Image description: A drone flying above a wooden table., with the sea is visible in the background. Image by JackieLou DL/ Pixabay

Projects involving satellites, robots, drones and artificial intelligence (AI) have been awarded a share of almost £43m as part of Ofwat’s fifth Water Breakthrough Challenge, which supports technologies enhancing the sustainability of the UK’s water industry.

Over 10 years, the regulator’s fund is investing £600, in projects and technologies to benefit the environment, society and customers. In total, 16 winning projects are sharing £42.7m, with winners required to put up at least an additional 10% themselves, taking the total to £48.8m. Winners include water quality monitoring drones, robots to scale chemical-free water filtration, and micro-satellites to detect leaks from space. Winners will be required to share the lessons learnt from funded projects to ensure progress can be built upon by all water companies. Winning projects see water companies working with 70 partners, from world-class universities, engineering powerhouses, environmental charities and NASA.