We asked the speakers a few questions ahead of the Drinking Water Quality Conference - here's what they had to say...
Matthew Jones
Public Health Manager
Wessex Water
What can we expect from your contribution at WWT Drinking Water Quality Conference 2026?
A good discussion on how we can work better with stakeholders to deliver sustainable, effective public health benefits for customers.
What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?
I am looking forward to the future looking talks on invisible threats and new treatment options.
What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?
Public perception, ever increasing demand with reduced resources and time, people are time poor.
Why is WWT Drinking Water Quality Conference 2026 important to the industry and to you?
Networking, looking to the future and understanding what others are doing nationally and internationally. Spend a lot of time on the day to day, this is a good event to step back and think more strategically.
Geoff Darch
Head of Strategic Asset Planning
Anglian Water
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Conference 2026?
Insight and update on the collaborative programme with DEFRA and the Environment Agency on opportunities for increased use and reuse of non-potable water domestically and non-domestically.
What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?
How we can collaborate across policy, regulation, utilities, academia and the supply chain to make faster progress.
What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?
Biggest challenges include the changing climate, balancing growth and environmental protection, and regulating and managing for the 21st century.
Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Conference 2026 important to the industry and to you?
Provides an key opportunity to discuss progress and consider next steps.
Matt Wheeldon
Director of Infrastructure Development
Wessex Water
What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Conference 2026?
An entertaining, thought provoking, simple to understand way that humans needs to harness and mimic nature to tread more lightly on this earth and become more resilient as the climate around them changes rapidly.
What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?
Anything that moves everyone towards source-control and polluter-pays principles
What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?
Too few people understand their part in the water cycle.
The media is driven by bad news and clicks and they dumb down complex issues into such simple emotional headlines that the truth is lost.