of the features and ideas were based on customer feedback from question-and-answer research. What was expected to be a game-changer for the industry ended with disappointing results. “We got zero per cent behaviour change,” Alana says. “It's so confusing, and it was so disappointing. We went ba ..read more

When Karina Dervidis started her career in engineering it was clear she was joining a very small club. Now, as the Senior Water Planning Engineer at Stantec, Karina says she got used to being the only woman in the room. But she was also seeing young women starting their careers notice it too. “I think the main thing that stands out is that you're usually one of only a few women, if any, in a lot of groups,” Karina says. “But I think when you're starting out in your career it's something that stands out to you. You ask yourself ‘where are the other women?’” In this episode, host Jo Taranto chat ..read more

As utilities learn new ways of finding efficiencies in operating, they also need more sophisticated systems to identify where cost saving can be made. This is becoming more important as utilities expand into renewables and are keen to learn how assets like solar work with existing infrastructure to keep costs low or even at zero. Alana Duncker, Market Leader Digital Services for Water at Stantec, says her 20 years in modelling, planning and optimisation has helped clients like SA Water learn more about their systems. Alana sits down to chat with host Jo Taranto to talk about her secondment to ..read more