Arthur Arscott receiving the award (centre) from Angela Himus -WET News, and W&WT Publisher and Paul Thorne, comedian and event compere.
Photographs courtesy of Water Industry Achievement Awards, organised by WET News and Water & Wastewater Treatment
Arthur Arscott, RPS Regional Director for Water was the well deserved winner of the Outstanding Individual Contribution to the Water Industry category at the Water Industry Achievement Awards 2010 which took place at the ICC, Birmingham.
Arthur’s commitment to the water industry has spanned more than 45 years. His unique blend of skills and experience has been amassed during a long career dedicated to water distribution. This included early work as a distribution inspector with subsequent roles in supervision and distribution management. For the past 15 years he has focused on leakage control - including regional responsibility for South West Water’s highly successful leakage initiative. He is an Incorporated Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Water Officers and, for the past ten years, has been a Director of RPS Water.
Leakage control was a low-priority area of water company activity for many years, both before and after privatisation. However, droughts and concern over the environment have increased stakeholders’ awareness of the urgent need to conserve water. Arthur is an outstanding example of an individual who has promoted and helped to implement innovative improvements in this vital area of water supply. Dr Richard Furness, former Business Director of ABB Instrumentation explained, “Arthur is one of the most distinguished characters in the UK water sector. He always has high standards and rarely compromises. It is a great pity that we do not have more people with this ethos in the UK water industry”.
Arthur has used his extensive experience to develop both his staff and his peers to benefit his employers and facilitate industry-wide progress. He has worked enthusiastically to develop and promote innovation and best practice across the UK and around the world.
In 1993 Arthur took responsibility for a project to improve leakage control in South West Water (SWW) in response to an Ofwat report indicating that the Company had a poor record in leakage control. By the end of the six years that he managed the project, leakage had been reduced by 50% and Ofwat viewed SWW as an industry leader in leakage control.
Arthur has made significant contributions nationally and internationally to promote effective leakage control. He worked on five of the eight working groups which produced the influential UK “Managing Leakage” reports, served on many national technical groups and chaired several UKWIR research projects investigating key aspects of leakage control. Since 1995 he has presented more than 20 technical papers and chaired major conferences such as the UK Water Leakage 2000 conference in London. His expertise has been sought overseas, particularly in America, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Malta and Jamaica.
In his current role, Arthur has successfully developed strategic long-term partnerships with water companies on all aspects of leakage and network management. Clients include Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Thames Water, Severn Trent Water and Southern Water.
The imaginative use of new technology to improve the efficiency of distribution activities has always been of particular interest to Arthur and he has overseen the development of a comprehensive portfolio of software for leakage and network control now used by an increasing number of water companies to help them meet regulatory targets.
Arthur was responsible for designing and jointly developing with Technolog and Yorkshire Water an electronic system for valve security and integrity known as the Intelligent Valve Key. This device won the 1995 Manufacturing Achievement Award for Instrumentation Product of the Year and won a place as a Prince of Wales 1996 Innovation Award finalist, featured on the BBC’s “Tomorrow’s World” programme. A recent partnership project headed by Arthur has led to the development of an innovative device based on valve flow metering, the Accuflow™, that offers a cheaper, faster and more effective way to locate leaks with potential worldwide application.
Trevor M Hoyle, Managing Director of Water at RPS, states: “The award was well deserved and a fitting testimony to a genuinely outstanding individual contribution to the water industry over a period of more than 45 years”.
Contact:
Arthur Arscott
T: +44 (0) 1392 677 333
E: arscottA@rpsgroup.com