Upstream Matters: Source to Solution
How might we better understand and reduce the impact of emerging contaminants—by tackling them at source through science, behaviour change, and system design?
At this year’s Innovation Festival, we’re bringing together curious minds from across sectors to tackle one of the most complex challenges in water.
Emerging contaminants—such as PFAS, pharmaceuticals, household chemicals and plastics - can be present in our water systems. Often invisible and poorly understood, they enter through a range of pathways, from everyday behaviours and sewer misuse to industrial and agricultural activity.
While treatment technologies continue to advance, they address the problem late. The real opportunity lies upstream: preventing contaminants entering the water system in the first place.
This sprint will explore a system-wide approach to source control, connecting behaviours, sewer misuse, products, industries, and policy.
Working at pace, we’ll move from insight, to action, to design:
- Build a shared understanding of contaminant sources, pathways, misuse behaviours and their impacts on people and environment
- Explore how behaviours, products, industries, and systems contribute
- Develop a range of upstream interventions to reduce impact at source
This is where the sprint comes to life.
On the final day, we’ll bring everything together to design a future “model village” with exceptional chemical water quality and improvements across a range of metrics.
Using ideas developed throughout the week, we will:
- Explore how a full range of upstream interventions could be applied to a chosen village
- Design a joined-up solution combining:
- behaviour change and marketing activity
- Sewer misuse reduction and source control
- product replacement and innovation
- community engagement
- system, industry, and policy interventions
Nothing is off the table, as long as it helps stop pollutants or harmful material from entering waterways.
The aim is to create a clear, practical blueprint showing how one place could dramatically reduce pollutant loads—and inspire change at scale.
- Shared understanding of key contaminants, pathways, and misuse drivers
- Insight into behaviours and wider system drivers
- A model village blueprint demonstrating upstream impact
- Practical, testable interventions
- Recommendations for scaling across NWG and beyond
We’re looking for a diverse mix of participants - from water specialists and regulators to product designers, industry representatives, policy makers, and innovators from any sector.
Any questions: contact Rheanne White (Rheanne.White@nwl.co.uk) or Matt Coates (Matt.Coates@nwl.co.uk)