International Womens Day 2024

When I joined Welsh Water in 2000 as a Process Engineer, I was designing and commissioning Wastewater Treatment works across Wales – not a role that was typical for women at the time. I was the only woman on many of the sites I visited, especially those under construction. I could go weeks without seeing another female colleague. At Welsh Water, I have always felt valued for what I bring to the business and not because of my gender, it has never been an uncomfortable place to work.

More recently, my work involves leading a team of highly specialised resources to build Welsh Water’s environment programme that supports water quality improvements. I have always had a passion for rivers, and whilst undertaking my degree, I really loved the aspects around treatment of waste waters from both industrial and municipal sources to minimise pollution of rivers and to improve water quality - so working in the water industry was a perfect opportunity to combine both.

We have a great women’s network within Welsh Water, supported by male allies, who really support each other: the group tackles matter such as ensuring improvements to welfare facilities, we discuss inclusive language for job descriptions, and have open discussions on company policies that affect women.

At Welsh Water, I always feel valued for what I bring to the business and not because of my gender.

International Women’s Day allows us to continue challenging outdated perceptions, showcasing the incredibly talented and hard-working individuals across our organisation that collectively make a huge difference.

Lauren Kinsey – Public Affairs Advisor

I joined Welsh Water as Public Affairs Advisor nearly a year ago now. The role was created to ensure Welsh Water is more visible, accessible, and responsive to Welsh politicians who want to understand more about the work that we do and how we’re helping to tackle key issues like river and coastal water quality.

The prospect of making a new role my own at Welsh Water, an anchor company in Wales, was an exciting opportunity. Having worked in both the Senedd Cymru and UK Parliament, I felt like I could bring a lot to the table in terms of experience in Welsh politics, my positive working relationships with politicians and their staff and understanding how best to keep them engaged on key issues impacting their constituents.

I’ve worked for female politicians, I have been at the heart of the bias and unfair criticism women in politics face every day. In those roles, I was often mistaken for the receptionist or the volunteer. I’ve been countlessly undermined by men who’ve taken my ideas as their own to get ahead, just because they can. The scales are tipped in their favour and women must work twice as hard to make headway. This isn’t just confined to politics and no doubt this will be a common experience for many women in the workplace at some point in their lives. But coming to Welsh Water, it has been refreshing to see so many women on my team and in leadership roles across the business. I am actively encouraged to challenge the senior leadership team on our public affairs engagement, and it doesn’t feel like a battle to simply be heard. My opinion is valued and I’m valued for my insight – not just to take notes.

Elysia Sandhu, 25, Portfolio Risk Specialist, Newport

I was interested to work in an industry with environmental responsibility and societal impact, it’s nice to be able to see the everyday impact of my role. As a woman, I feel very supported in my role and I know I have a lot of opportunities within Welsh Water. As my team is a support function within Welsh Water, I have view across our departments, reporting on the biggest risks the water industry is currently facing, to ensure we are prepped for the evolving environmental, social and political landscape.

Sara Rees, 33, Capital Performance Manager

I started working for Welsh Water back in 2016, moving from a Project Manager role, to wastewater performance, to the job I do now as a Capital Performance Manager for capital delivery – which covers the projects and work that the business carries out to reinvest into infrastructure and communities; whether it be pumping stations, spillways, phosphate removal equipment, etc.

Whilst the area I work in is male dominated, the team I work with are inclusive and have always treated me with the same respect as my peers. There is a challenge when you are the only woman in the room to feel confident enough to speak up but I’m grateful that the team have always encouraged me to do so and value my input. Working closely with our contractors does also highlight that construction is a very male dominated environment but over the years it has been nice to see more and more women coming into the area and staying and progressing. Even though female representation in capital is small, the roles are varied and span from apprentices and graduates, right up to senior management.

Water companies are currently under a lot of scrutiny in the media and working within the capital team alongside our contractors means we are often the face of Welsh Water when customers see us out on site. We ensure that we are equipped with the right information to respond and provide our customers with available online resources to answer their questions. From my perspective, we are working hard to ensure schemes are delivered on time, focusing on programme reviews, procurement and risks and opportunities. Ensuring our schemes are completed to a high quality and delivering the required outcomes.

Danielle Williams – Framework Manager for Capital Delivery, Based at Ty Awen

I’ve worked for Welsh Water since 2019, initially as an Information Manager where I focused on improving the quality, flow and impact of information, before taking on the Framework Manager role, working primarily with our major contractors and internal teams to implement a new project delivery method focusing on earlier engagement with our contractors.

No day is ever the same - one day can involve a lot of engagement with our contractors through key meetings, training or events, or it can be a day of data analysis. The main theme of every day is engagement, information and improvement.

