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Type
Lecture

ICE Spring Prestige Debate 2025

Event organised by ICE

Date
01 April 2025
Time

This event has now ended

Overview

Water systems worldwide are under severe capacity pressure. They’re hampered by resource scarcity, leakage from ageing pipes and public opposition to the building of new storage assets. 

Engineers will need to consider all possible ways of making these systems more resilient and keeping the communities they serve adequately supplied. This may oblige them to hold some difficult conversations.

The institution’s 2025 State of the Nation report explores the water sector’s most pressing problems and the engineering solutions being planned. These range from the recycling of wastewater to the construction of the first major UK reservoir since 1992. 
 
This year’s ICE Spring Prestige Debate offers an excellent opportunity to discover how engineers are addressing the water resource challenge and how this could affect the industry’s priorities. 

It will feature a fireside chat between industry experts on advanced water treatment and a panel discussing on how the sector can do to build capacity and resilience.  
  
The event will be the first in the institution’s 2025 Prestige Debate series. This will include a summer session on 24 June and an autumn session on 1 October. 

This is a hybrid event with a limited number of spaces for in-person attendees. 

Programme

17.00 - 17.30

Registration and refreshments

In-person attendees can start registering from 17.00 (online participants are advised to log into the platform at 17.15 to test their connections)

17.30 - 17.35

Welcome from the chair

David Porter, ICE Senior Vice President and director of engineering at Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure

17.35 - 18.15

Fireside chat: how can the industry build the capacity and resilience of water networks?

Mark Tindale, UK and Ireland water strategy director at Stantec

Geoff Darch, head of strategic asset planning at Anglian Water

18.15 - 18.55

Reflections and actions: what can engineers do to address the resource challenge facing the water sector in the short term?

Rhys Cotterell, assistant engineer at AtkinsRéalis

Neil Gardener, regional discipline lead for process engineering at Stantec

Simon Harrow, director of water resources at Ofwat

Heather Smith, senior lecturer in water governance at Cranfield University

18.55 - 19.00

Closing remarks from the chair

19.00 - 20.00

Event closes for online participants and networking starts for those attending in person

Speakers

David Porter

David Porter

Institution of Civil Engineers

senior vice president

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David Porter

David Porter is the director of engineering at the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), which makes him the chief highways engineer for Northern Ireland.

He is also the head of the civil engineering profession within the Northern Ireland civil service. He’s responsible for the development of the department’s professional and technical staff, engineering policies and standards, and health and safety.

Previously, David was the chief executive of the Rivers Agency, the flood defence and drainage authority for Northern Ireland.

David is a past chair of the Northern Ireland region of the ICE. He’s been on the ICE Council three times: two terms as the Northern Ireland representative, and one as a general member.

Mark Tindale

Mark Tindale

Stantec

UK and Ireland water strategy director

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Mark Tindale

In his role at Canadian consultancy Stantec, Mark Tindale is focused on tackling the drought and water resilience challenges facing the British Isles. He spent more than two decades with Arup, where he delivered major water infrastructure in the UK and southern Africa, advised regulators and provided thought leadership. He is passionate about finding ways to secure resilient water supplies for the planet for generations to come.

Dr Geoff Darch

Dr Geoff Darch

Anglian Water

head of strategic asset planning

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Dr Geoff Darch

In his current role at Anglian Water, Geoff Darch is accountable for developing, monitoring and reporting on the firm’s strategic plans for water and wastewater infrastructure. He is also a non-executive director at Water Resources East, a multi-sector membership body pioneering new ways to safeguard supplies.

Before joining Anglian in 2017 as a principal resource systems planner focused on severe droughts, Darch spent 16 years as a consultant. In that capacity, he advised government departments, environmental agencies, utility firms and financial institutions on infrastructure climate risks. He has a PhD in hydro-climatology from the University of East Anglia.

Rhys Cotterell

Rhys Cotterell

AtkinsRéalis

assistant engineer

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Rhys Cotterell

Having graduated from Imperial College London with a master’s degree in civil engineering in 2022, Rhys Cotterell now designs and coordinates infrastructure projects across the UK for AtkinsRéalis. He is also one of the ICE’s President Future Leaders for 2024-25.  

Dr Heather Smith

Dr Heather Smith

Cranfield University

senior lecturer in water governance

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Dr Heather Smith

With research interests including consumers’ responses to new techniques such as wastewater recycling, Heather Smith has been studying the societal aspects of the water sector at Cranfield since 2011. An environmental science graduate from the University of Alberta, Smith previously worked for Canadian NGO Environmental Defence as a researcher, recommending policy changes to improve water management at both provincial and national levels.

In 2006, she moved to the UK to complete an MSc in water science and a PhD in geography at the universities of Oxford and Aberdeen respectively.

Simon Harrow

Simon Harrow

Ofwat

interim director of water resources

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Simon Harrow

A technical and regulatory specialist, Simon Harrow has nearly 20 years’ experience in water, environmental and asset management. In his current role at Ofwat, he’s focused on medium-term improvements to the water resources management process.

With an MSc in water resources technology and management from the University of Birmingham, he started his career managing green spaces for Stratford-on-Avon District Council before spending nearly six years with British Waterways (now the Canal & River Trust) as a hydrological modeller.

Harrow deepened his expertise in Severn Trent’s water resources and asset strategy team before joining Ofwat in 2016, initially as a senior policy and strategy associate. When he was the regulator’s head of water enhancement in 2023-24, he led a team that assessed water companies’ business plans for the five-yearly price determinations that set the costs they could pass on to consumers. 

Neil Gardener

Neil Gardener

Stantec

regional discipline lead for process engineering

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Neil Gardener

Over his 15 years at Stantec, Neil Gardener has led sustainable wastewater management schemes for clients across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Much of this work has focused on the use of wastewater recycling as a potable and non-potable resource option. As a member of Stantec’s sustainability community, Gardener has also led PAS 2080-aligned strategy development and carbon evaluation for large water supply projects. Such work, he says, has highlighted tensions between our resilience and decarbonisation goals, which require careful management to ensure success in both fields.