Water
Water is essential to life, and this critical resource needs to be effectively managed to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders and the natural environment.
Significant threats to water security and competing demands include extreme weather events, population growth, aging assets, increasing water recycling, and tighter environmental standards. Water is also a resource that plays a role in the transition to a low-carbon energy future.
That’s why long-term planning is critical to proactively address water scarcity issues and provide resilience in the face of population growth and climate change.
The response to these challenges increasingly forms part of a systems thinking approach, which can be delivered through careful blending of nature-based and traditionally engineered solutions. And by further integrating digital technologies for prediction and optimized system operations, we can better understand river catchment behaviors and the impacts of droughts and flooding.
Water engineering solutions for a resilient future
We have more than a century of water management experience and have played leading roles in many of the world’s largest and most transformative water supply, wastewater, irrigation, drainage, and flood protection projects.
We offer:
Sustainable development
We help water utilities, local and national governments, regulators, industrial customers, and community stakeholders to plan the sustainable management of water resources.
Futureproofing infrastructure and services
We are experts in strategic asset management and in extending the life of existing assets both above and below ground. Our teams are pioneers in reducing the cost and embodied and operational carbon of infrastructure, and in advancing resilience. Our solutions are augmented by leading-edge use of our digital technologies and tools, to maximize value for you, your customers, and wider society.
Systems thinking
Our solutions consider interconnections and dependencies, causes and effects across the natural and built environments. We take a holistic multistakeholder approach to deliver social and environmental benefits at scale.
Environmental management and nature-based solutions
Management of the water environment offers major opportunities for nature-based solutions, particularly in upstream catchment adaptation for flood control and sustainable treatment of recycled wastewater.
Project excellence
Our multidisciplinary breadth enables us to identify and resolve potential challenges — and to realize opportunities — across asset lifecycles. We can help you set strategy, build business cases, secure investment, plan, design, apply transformative technologies, and realize operational efficiencies — achieving excellent project outcomes.
What can we do for you?
Owners, regulators, and operators need to ensure water infrastructure is adaptable to climate change, emerging contaminants of concern, and the demands of other stakeholders — with affordability in mind.
Meanwhile, wastewater treatment and recycling, energy, and resource recovery must be sustainable to meet stricter environmental standards and minimize climate change impacts. With deep technical expertise from across our global network, we understand these complex challenges.
Meet the team
Our experience
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Anglian Water Strategic Pipeline Alliance, East of England, UKIn the face of declining rainfall and a growing population, we’re working to boost resilience in the supply of drinking water for millions of people by designing the UK’s largest water infrastructure project, consisting of over 300 miles (500 km) of pipelines to transfer water from areas of surplus to those more vulnerable to drought.
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Bangkok smart flood management decision support system, ThailandWe created a predictive model that employs machine learning — the first of its kind — to forecast how storms will develop, where rainfall will be most intense, and how local rivers, drainage channels, and sewers will respond. It updates every 10 minutes, allowing city authorities and emergency responders to anticipate where flooding will occur, issue warnings, and organize evacuations to keep citizens safe.
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Camden Parkside PFAS treatment facility, New Jersey, USAContamination from manufactured chemicals threatens water supplies in many areas, including Camden, just outside Philadelphia. We worked with construction partners to deliver a new water treatment facility that removes PFAS from water supplies destined for 20,000 residents.
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Cohocksink storm flood relief, Philadelphia, USAWeaving new sewer capacity through the existing utilities and historic remnants of a 340-year-old city requires liaison with multiple asset owners and other stakeholders. The Cohocksink project doubles the previously existing sewer capacity and will prevent flooding after heavy rainfall. Greater system controls reduce sewage outflow into the Delaware River, improving the environment for both aquatic life and the local population.
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Dhaka environmentally sustainable water supply, BangladeshThe water table falls from 7 to 10 feet (2 to 3 m) each year in rapidly urbanizing Dhaka, resulting in wastewater contamination of freshwater supplies. The nearest usable supply for east Dhaka is the Meghna River, about 25 miles (40 km) away. We’re helping to bring that supply to nearly five million people by designing and managing construction of 60 miles (100 km) of new pipeline — in some of the deepest tunnels in Bangladesh — and the country’s biggest treatment plant.
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Rosedale wastewater treatment plant, Auckland, New ZealandWe took digital twin technology to a new level by producing an accurate virtual model of the Rosedale plant in Auckland. It is continuously updated by live performance data and features visual dashboards providing instant readouts of operational cost data (which would otherwise be manually calculated monthly). Our client, Watercare, can now more tightly manage both energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
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Strategic water resource options planning, UKWe are working with water companies throughout the UK to understand their water resource requirements for the next 25 years or more, as part of the statutory investment planning process. Our project management, technical expertise, environmental services, and drinking water risk assessments are helping to shape the development of strategic options.
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Tideway, London, UKWe designed the permanent structures and tunnels for the eastern section of London’s super-sewer – a 16-mile (25-km) interceptor constructed to prevent huge volumes of wastewater from flowing into the River Thames from old combined sewer overflows.
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Water balance tool, OmanOur specialist team of experts in water resources, groundwater, agricultural, and geographical information systems developed a bespoke water balance tool for Oman. This enabled authorities to accurately identify which regions of the country are in a state of water surplus or deficit. Planners can now allocate required investment to meet increasing water demand for domestic, industrial, and agricultural consumption.
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Witches Oak Water green recovery program, Derbyshire, UKWe designed 31 new floating wetlands to provide entirely biological primary treatment for water — in a reservoir originally considered too expensive to treat for drinking water supply. The wetlands remove sedimentary and algal contamination, enabling the reservoir to play a vital role in strengthening local water supply.
Mott MacDonald Bentley
JN Bentley, Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) and JBA Bentley provide services in the water sector and other UK engineering and construction markets. Working in close collaboration with our clients and supply chain, we deliver projects all the way from feasibility through to construction, commissioning, and handover - with a focus on providing great outcomes.