Working as a woman within capital delivery is incredibly rewarding. The variety of people you can meet and learn from and the skills and knowledge they have is incredible. It’s a supportive environment to work in and even though there are not many women in the team (and even less so within some of our contractors) I have always felt welcome and respected. I am encouraged by the efforts of our Senior Team to increase diversity within our area and build on the great teams we have. Having started my working career in British Airways as an Electronics Apprentice it’s great to see the increased focus on equality, diversity and inclusion compared to 15 years ago and the progress Welsh Water is making.

The way I see it is water is one of the four essential things needed for life along with food, air and shelter (I might have got that from NASA’s webpage!), but ultimately it’s that sense of purpose that attracted me into the industry. As a sector we’ve had a tough time in the news lately, but I do feel like it’s much better to be part of the solution, even if the problem is a tough one to solve and will take a long time.

The increase in scale of our capital delivery programme for AMP 8 is unprecedented - and to ensure we can deliver for our customers; we need to work closer with our contractors and wider supply to chain to manage this increase.

I’m currently studying an MSc in Operational Research at Cardiff University funded by Welsh Water to enhance my skills and knowledge and bring that into my work to improve supply chain management and all that it entails.

Yelena Yershova, 47, Head of Enterprise Applications, Linea, Cardiff.

I joined Welsh Water’s ITS team in November 2021. My team runs, manages and develops technology that enables Welsh Water’s core business operations.

The world of tech develops at the speed of light, and, in many cases, we can leap-frog many steps in our evolution – be it our business model or our operating capabilities - by deploying the right technology. This is truly exciting to me.

We, the techies within Welsh Water, are becoming a critical friend and a trusted advisor to the business. We need to embed the culture of innovation and experimentation to help our business embrace emerging technologies.

Given we spend most of our lives working, it is important to build your career doing something meaningful, use your skills and ability to make a real difference to people’s lives. My role at Welsh Water is both challenging and exciting. Challenging – because the mindset of a regional monopoly in a highly regulated risk-averse industry is not always as competitive as that of a private sector organisation; and exciting – because my expertise in technology and experience of building high-performing teams is relevant and will hopefully pave the way for embracing technological innovation and re-define the world of possible for our customers. It is not always a smooth sailing being a working woman – I care about my work as much as I care about my family. I want things to be perfect, I see areas for improvement everywhere and I must pull myself back from trying to fix everything everywhere at the same time. I have a high expectation of myself and my team, and, at times, I feel we must work twice as hard to prove what we are capable of. The role itself requires a lot of self-discipline and resilience, fast decision making, ability to juggle many conflicting priorities while taking people on the journey.

Sally Gronow, 59, Head of Customer Service, Linea, Cardiff

I fell into the water industry by accident. I wanted a new challenge and felt the water industry would give me that – and I haven’t been disappointed. It’s been a privilege to be part of Welsh Water over the past 25 years - seeing it develop from the mainly outsourced model we ran in the 2000s to how it’s operating today. I took up my current role of Head of Customer Service in 2018.

It goes without saying that like a lot of industries, the water industry has historically been dominated by men, yet things are changing. However, women have always been integral to our success, and being a woman certainly hasn’t held me back in my career at Welsh Water. I still think that women are under-represented in some areas (from skilled trades to management and leadership positions) but change is happening as our immediate and long-term challenges require us to attract and retain the very best talent. This is why we need to continue to raise the profile of ‘women in water’ and encourage women to aspire to exciting careers with us.

Catherine Holbourn, 33, Eastern Production Manager

I have been a Production Manager for over three years, starting in Hereford and Mid Wales and then expanding into Gwent also.

I originally started in 2023 as a graduate and from there worked as an Operations Coordinator, a supervisor and a performance manager across different departments in Water, before becoming a project manager. There is always lots happening in production – from site meetings to discuss Capital schemes, team meetings and stand downs, dealing with reactive issues, or undertaking planned shutdowns – it’s always a different day, which is one of the things I love about it.

I was attracted to the water industry via the graduate scheme, because I wanted to work in a science/engineering discipline. I didn’t have too many expectations going in, but I knew I wanted a challenge. Operations was brilliant because it comprised all those elements, and so much more. I loved how varied it was, and how dynamic you have to be. Everyday is a different challenge and you often need to think on your feet and juggle lots of things at once – but you get to do it as part of a team. I was placed in water operations on the graduate scheme and I’m so glad I was because it’s been a brilliant experience to spend so much time in production, and to grow into different roles over the years.

Production can be quite male dominated, but we do have some fantastic females working in the team, and I’ve always found it a brilliant place to work. Everyone is always hard working, dedicated and getting the job done – and it doesn’t matter what gender or background you are, it’s about working a as team to solve the problems in front of you. I’ve always loved being a woman in the water industry and would recommend it to anyone.