South East Water secures best paper finalist at Ozwater’25

South East Water has secured three of the 11 coveted best paper finalist accolades at Ozwater’25.

Hosted annually by the Australian Water Association, Ozwater’25 will be held from 20 to 22 May 2025 in Adelaide, and is said to be the largest water industry event in Australia. It includes a trade exhibition hall, and a program of speaker and poster sessions on key water industry innovations, topics and issues. This year’s theme is ‘looking back, moving forward’. The event also includes a gala dinner where the Australian Water Awards (national division) are announced.

South East Water General Manager Liveable Water Solutions Charlie Littlefair said the conference is an exciting chance to connect with industry leaders and explore innovations.

“We’re looking forward to connecting with industry leaders, exploring innovations and learning about the projects and research that are shaping the future of water,” Littlefair said. “Alongside our commercial arm Iota, we’re excited to showcase our research, insights and innovations on a national stage and we’re proud of the hard work being put in by our presenters ahead of the event.”

South East Water is also a finalist for the Australian Water Association’s National Water Awards in the Customer Experience Category for the Water Saver App and the Research and Development Excellence Award for research into irrigation for urban cooling.

South East Water Ozwater’25 presenters include:

• Ash Walsh — ‘Mass roll out of digital meters: A customer and business-benefits driven approach’
• Belinda Dalgleish — ‘Business Customers: Reducing water losses through leak alerts’
• Charlie Littlefair (with Martin Sutherland, Fulton Hogan Utilities and Jane Espie, KBR) — ‘Establishing integrated partnerships’
• Jessica Lim and Jessie Huang — ‘Hanna St and Caulfield West branch sewer works — Addressing aging brick sewers in Melbourne’
• Sarah Last — ‘Managing digital meter issues: A practical case study’
• Maedeh Nadimi and Aravind Surapaneni — ‘8 years of biosolids to biochar research: What we have learned’
• Suresh Bajracharya — ‘Delivering multiple benefits from alternative water use: role of collaboration in the IWM program (Integrated Water Management)’
   

South East Water Ozwater’25 best paper finalists are:

• Christopher Riddle and Peter Hiransi — ‘Customer experience optimisation’
• Marie Newington — ‘Sotto vibration sensors — Finding leakers with a little black box (and the people who matter)’
• Minh Duc Nguyen — ‘Investigation on removal of PFAS using water treatment sludge and biochar’
   

South East Water Ozwater’25 panel participants include:

• Charlie Littlefair (with Joel Byrnes, Adam Lovell and Greta Zornes) — ‘A collaborative exploration of recycled water economics — challenges and successful approaches’
• Priscilla Chung (with Bridie Fennessy, Hayley Vinden, Mark Lawrence and Soyun Punyadasa) — Education hub panel: GEMS IN STEM
   

Iota in-stand product presentations (Booth D24):

• Sotto and Pyroco — Tuesday, 20 May, 1:00 pm
• OneBox — Tuesday, 20 May, 3:30 pm
• Sotto — Wednesday, 21 May, 10:15 am
• OneBox and Pyroco — Wednesday, 21 May, 1:00 pm
• Digital metering and Lentic — Wednesday, 21 May, 3:30 pm
• Footprint — Thursday, 22 May, 10:15 am
   

For more information about Ozwater’25, visit the event website.

Image: Supplied.