What does a water engineer do?

Tony works for the Water Management team and is based at our Northwich office. Having been lured out of retirement three and a half years ago, to work on contract for British Waterways, he has now been working as a permanent member of staff for the last two years.

“I’ve always been involved with civil engineering,” says Tony. “Before working for British Waterways I spent 26 years at North West Water (now United Utilities), having previously worked in the private sector”.

the forefront of water management

Tony’s job as a water engineer puts him at the forefront of managing water within British Waterways. In a very basic nutshell, a water engineer ensures water is used in the most efficient manner possible and helps reduce the risk of flooding from our canals and reservoirs. This means that Tony spends much of his working day keeping track of water levels and reservoir feeds. It’s his job to monitor them and advise the waterways how much water is available for use in the canals.

Tony’s role as water engineer helps the waterway engineers who have responsibility for British Waterways' assets to plan for the future. “We keep an overview of the water situation and then advise the waterway engineers of the best way of dealing with any issue. I’d say that we are the custodians of good practice; we disseminate water budgets to each waterway and help the waterway implement them.”

Tony is one of two water engineers covering the North West and Manchester & Pennines Waterways. The team uses bespoke software and equipment, known as SCADA, to help monitor and control water resources and canal pound levels. In addition to helping the team plan for water usage, SCADA can also help out in more immediate situations.

diverting flood water

For example if SCADA shows a sudden drop in water levels there could well be vandalism at a lock gate, which will then be investigated by the local waterway staff. If the water levels get too high and there’s a risk of flooding, then the SCADA system sends an alarm out to the local waterway staff to advise them of the issue. The water engineers help the local waterway to ensure the SCADA system is properly set up and doesn’t send false alarms, and they advise the waterway on the actions needed to be taken and the potential knock on effects of diverting flood water.

Tony’s job can change quickly from day to day. He explains: “The team is busy year round, coping with different problems at different times of the year. In the winter it’s all about trying to build up stocks, while ensuring that nothing floods and in the summer it’s all about using water in the most efficient way possible.

The spring and summer of 2010 has been an especially busy period for Tony and the Water Management Team, developing strategies and intervention measures to try to prolong navigation on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The team had to balance the conflicting pressures and demands placed upon on the available water resources between those required for navigation and those required to maintain the ecology within the reservoirs and the canal. Unfortunately British Waterways had no choice but to suspend navigation for a period of around six weeks.

“In this job you need to be ready to react to any changes in hydrological patterns. It’s not always precise as weather patterns can change so dramatically. It’s a case of juggling all the resources we have to give the best outcome.
“The worst part of the job is the manual data inputting we do, which is normally at the start of the week in preparation for the water budget. The best bit of my job is getting out and about, seeing the results of my efforts, seeing good healthy stocks of water, nicely topped up canals – neither too high nor too low, and a reduction in the number of leaks.”

Last updated: 23/09/2010