Water Leaders Pod

When it comes to future-proofing water systems in the face of climate extremes, few countries have had to contend with that reality more than Australia. So it’s only fitting that the final stop on the Future Water Leaders Tour brings us here - a land where drought, innovation, and resilience go hand in hand. From industrial collaboration on reuse to bringing wetlands back to life, Australia was fu...

When you work in the water sector, one country comes up more than any other when it comes to delivering a successful vision for water, so an infrastructure tour of Asia could not fail to include a visit to Singapore.   Pioneers in everything from reuse to international cooperation, the city-state's utility, PUB Singapore, are well versed in hosting curious visitors like our group of young lead...

Our next stop on the Future Water Leaders Tour was a visit to Shenzhen Water and Environment Group, just across the border from Hong Kong. Tallulah speaks to two other rising stars - Divya from Anglian Water in the UK and Carlos from Canal de Isabel II in Spain - about what they learned from arguably the world's most technologically advanced water utility. Hint - it's a lot! Expect robo do...

We're back! And with something extra special. In February of this year we took 11 rising stars from water utilities in the Global Water Leaders Group to visit colleagues in East Asia and Australia and discover what they were doing to address the challenges of today and tomorrow. In this miniseries, recorded at the Global Water Summit 2025, Tallulah interviews those rising stars about their exp...

BONUS EPISODE Just in time for Christmas, we're bringing you a special episode on GWI's 2024 Global Water Tariff Survey, a comprehensive look at how much utilities charge their customers around the world. Tallulah starts by talking to Carlos Cosín⁠, CEO of Almar Water Solutions (this year's Tariff Survey partners), about why the survey suggests that water is still critically undervalued around the...

It's no secret that the global water sector faces huge challenges. Some of those are legacy challenges, such as ageing infrastructure, whilst climate change has created a new set of fresh challenges. All of them require investment. In this episode Great Lakes Water Authority CEO discusses what she and her company are doing to both bring water further up the policymakers' agenda and bring g...

Water reuse may well be the future of water. Certainly that's the way John Kennedy, General Manager of Orange County Water District sees it. Since 2008, Orange County has been at the forefront of water reuse in the US with its Groundwater Replenishment System, the larges of its kind in the world. In this episode, John tells Tallulah how the system works, what its limitations are and why Orange...

The second episode of this series which was recorded at Singapore International Water Week is another with a leading woman in Australian water - Maree Lang, Managing Director of Greater Western Water. As Australia continues to rethink its relationship with its First Nation people, one area that naturally lends itself to deeper understanding is water. First Nation peoples were, afterall, the origin...

Rohit "Rit" Aggarwala kicks off this episode with some bad news for New Yorkers but if there's anyone out there who can deliver it to them, it's him. Because although technically a utility leader as the man responsible for delivering water to 9 million of them, he is also so much more besides. As Commissioner to New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, his role...

Where does our body heat go? Well at least some of it ends up down the drains that connect our homes to sewage networks, along with the heat from showers, washing machines and other household items. And that makes wastewater a potential resource. This week on the pod we’re getting technical with Christoph Donner, CEO of Berliner Wasserbetriebe, as we delve into the science and regulations behind B...

We're back to the standard format for a great interview with Unitywater's Anna Jackson, the first of two episodes recorded at Singapore International Water Week. Anna can reasonably claim she manages the water for one of the world's most beautiful areas - Australia's Sunshine Coast. Naturally this does come with its own challenges, notably population growth and the fluctuations ass...

BONUS EPISODE Come on a journey with us to Northumbrian Water's Innovation Festival in Newcastle. Following on from our interview with CEO Heidi Mottram, we wanted to give you a flavour of the festival and help you understand why it's so exciting, not just for its host utility but for the global water sector. Through interviews with some of the event's main players you can hear first h...

For the first episode of the new season we went to visit Heidi Mottram, CBE (!) and CEO of Northumbrian Water Group, at her company's Innovation Festival in Newcastle. Heidi is one of the UK's most prominent businesswomen and, under her leadership, NWG has taken a radical approach to driving innovation across the company and meeting the challenges of today and tomorrow head on. But it'...

We're back! And we're ready to bring you more insight from the leaders around the world who are shaping our planet's response to the climate emergency through the allocation of our most precious resource. From Berlin to Newcastle and from Victoria to New York, we'll be asking water utilities about the cutting edge ways in which they're building resilience in their areas. There&...

BONUS EPISODE In this very special episode, a deviation from our usual format, we take you to the frontlines of the battle to ensure Ukrainians have access to water and wastewater services. Following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine's already struggling water sector has faced deliberate attacks on its infrastructure, loss of workforce and financial hardship. We hone in on the...

We have something extra special to finish off our first season. And that something is none other than Marty Adams' retirement interview. At the end of this month, Marty will be bringing a forty year stint at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to an end, a period that ended with him at the summit, as general manager. And it's fair to say he's got some stories to tell. We discuss...

Sydney Water's Roch Cheroux is next to take to the mic. As Australia's biggest city sees its population surge and the frequency of extreme weather events increase, the utility is having to rethink the way it provides water and wastewater services to its population. Assisted by interesting and useful interactions with his customer base, Roch is planning for generations to come. The Water Le...

This week's guest is Kevin Shafer, Executive Director at Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) or, to give him another designation, Fresh Coast Guardian. MMSD's efforts in addressing combined sewage overflows have been hugely successful and have inspired similar efforts around the world. We discuss protecting the watershed, promoting public health and the ever-increasing role tha...

In the second and last of episodes recorded at the Global Water Summit 2024, I talk to Kishia Powell about her time as CEO & General Manager of WSSC Water and the steps she's been taking to modernise her utility, including in digital, finance and the workforce. I also ask her about what it's like to be one of water's most eminent women. The Water Leaders Pod with Tallulah Lutkin. U...

This week, in the first of two episodes recorded at the Global Water Summit 2024, I talk to Neil Brennan, CEO of Seqwater in Queensland, Australia, about the specific nature of bulk water supply. We discuss managing vast amounts of infrastructure, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of staff and the new challenge posed by methane in dams. The Water Leaders Pod with Tallulah Lutkin. Unfiltered access...

This week I speak to Ruben Fernandes of Águas do Porto about how flash flooding in Porto has informed his belief in the resilience of nature-based solutions and the ways in which their implementation has both shaped his city's landscape and delivered for its population. There's also talk of surprise waterfalls, winning the private sector over and a Porto that's more permeable.   The Wa...

In this, the first ever episode of the Water Leaders Pod, I speak to Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), about how he's securing the region's water future with his sights set firmly on abundance, even in times of drought. To do so, he's leveraging all the solutions at his disposal, thinking creatively from technology to fina...

Welcome to the Water Leaders Pod! With Tallulah Lutkin.