Ovarro Completes Acquisition of Datawatt

Southern Water, which serves more than four million customers in the water-scarce south-east of England, is working towards a 15% leakage reduction by 2025, writes Tony Gwynne, leakage solutions director, Ovarro. The water company’s Water Resources Management Plan 2024 sets out long-term plans to more than halve leakage by 2050 through a combination of new technologies and enhanced monitoring, using tools such as acoustic sensors and digitalised management systems.

Northumbrian Water, which supplies water to 2.7 million people in north-east England, is aiming for an 8% reduction in leakage in AMP8 – 2025-30 – with a long-term target of 55% by 2050, from its 2017/18 baseline, writes Paul Holt, Ovarro leakage product specialist

FFL Partners (“FFL”), a private equity firm focused on growth investments, today announced that it has agreed to sell its investment in Ovarro, specialist in critical infrastructure technologies, to Indicor, LLC (“Indicor”), a diversified industrial company specializing in mission-critical technologies across various niche markets.

Mass deployment of connected leak loggers is being made possible by the latest technology, writes Tony Gwynne, global leakage solutions director, Ovarro.

As plastic water networks replace ageing Victorian mains, leakage detection methods are also evolving, writes Barbara Hathaway, Ovarro’s technology leader for leakage solutions. Major upgrades of ageing water mains are being planned across England and Wales between 2025 and 2030, as part of utilities’ commitments to cut leakage by more than a quarter.

Anglian Water has applied Ovarro’s data-driven early-warning technology across all rising main sewers, meaning bursts and blockages are detected before serious pollution occurs. Anglian Water pledges in its 2025-2030 draft business plan to eliminate serious pollution and reduce total number of pollution incidents by 40%, with a strategy that includes bringing in machine learning.